Camilo Villegas and Lucas Glover among those sharing Players Championship lead on wild day
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Camilo Villegas was on the phone the day before The Players Championship trying to sort out his swing with a coach who is in Singapore caddying at a LIV Golf event. He wound up tied for the lead, a peculiar twist in a tournament filled with them.
Thursday was no exception.
Lucas Glover had nine birdies in his round of 6-under 66, leaving him tied with Villegas and J.J. Spaun, who managed to get around the TPC Sawgrass without a bogey.
Max McGreevy, who tied the tournament record for the highest score two years ago with an 89, had a chance to join them. He was at 5 under and faced a 15-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole when play was suspended by darkness.
Rory McIlroy made four birdies from tee shots that found the rough or the pine straw, including the 18th hole when he punched a shot off the pine straw and out of the trees to 7 feet, putting him in the group at 67.
'You're just hoping for a backswing and a gap, and I had both of those,' McIlroy said. 'Just trying to chip-and-run a 5-iron up around the front of the green and make 4 and get out of there. It was a bonus to get it up on the green and hole the putt was a lovely way to finish.'
Two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler figures he left a few shots out there — two birdie chances were in the 8-foot range — but was satisfied enough with a 69.
Taylor Pendrith of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., were tied with Scheffler for 20th after 3-under 69 rounds.
Corey Conners (71) of Listowel, Ont., was tied for 47th, Mackenzie Hughes (73) of Dundas, Ont., was tied for 83rd, Nick Taylor (74) of Abbotsford was grouped at 99th, Adam Svensson (75) of Surrey, B.C., was tied for 112th and Ben Silverman (78) of Thornhill, Ont., was tied for 134th.
Villegas was on the verge of losing his card two years ago when he connected with Jose Luis Campra, a respected Argentine professional who caddies on the side. He currently is looping for Sebastian Munoz on LIV, which is in Singapore this week.
'It was 9 a.m. here, it was 9 p.m. there,' Villegas said. 'We worked for a couple hours. He's a very, very hard worker. Very few guys give more golf lessons than Jose Campra, and he's always available for me. So it's great.'
It was a small tweak on the downswing, and Villegas took that to the dangerous Stadium Course and promptly made five birdies on the back nine to start his round. There were a few mistakes, typical for most players.
That's what this course does. Slight misses can turn into big numbers.
Chandler Phillips experienced both. He set a Players Championship record with three eagles. He also had four birdies, an astonishing performance wiped out by a triple bogey on the par-3 eighth hole that started with a tee shot into a palmetto bush.
Justin Lower had the best par of all. He was one of 10 players to hit their tee shots into the water on the island green at the par-3 17th. He was the only player to walk away with par, going to the drop zone and holing his wedge.
Max Greyserman wasn't so fortunate. He put two in the water and had to make a 12-foot putt for his quadruple bogey.
Glover isn't sure what to make of his record at the TPC Sawgrass, 10 times missing the cut with only two top 10s. But there was no big secret on this day. He hit it where he was aiming and made putts, with birdies on his final four holes.
It stood out amid some surprising scores on a gorgeous day. Justin Thomas hit four tee shots into the water and had to birdie the last two holes for a 78. Viktor Hovland had three double bogeys in his round of 80.
Jordan Spieth had an eagle, birdie, par, bogey and double bogey in his opening six holes. He played far boring golf — which he prefers — with seven pars, a birdie and a bogey on the back nine and it added to a 70.
'That's the thing about this place,' Glover said. 'There's always some really good scores and always some really bad scores. The margins are razor thin here, akin to say Augusta or Bay Hill. You get off just a little, you can make big numbers in a hurry.
'I happened to have a bunch of good numbers today and a bunch of good yardages and was able to be aggressive and I putted great.'
Glover was not immune. He was too aggressive on the par-5 11th with a wedge and wound up in a pot-shaped bunker for bogey. He dropped another shot on the next hole.
But it was the finish that set him apart — an approach to 5 feet on the 15th, a chip to tap-in range on the par-5 16th, an 18-foot birdie putt on the island green par-3 17th and a shot that caught the slope and fed down to 8 feet for birdie on the 18th.
