PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Adam Scott’s wedding was so secret that not even his guests knew about it.

One day after the former Masters champion revealed he got married to Swedish architect Marie Kojzar in the Bahamas, he shared a few details about how he kept the wedding a surprise – and how he managed to go three months before anyone found out.

The parents were aware, and not many more. Among players in attendance was U.S. Open champion Justin Rose, one of his best friends.

“We just said we were having a party, so come on over,” Scott said. “So then they had no idea that it was going to happen. So that was the fun little game for me and Marie to play for a while, planning it and stuff.”

They were married April 17, the Thursday after the Australian tied for 14th at the Masters.

For being one of the most popular players in the game, Scott doesn’t seek a lot of attention. Hardly anyone sees him when he’s not playing golf. He typically retreats to his home in the Bahamas or in Switzerland. After becoming the first Australian to win the Masters, he waited until the end of the year to return home to Queensland.

Rory McIlroy announced his engagement on New Year’s Eve. He was asked if he would wait a month before he told anyone he was married.

“No, but Adam is a little different than me,” McIlroy said. “We knew. I don’t know how he kept it a secret for so long from you guys. I had breakfast with him this morning. It was nice to be able congratulate him. He was telling me he had to tell lie after lie just to keep it quiet.”

Scott said that part wasn’t planned.

“We just wanted it to be a secret for the day, and then we haven’t told anyone to keep it a secret since,” he said. “But I think people didn’t want to do the wrong thing by me. So I’ve got them right where I want them.”

He has not played since the Masters, keeping to the same schedule as last year. When he showed up at The Players Championship, he was not wearing a ring.

“We have rings, but I’ve never played with one, so I wasn’t going to start this week,” Scott said. “We’ll see if it makes it to the course or not.”

Scott’s bride did not travel to a lot of golf tournaments when they first were dating more than a decade ago, and he said that probably wouldn’t change. Several in the crowd called out congratulations to him throughout the third round.

The golf wasn’t bad, either.

Scott got off to a rough start Saturday and finished strong for a 69. He was 3-under par, still with an outside chance at finishing high enough to replace Tiger Woods at No. 1 in the world ranking next week.

He said there wasn’t a proposal – it was more like a conversation. As for a honeymoon? They live part of the year in a place most couples go for their honeymoon.

“We figured we didn’t need a honeymoon – our life is pretty much like a honeymoon all the time,” he said. “So there were no real plans for any of that. We’ll just keep on going.”

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Martin Kaymer stopped thinking, started swinging and played his way into the record book Thursday in The Players Championship.

Kaymer missed only two fairways. He putted for birdie on all but one hole. And the former PGA champion finished with four straight birdies to become only the fourth player to shoot 9-under 63 on the Stadium Course at the TPC Sawgrass, giving him a two-shot lead over Russell Henley.

Kaymer took advantage of a perfect day for scoring – warm weather, hardly any wind and soft greens.

There were 28 rounds in the 60s, which made the score by Adam Scott look even worse. With another chance – his best one yet – to get to No. 1 in the world for the first time, Scott finished with a pair of double bogeys from shots in the water and signed for a 77. It was his highest opening round at The Players since his first trip in 2002.

Kaymer was flawless, hitting whatever shot he felt he needed. His final blow was a hybrid that ran through the ninth green and into a bunker, leaving a simple up-and-down for birdie. He had a 29 on the back, the first player in the 32-year history at Sawgrass to break 30 on either nine.

Roberto Castro also opened with a 63 last year. The only others with 63 were Greg Norman in the first round in 1994, and Fred Couples in the third round in 1992.

“It’s just a nice bonus,” Kaymer said. “It’s only the first round of a long, long tournament. It’s nice to make some history. No one shot 29 on that golf course before.”

Kaymer would not have seemed like a good candidate.

He has not won since the HSBC Champions in Shanghai at the end of 2011. He hasn’t had a top 10 all year. But the 29-year-old German has felt his swing start to come together in recent weeks. His name has been featured on leaderboards more and more.

And he had a simple explanation.

“I stopped thinking,” Kaymer said, a former world No. 1. “I thought a lot the last two years about swing changes … that every shot I made I reflect on it, what I did wrong, what I did right.”

A few weeks before the Masters, he spent time with longtime swing coach Gunter Kessler in Phoenix, and then they had another good session in Germany.

“And then it just clicked a little bit,” he said. “I thought, `OK, I know I can hit pretty much every shot when I needed to hit it.’ If it’s a draw, if it’s a fade, low or high, I know that I can do it. It’s just a matter of getting the confidence on the golf course and then letting it happen and really doing it.”

Henley, who won the Honda Classic in a four-way playoff in March, made birdie on half of his holes to atone for one big mistake. He hooked a tee shot into the water on No. 7 and compounded that with a three-putt for double bogey. But he answered with six birdies on the back nine for a 65.

“I knew I was playing well and felt really comfortable on the greens,” Henley said. “But it was one of those back nines where you get to 18 and I just realized that I had a putt for 7 under. So that was pretty cool.”

Bae Sang-Moon had a 66.

