FORT WORTH, Texas – Masters champion Jordan Spieth got his homecoming off to a leading start with a birdie before dark.

Spieth made a 20-foot putt from just off the fringe on the final hole for a 6-under 64 and a share of the first-round lead Thursday in the rain-delayed Colonial.

“I had a few of those on the back nine, a few good looks where I knew what the putt was doing, I just didn’t match the line and speed right,” Spieth said. “I was getting a little frustrated through 17 there. I was like just one more look. … I didn’t really count (18) as a look, but maybe more like luck, and we’ll take it.”

The closing birdie, just after 8 p.m., tied Spieth with Kevin Na, Boo Weekley and Ryo Ishikawa.

There was a huge roar at No. 1 when Spieth teed off in the first of consecutive events at home in North Texas since becoming a major champion. The Dallas player’s approach at No. 18 landed just off the back right edge of the green surrounded by family, friends and plenty of fans.

“I was little frustrated to see where my ball went, but I was still was able to soak in kind of the welcoming to the 18th green,” he said. “I’m sure it will continue to grow.”

Spieth opened his bogey-free round with a 25-foot birdie putt at No. 1, then started the back nine with a 22-footer at No. 10. He had a great chance for another birdie on the par-3 16th, but a tricky 4-foot try slid by the hole.

Ishikawa, the 23-year-old from Japan, and 2013 Colonial champion Weekley also were without a bogey.

Na, whose only bogey came at No. 18 to close his first nine, curled up in a corner of the locker room and took a nap when tee times for the morning groups like his were pushed back three hours after more than an inch of rain fell overnight at Hogan’s Alley.

“Pulled off a little veteran move, took about an hour nap,” said Na, who grabbed a few extra towels, making one into a pillow, using another for a blanket and throwing another over his head. “So I felt great when I woke up.”

Na originally woke up at 5 a.m. for a scheduled 7:22 a.m. tee time.

The afternoon groups started 2 hours, 40 minutes later than scheduled, but all 122 players managed to finish before dark.

George McNeill and Ian Poulter, who shared the lead before his only bogey at No. 18, were a shot back after shooting 65.

A group of nine players carded 66s on a day when players were able to lift, clean and place their golf balls hit in the fairways.

“We couldn’t have had better scoring conditions today. Just the wind died down, and you could just throw darts, and they were landing and stopping,” Spieth said. “I’d like to play golf in this weather the rest of my life.”

Also carding a 66 was Canada’s David Hearn – who topped the five Canadians in the field.

After the rain, it was an unseasonably cool with temperatures only in the mid-60s. The forecast is for warmer temperatures but more rain through the weekend.

Defending champion Adam Scott had a 72 that included three bogeys and a double bogey. He is No. 11 in the world and hasn’t won since Colonial last year in his first week after becoming the top-ranked player.

Weekley, whose last PGA Tour win was at Colonial, woke up with a stiff back Wednesday that was still bothering him when he finally teed off Thursday.

“We just tried to manage it knowing that we couldn’t hit the full shots, so we went down a club and felt like we just punched it around the golf course,” he said. “And I made some putts. Made a lot of putts actually.”

His 27 putts were a collective distance of 151 feet, 9 inches, Weekley’s fourth-best putting round on the PGA Tour. He made all 12 of his putts from inside 10 feet, but called a 15-foot par-saver at the par-3 13th one of the key moments in his round.

“I kind of chili-whomped it out there to the right side of the green,” he said. “Nine times out of 10 that balls goes in the water, but somehow it hung up and I hit a bad chip there.”

Canada’s Nick Taylor opened with a 68, Adam Hadwin had a 69, Graham DeLaet had 70 and Mike Weir had a 75.

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – Massy Kuramoto’s approach to the difficult Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort was simple.

“If I’m going to hit straight and hit the fairway, I can play 2 over, 3 over. I tried to play 1 over front nine, 1 over back nine,” he said, grinning, with both index fingers upraised.

Kuramoto did even better than that Thursday in the first round of the Senior PGA Championship.

He shot a 1-under 71 to take the lead.

Defending champion Colin Montgomerie, Billy Andrade, Barry Lane, Jean Francois Remesy and Bart Bryant were a shot back. Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman and Scott Verplank were in the large group at 73 on a difficult day for golf.

The temperature was in the upper 40s for the early starters and it crept only to 60 as the sun finally broke through in late afternoon. Sweaters and rain jackets were the uniform of the day and scoring on the rugged Dye Course’s twisting fairways and small greens did not come easily.

With 17 major champions and seven World Golf Hall of Fame members in the field of 156 players, only 30 shot 74 or better.