The 45-year-old former U.S. Open champion is having a late resurgence in his career, particularly impressive from having overcome the putting yips about a decade ago. He never gave up the grind and finally cashed in by winning the Wyndham Championship and the opening FedEx Cup playoff event in consecutive weeks in 2023.
'Just don't want to be done at 45, honestly,' Glover said. 'I deep down believe I can still compete out here at 45 and I don't want to stop any time soon.'
McGreevy was among five players who didn't finish before darkness. He was to resume at 8 a.m., and then everyone gets to do it all over again.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


San Francisco Chronicle
15 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Club World Cup: Jack Grealish left out of Man City squad
MIAMI (AP) — Jack Grealish has been left out of Manchester City's squad for the Club World Cup. City manager Pep Guardiola named a 27-man squad for the tournament, which kicks off in Miami on Saturday, with Grealish a notable omission. The England forward was a British record signing when he moved to City from Aston Villa for 100 million pounds ($139 million then) in 2021 and went on to help the club win three Premier League titles, the Champions League and a host of other trophies. But he has become an increasingly peripheral figure and made only seven league starts last season. The 29-year-old Grealish's absence from the Club World Cup will add to the growing expectation that he will leave during the offseason, with Guardiola embarking on a squad rebuild following the team's first trophyless season in eight years. City's squad includes four new players signed in time to take part in the month-long tournament in the United States: Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Marcus Bettinelli. In January, City also spent big to sign Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis as Guardiola began his overhaul of a squad that saw its dominance of English soccer broken by Liverpool last season. If Grealish goes, he is likely to be one of a number of players to move on. Kevin De Bruyne is leaving at the end of his contract this month and Kyle Walker is also likely to go after a loan move to AC Milan in January; as expected, neither player was in the squad. City's first match at the 32-team tournament is against Wydad Casablanca next Wednesday in Philadelphia. The other teams in the group are Juventus and Abu Dhabi's Al Ain. ___ James Robson is at ___


San Francisco Chronicle
15 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
49ers and Bryce Huff hope the pass rusher will be a perfect fit in San Francisco
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Bryce Huff went into the offseason expecting a trade after failing to produce in a new role in his one year in Philadelphia after signing a lucrative contract as a free agent. Ending up in San Francisco seems to be a perfect fit. After being a proverbial square peg in a round hole with the Eagles when he was used as a standup outside linebacker instead of a pass rusher off the edge, Huff has reunited with his former coach Robert Saleh in a scheme that caters to his strength of being able to get off the ball quickly and disrupt opposing quarterbacks. 'I learned a lot about myself throughout that experience,' Huff said Wednesday about his season with the Eagles. 'It just didn't work out at the end of the day. So you live and you learn. All I focus on is what I'm doing right now and that's being a 49er and doing everything I can to help this team win.' The Niners are counting on Huff to be able to do just that, believing that he can be the bookend speed rusher across from star Nick Bosa that the team has been seeking ever since a back injury sidelined Dee Ford after he helped the team reach the Super Bowl in 2019. Ford had 6 1/2 sacks in 11 games that season when Saleh was defensive coordinator but played only seven games the next two seasons because of the injuries, leaving a void in the defense that the 49ers believe Huff can fill. 'He affects the quarterback,' coach Kyle Shanahan said. "When you talk about just getting off the ball and how fast he does it. He will be our best get off the ball guy we've had since Dee Ford. So in terms of that, it's good to beat tackles that way, but also widens tackles to help with the inside pass rush and things like that and he affects the quarterback.' The Niners got Huff on the cheap a year after he signed a $51.1 million, three-year deal with Philadelphia. San Francisco traded a conditional fifth-round pick last month for Huff and are on the hook for only $7.95 million of salary this season. Huff had his best success as a pro under Saleh with the New York Jets, He was initially as an undrafted free agent in 2020 and began to emerge as a key player after Saleh took over as head coach the following year and turned him from a linebacker into a defensive end. Huff put on about 20 pounds of muscle and began to show flashes quickly before breaking through with a 10-sack season in 2023 that led to the big free-agent contract. 