The group at 67 included Sergio Garcia, who spent last year in a war or words with Tiger Woods that lasted right up until the Spaniard hit three balls into the water on the two closing holes and Woods walked away with the win. Garcia looked sharp, happy and was confident in his game.

And he had loads of company. Lee Westwood, 20-year-old Jordan Spieth and U.S. Open champion Justin Rose also were at 67. The group at 68 included Ernie Els and Dustin Johnson. There were 67 rounds under par, and the scoring average of 71.99 was the eighth-lowest for an opening round at The Players Championship.

But it wasn’t easy for everyone.

Rory McIlroy made three bogeys over his last seven holes and tumbled to a 70. That was nearly as bad as Phil Mickelson. Coming off a 76 in the final round at Quail Hollow last week, he started his round by missing a 3-foot par putt and shot 75.

Of the four players with a mathematical chance to reach No. 1, only Masters champion Bubba Watson broke 70. He had a 69, while Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar each had a 71. Only four players had a worse score than Scott.

Kaymer reached No. 1 three years ago, and then sought to change his swing because he could only hit a fade. He prefers to play by feel, not by mechanics. A swing change left him little choice but to think too much. Now, he can only hope it’s as simple as see the shot and hit the ball.

Canada’s Graham DeLaet opened with a 3-under 69, he’s tied for 19th with seven others. David Hearn was one-back of DeLaet after a 2-under 70. He’s tied for 29th.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The Match Play Championship will not be in its traditional spot early in the 2015 season for the first time since it began in 1999.

The future of the World Golf Championship remains muddled after Accenture decided this year not to renew its title sponsorship. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem had said in February that he hoped to have a clear direction within a month or so.

“This has been taking longer than we thought,” Finchem said at The Players Championship. “We’ll see. We probably won’t have anything to say for at least a few weeks.”

But an announcement out of Texas on Tuesday made one thing clear. There is no room on the schedule for the Match Play Championship between the start of the year and The Players Championship.

The Valero Texas Open announced that it would be played next year on March 26-29, two weeks before the Masters. That means every day on the PGA Tour calendar is taken between the Hyundai Tournament of Champions (Jan. 9-12) and The Players (May 7-10).

The Match Play traditionally wraps up the West Coast Swing at the end of February, except for in 2001 when it was played in Australia in early January. The Honda Classic, the start of the Florida Swing, will be held next year on Feb. 26 to March 1.

Finchem did not rule out a return to Tucson, Ariz., which has an experienced host organization in the Conquistadors and Tucson is a strong golf market.

“Where we’re going is an open question,” he said. “Certainly, Tucson is a possibility.”

The tour is in talks with at least one potential sponsor, and it’s a remote possibility that the tournament simply takes a year off. One problem with that is the PGA Tour would have a hole in its schedule.

The Byron Nelson in Dallas (under new sponsorship next year with AT&T) is to be played May 21-24. That would leave a week open after The Players.

Finchem said in February that the tour was looking at a makeover for the Match Play because even the best players – Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, for example – are not guaranteed being around for more than one day in the current format of single elimination.

Woods, Mickelson and Adam Scott did not play this year.

The greater concern appears to be a title sponsor, which could play a large role in where the Match Play is held. But for 2015, the only open date before the end of the major championship season would be May 14-17.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Three greens at The Players Championship remained off limits Tuesday to the strongest field in golf, a combination of bad weather in the winter and the misapplication of a turf product.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said he expects the greens on Nos. 4, 11 and 12 will be fine when golf’s richest tournament begins Thursday, and the warmth and sunshine will only help through the week.

Even so, he conceded that conditions at the Stadium Course on the TPC Sawgrass have not been perfect in the seven years since The Players moved from late March to early May. And while he called it “unlikely,” he did not entirely rule out a return to a late March date if it can’t be figured out.

Complaints have been minimal. Then again, the players were warned last week about a cold, wet winter and the issue with the greens. Some were expecting them to be in far worse condition than they were. Some sections have been sodded and plugged, and while there might be cosmetic issues, they appear to be fine.

“When you build a tournament and you’re shooting for perfection – which is what we do – and we have some imperfections, it doesn’t make it any more palatable that the players are being good about it,” Finchem said. “I mean, we need to fix our greens. And we intend to take all the steps I just mentioned and some others aggressively next year. So I think we’re going to be fine.

“At the end of the day, if we can’t maintain consistent conditions – and I think they will be competitively fine this week on balance – then we may have to examine the date.”

The grass was overseeded with rye when The Players was held in March, which is typical for most Florida courses. Finchem said that was easier to manage with the weather. But he said it still took 10 years “to really get it dialed in” for speed and firmness.

The new Bermuda greens were not build until 2007, and a sand cap under the grass on greens and fairways allow the course to be firm after a rain delay.

May typically offers warmer, drier weather, compared with a greater chance for rain in March. Finchem said the problem this year wasn’t just a cold winter, but a rainy winter.