“We’re old,” said Andrade, an early starter. “We’re old guys. When it gets cold, maybe we don’t hit it as far and as well. It’s a survival test.”

Peter Jacobsen knew the feeling.

“It felt like a British Open,” he said after scattering eight bogeys in an 80. “It’s cold. It starts to rain. There’s nowhere to miss the ball on this course.”

Andrade and Montgomerie sat atop the leaderboard nearly all day and they were more than content. It was a day for precision and patience. Montgomerie compared it to the rigors of a U.S. Open.

“I’m very rarely happy with a round of golf – ever,” Montgomerie said. “I’ve shot level par today and I’m very happy leaving here.”

The 59-year-old Kuramoto won 30 times on the Japan Tour, the second-most in that tour’s history. He tied for fourth in the 1982 British Open.

But he’s now chairman of the PGA of Japan. He has no time for practice. He plays only on the side, something he does well enough to have won the Japan Senior Open and one other event while competing in 11 Japan Senior Tour events in 2014.

He hit eight of 11 fairways and 11 greens in regulation Thursday, but scrambled to save par six of seven opportunities. He countered two bogeys with three birdies.

Kuramoto said he hasn’t played three consecutive days of golf since November.

“I don’t have the confidence at all,” Kuramoto said through an interpreter, wife Margie. “So I don’t think that I’m going to be able to keep the lead.”

Weather conditions are expected to ease. The predicted high is in the low 70s for Friday’s second round, climbing toward the low 80s by Sunday.

The challenge will remain.

The Dye Course is situated on a tall hilltop with Hoosier National Forest falling away in all directions. Its fairways plunge and soar over sharp slopes and afford all manner of risky shots and awkward lies. Its small greens are difficult targets and a poorly placed shot can roll off and well away.

The Senior PGA Championship is coming off venues that over the past three years permitted the lowest scoring in tournament history. The field averaged 73.040 for four rounds at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan, in 2012. The number was 72.78 at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis in 2013, and 73.018 back at Harbor Shores last year.

The field averaged 77.73 for the first round Thursday. There were 56 scores of 80 or higher.

Six players reached 2 under. None could hold on.

“Normally, I would be angry because I finished level par,” said one of them, Remesy, a Frenchman in his second season as a senior. “But I’m pleased to be here and pleased to be in contention.”

Three Canadians are in the field this week. Rod Spittle opened with a 5 over 77, Rick Gibson had a 78 and was 6 over, while Jim Rutledge carded a 79 to sit 7 over.

VIRGINIA WATER, England – Defending champion Rory McIlroy shot a 1-under 71 on Thursday, leaving him six shots behind leader Francesco Molinari at the BMW PGA Championship after a mixed performance he blamed on mental fatigue.

Playing for the fourth straight week, the top-ranked McIlroy failed to recapture the form that saw him surge to a record seven-shot victory at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow last week.

McIlroy had two birdies and two bogeys in his first five holes, missing a 12-foot putt for par at the first hole after failing to find the green with his approach. He went birdie-bogey-birdie from Nos. 12-14, and could not take advantage of par-5s on the final two holes.

“Physically I feel fine but mentally I could feel myself getting down on myself out there, which is not something I have been doing the last three weeks,” McIlroy said.

“I just need to be aware of that and keep everything on an even keel. It is acceptance of bad shots. Every time I have played well this year, I have been talking about how mentally good I have been. I feel like my patience was wearing thin out there today.”

Molinari carded a flawless 65, closing his round with two straight birdies on the last two holes.

The Italian has three top-10 finishes in the last three years at the European Tour’s flagship event and came second at the Spanish Open last week.

“It is a great start but you don’t win the trophy on the first day,” Molinari said. “I like the course, I think it rewards accuracy more than others, which suits my game.”

Robert Karlsson is two shots behind Molinari. The Swede went round in 67, making two of his six birdies across the last three holes.

“It was nice to put a good round together,” Karlsson said. “I was careful off the tee, it is important round here to keep the ball in play. Hopefully this is the start of a good run.”

Justin Rose also began his tournament with a 1-under 71, and two-time winner Luke Donald made a 2-under 70.

Stephen Gallacher and Padraig Harrington were both forced to withdraw from the competition through injury.

Gallacher, who was part of Europe’s 2014 Ryder Cup winning team, has a wrist injury while Harrington, who won the Honda Classic in March, has a shoulder problem.

BELEK, Turkey – England’s Melissa Reid won the Turkish Airlines Ladies Open on Wednesday, leading wire-to-wire for her fifth career Ladies European Tour victory.