'Speed off the edge,' Saleh said of Huff's biggest strength. 'I think highly of him as a pass rusher. Thought he was very productive, obviously, with the Jets. He wins at such a high rate. A lot of times we look at pass rushers, we look as sacks and sacks are important. They end drives. It's what ultimately gets these guys paid. But his disruption rate in getting the quarterback off the spot and the way he can do it now. ... He wins so quickly so often that coordinators have to account for his presence on the field.' Huff had 67 pressures on just 334 pass rush snaps in 2023 for the Jets, according to Pro Football Focus, as he became one of the most efficient pass rushers in the game. The Niners were in need of another pass rusher after cutting Leonard Floyd early in the offseason. They drafted Mykel Williams 11th overall in April but had no other defensive end who had a season with at least five sacks in the NFL. Yetur Gross-Matos is the only other edge rusher on the roster with extensive experience. Gross-Matos had four sacks last season in his first year with San Francisco. 'He's going to bring that speed demon off the edge, that's going require a running back or a chip opposite of Nick,' left tackle Trent Williams said. 'I think he adds that the kind of that Dee Ford effect that they had in '19 that took them to the Super Bowl. One of the reasons we had a really, really good defense for those couple years is having that guy who can actually make that quarterback step up by getting a good jump off the ball and being able to bend the edge.' ___


San Francisco Chronicle
15 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Club World Cup refs to wear eye-level cameras but it's what FIFA won't show that's most telling
MIAMI (AP) — Referees at the Club World Cup will wear eye-level cameras to finally allow fans to see exactly what the officials are looking at during a soccer match. Well... not quite. FIFA has announced the innovation will be implemented at its newly-expanded tournament, which kicks off in Miami on Saturday. But on closer inspection, the technology appears to be more about improving the experience for television viewers than improving the game. For instance, only 'non-controversial' images will be shown during the match. FIFA has not specified what that means, but don't look for goal-scoring incidents and potential red cards to be included. The camera will be attached to the referee's earpiece. 'It is a trial,' Pierluigi Collina, chairman of the FIFA referees committee, said Wednesday. "What will be the future? We will see. 'We have said that we want to, let's say, offer a new experience to TV viewers. We want to show something, let's say, entertaining. I don't think that we always need to think of the controversial or potentially controversial incidents on the field of play.' Footage will be checked before being broadcast, rather than shown live. FIFA says the refcam view could be used to show unique angles of goals scored and offer different perspectives of the game that normal cameras cannot see. But if restricted to that, it would appear to be a missed opportunity in a sport that is increasingly using advances in technology to improve the accuracy and transparency of decision-making. Another innovation at the Club World Cup — a month-long tournament staged in the United States and featuring 32 of the best soccer teams in the world — is to show footage being reviewed by VAR for the first time on big screens inside the stadium. In theory, the refcam would make referees more accountable for their decisions by allowing fans to see exactly what the official saw before making a call. But it is not even clear how much it would be used to help VAR. While Collina said all footage would be available to the VAR, he questioned how useful the refcam would be in such circumstances. 'Honestly, can you believe that a camera position just besides the referee's eyes can see something that the referee's eyes cannot see? Honestly, I think it's difficult to believe,' he said. FIFA, itself, has made clear where it believes the footage would be of most use, saying the test was designed to 'explore whether the new camera angle can improve the experience for those watching on television and online by showcasing the referee's perspective.' It added that the tests would be used to make guidelines for future use. 'Step by step' Collina said. "We need to do something new and the simpler the better." Time wasting FIFA also announced a clampdown on time wasting by goalkeepers at the Club World Cup. Previous rules specified keepers can't hold onto the ball for longer than six seconds, but Collina said that was frequently being flouted. The time limit has now been extended to eight seconds, but referees will be much stricter in enforcement. The referee will also count down from five seconds with their hand to indicate the time remaining. If a keeper holds onto the ball for longer than eight seconds, a corner kick will be awarded to the opposition, rather than an indirect free kick, which was the previous punishment. ___