The 27-year-old Reid closed with an even-par 73 at Carya Golf Club for a four-stroke victory over France’s Gwladys Nocera. Reid also won the 2010 tournament at National Golf Club.

Nocera finished with a 71 in the unique Sunday-Wednesday event.

England’s Laura Davies tied for third at 6 under with Scots Kylie Walkerand Sally Watson. The 51-year Davies finished with a 72. Walker also shot 72, and Watson had a 75.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Minjee Lee shook off a three-putt bogey on her first hole with two finishing pars and won the Kingsmill Championship by two shots Monday, her first victory on the LPGA Tour.

Lee, an 18-year-old Australian, finished at 15-under 269. She surged into the lead on Sunday with a round highlighted by a five-hole stretch that she played in 5 under and returned to the Kingsmill Resort’s River Course on Monday morning with a four-stroke lead.

She three-putted her first hole, the 16th, but rallied with a pair of pars.

So Yeon Ryu started her day with three consecutive birdies and finished second, with Alison Lee another shot back.

Third-round leader Perrine Delacour of France finished fourth after a closing 71.

Canada’s Brooke Henderson tied for 25th at 3 under par.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Rory McIlroy was more methodical than electrifying Sunday.

It was still effective.

Always in control, the top-ranked McIlroy became the first two-time winner in the Wells Fargo Championship with a seven-shot victory over Webb Simpson and Patrick Rodgers.

McIlory closed with a 3-under 69 to finish at 21-under 267, shattering the tournament record by five strokes. He entered the day with a four-stroke lead over Simpson after a course-record 61 on Saturday.

“Everything is firing on all cylinders for me,” McIlroy said.

McIlroy also won Match Play Championship two weeks ago in San Francisco and has 11 PGA Tour titles. He has six top-10 finishes in his last eight PGA Tour starts.

McIlroy won at Quail Hollow in in 2010 for his first PGA Tour title, shooting 15 under. Anthony Kim set the previous tournament record of 16 under in 2008.

“The golf course just sets up really well for me,” McIlroy said.

Phil Mickelson called McIlroy’s performance this week “impressive.”

McIlroy had another word to describe his play on the back nine.

“Boring,” he said with a laugh.

Unlike his win in 2010, McIlroy didn’t finish in a flurry by carding 3s on the last six holes. On Sunday he played the last half-dozen holes in 1-under.

Then again, he didn’t really need to shoot lights out with nobody chasing him.

“It was a more controlled run,” McIlroy said. “I feel like I’m a more controlled player these days. I’ve learned how to finish things off.”

Rodgers, playing on a sponsor exemption, was the only player to mount any type of a challenge, getting within three shots after a birdie at No. 15. But there was too much ground to make up, and he played the final two holes in 3-over and finished with a 68. Simpson shot a 72.

McIlroy almost didn’t play at Quail Hollow this week, but decided he needed to play more because he needed the FedEx Cup points after the Masters.

The win moved him into third place in the standings.

McIlroy got off to a shaky start with a three-putt bogey on No. 2 – his first in 167 holes – but quickly pulled it together. He didn’t have another bogey until the 17th hole, when he had built a seven-stroke lead and outcome was already decided.

Simpson failed to capitalize on McIlroy’s early mistake, shooting 37 on the front nine that included a double bogey on the par-3 sixth when he three-putted from 8 feet. That dropped the Charlotte resident six shots back and he was never in contention again.

“He’s our best player right now and I wish more than anything I could have shot a couple under on the front to make it more exciting,” Simpson said. “Just didn’t have it today.”

McIlroy reached 20 under on No. 12 when he knocked his approach shot from 132 yards to 2 feet of the cup for a tap-in birdie and it looked as if he might coast the rest of the way.

But Rodgers, who earned his first top-25 finish on the PGA Tour, made it interesting when he played a seven-hole stretch in 6-under par, sparked by an eagle on the par-5 10th hole. But McIlroy didn’t flinch when Rodgers drained a 15-foot putt on No. 15 to pull within three shots of the lead.

Instead, McIlroy countered by rolling in a birdie putt on his own on No. 14, moving to 21 under and regaining a four-shot cushion.

McIlroy then put an exclamation point on the win by drilling his approach shot from 145 yards to 3 feet on No. 16 for his tournament-record 27th birdie.

“I had a goal to go out there and birdie the par 5s and the two drivable par 4s and I knew if I made six birdies there was pretty much no chance that anybody could catch me,” McIlroy said. “With my length and the way I’m driving it, it’s a big advantage around here and it showed this week.”

It also helped having a big lead.

“You can pick and choose where you want to be aggressive,” McIlroy said.

Rodgers ran out of gas on No. 17 when he dunked his tee shot in the water and took a double bogey to fall seven shots back. Still, it was a solid finish for Rodgers, who earned an automatic berth in The Colonial next week by virtue of his top-10 finish.

“It has given me a lot of confidence moving forward,” Rodgers said.

Mickelson finished in a three-way tie for fourth place at 12 under with Gary Woodland and Robert Streb.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Jeff Maggert didn’t let the missed putts haunt him when he faced the most pressurized one of the day.

Maggert won the Regions Tradition on Sunday for his first Champions Tour major title, beating Kevin Sutherland with a 3-foot par putt on the first hole of a playoff. He missed from a similar distance on No. 17 and failed to hole other modest putts over the final nine holes in a day-long, back-and-forth Shoal Creek scramble.

“No one likes to miss 3-footers,” Maggert said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a 20-handicapper or a golf pro. When you miss a few of them, you start to second-guess yourself. On 18, I said, `Hey, you missed it, no big deal, on 17. Let’s just go to your routine and your game plan and try to put a good stroke on it.’

“I was nervous, shaking a little bit.”

It didn’t show in his stroke on the straight-on putt.

Sutherland two-putted for bogey to set up Maggert for the winning shot on the 18th hole.

Maggert closed with an even-par 72 to match Sutherland at 14-under 274. Sutherland had a 71.

Maggert’s only previous Champions Tour win came in Mississippi last year in his first start on the 50-and-over tour. He won three times on the PGA Tour, the last in the 2006 St. Jude Classic.

Sutherland had his second runner-up finish of the year and remains stuck at one career win in 544 tournaments spread across the PGA, Champions and Web.com tours.

Maggert won $345,000 and moved into the points lead after the first of five majors.

Sutherland’s tee shot on the playoff hole dropped into the left bunker a few feet from the lip and about 130 yards from the green. His next shot landed near fans lining the fairway and he was left needing a long putt to make par.

Sutherland said a nearly day-long struggle with his driver “reared its ugly head at the last moment and got underneath the lip of the bunker and didn’t have much of a play really. Couldn’t get it to the green.”

He said jitters weren’t a problem, though.

“I was as relaxed as you could possibly be,” Sutherland said. “I was much more relaxed on the 19th hole than I was on the first hole.”

Jeff Hart and Gene Sauers both shot 69 to tie for third at 11 under, three shots back. Michael Allen (68), Bernhard Langer (70), two-time winner Tom Lehman (69) and defending champion Kenny Perry (70) were 9 under.

Both players parred the 18th hole the first time to force the playoff. Maggert needed to make a three-footer to stay alive, similar to the one he missed on the previous hole.

“Second time’s the charm,” Maggert said, adding that the shot on 17 “was a putt that I was expecting to walk up and tap it in.”

It was a change-up after Maggert had birdied the final two holes each of the previous two days.

Maggert’s the first 36-hole leader to hold on for the win at the tournament since Tom Watson in 2003.

Maggert and Sutherland traded birdies on No. 15 to remain deadlocked after jockeying for position the past two days and then set up similar tap-ins on 16.

Sutherland had reclaimed the edge with an eagle on the par-5 third hole, while Maggert bogeyed for a three-stroke turnaround. He regrouped with a birdie on No. 6 while Sutherland had three bogeys on the first nine holes for a 1-over 32.

Maggert had three-putted from five feet on No. 12, saying he had trouble gauging the speed of the greens after overnight rains.

Hart, meanwhile, managed his first top-three finish on the Champions Tour, having finished no better than 29th in his three previous events this season.

He extended his string without a bogey to 54 holes and finished with a birdie. Hart’s two bogeys was the fewest in a Tradition.

“At that point, I didn’t care where I finished,” Hart said. “But I didn’t want to blow the non-bogey string on the final hole.”

Sauers ended with back-to-back birdies. He has finished in the top three over the last two majors he’s played, losing a playoff to Colin Montgomerie in last year’s U.S. Senior Open.

GREER, S.C. – Australia’s Rod Pampling won the Web.com Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am on Sunday, finishing with a 5-under 66 for a 25-under 261 total.

The 45-year-old Pampling opened with consecutive 9-under 63s at The Reserve at Lake Keowee and Green Valley Country Club and shot a 69 on Saturday at Thornblade Club – also the site of the final round.

Pampling earned $121,500 for his first career victory on the tour. The two-time PGA Tour winner was two strokes off the tournament record of 27-under 259 set by Mark Anderson in 2013.

Kelly Kraft was two strokes back after a 66.