“If we’re doing everything we can and it just is a continuing weather problem that we can’t beat, I suppose we’d rethink the date,” he said. “But when you’re talking about a perennial problem of three greens which have been stubborn most years since `07, I think we’d probably go a different set of greens on those holes, different kinds of greens. These are small greens. We can make bigger greens and probably not have a problem.”

The three greens that were closed to practice are small and get a lot of foot traffic. Finchem is hesitant to make them larger to preserve the heritage of the greens and the shots that are played to them. He said the PGA Tour would be inclined to change the nature of the greens before switching the date.

He said he was 90 percent certain the Stadium Course would get a new strain of Bermuda (TifEagle) for the 2016 tournament. Finchem said a few courses in the area use it and it performs well.

Phil Mickelson was among those not concerned.

“I looked at them. They’re fine,” Mickelson said of the three greens closed to practice. “They’re very playable. Everybody has got to play them. It’s totally fine. Now, they’re not going to be able to be firm and fast like they normally are. They’re softer, a little bit slower, and that’s going to lead to lower scores, but it doesn’t matter. We’re all going to have the opportunity to shoot lower scores.”

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Tiger Woods described his recovery from back surgery as a “very slow process” that offered him no timetable on when he can return for a summer filled with big championships.

Woods already missed the Masters, choosing to have microdiscectomy surgery March 31 to relieve pain from a pinched nerve.

In a wide-ranging blog on his website Monday, Woods said he is still sore from the incision and his only contact with golf clubs is a few putts and chips that do not require him to rotate his back. He said tests showed no arthritic changes, which he attributed to being in good shape and strong in his legs and abdomen.

“I made the decision to have surgery because physically I just couldn’t make a golf swing,” Woods wrote. “The pretty much sums it up.”

Though he is uncertain when he can even start hitting half-shots, Woods made it sound as though he would not be ready for the U.S. Open on June 12-15 at Pinehurst No. 2, the major championship course where he has the most experience.

“As I’ve said several times, I hope to be back sometime this summer, but I just don’t know when,” Woods said.

The one nonmajor that is important to him is the Quicken Loans National at Congressional, with a new title sponsor stepping in at a tournament that benefits his foundation.

“Whether I’m able to play or not, I’m going to be there to support it,” Woods said.

That tournament is two weeks after the U.S. Open and three weeks before the British Open, with the PGA Championship, FedEx Cup playoffs and Ryder Cup filling out a busy lineup of big-time golf.

“You can understand why I want to hurry up and get better,” Woods said.

Woods, who last played March 9 at Doral, said all he could do was to follow a strength program, listen to the doctors, chart his progress and wait.

“I haven’t used a sand wedge yet,” he said. “I’ve done putting and chip-and-runs using the same length of motion. I haven’t really rotated yet. As far as taking a full swing, I have conference calls with my doctors every couple of weeks to see how my progress is and just kind of chart it out from there. Basically, you just follow a program. It’s tedious because it’s little rehab stuff, but you still have to do it.

“That’s where I think the experiences of having gone through the surgeries in the past have really helped, because you have to lay the foundation down first before you can do the more arduous activities and then return to form,” he said. “I’m walking and able to cycle now and started swimming last week.”

Woods missed the Masters for the first time in his career and said it wasn’t as difficult as some might think to watch on TV. He compared it to the British Open and PGA Championship in 2008, which he missed after reconstructive surgery on his left knee.

He started watching mainly when Fred Couples got into the mix, and he lost a little interest when Couples fell off the pace early in the final round. Woods congratulated Bubba Watson and said Augusta National is suited to left-handed players like Watson and Phil Mickelson who hit a fade, a shot that works well on key holes along the back nine.

On other topics:

-Woods said he has enjoyed spending time with his 6-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. He says he can’t practice soccer with Sam, and he can’t move quickly when working on baseball drills with Charlie.

-He said it helps to go through rehab at the same time with Olympic ski champion Lindsey Vonn, even though she is further along. “Her sessions are much longer and more developed,” he said. “Her knee is getting stronger and it’s good to see. She hopes to be ready to compete again in December.”

Woods also said he has been texting with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who had “the exact same surgery” in December and couldn’t play the final game of the year. “He just couldn’t function anymore,” Woods said.

The mystery about Woods is that golf requires a sudden, swift rotation through the ball. Plus, Woods said every person responds differently to surgery.

“I’m doing everything I can and listening to my doctors and working on a strength program, and then we just have to see how my back is,” Woods said. “Some people heal up in three months, some people take four months, some people take longer. I just don’t know.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – More than two years after going through brain surgery, J.B. Holmes is a winner again on the PGA Tour.

Holmes made it harder than he needed to on the final hole at Quail Hollow until rapping in a 3-foot bogey putt for a 1-under 71 and a one-shot victory over Jim Furyk in the Wells Fargo Championship. Furyk finished his Sunday-best 65 some two hours earlier.

Jason Bohn had the best chance to catch Holmes. He was one shot behind when he pulled a 4-iron into the water on the par-3 17th, making double bogey. Phil Mickelson never had a chance, missing four putts from the 4-foot range and closing with a 76 to finish out of the top 10.

The victory capped a remarkable turnaround for Holmes, who won for the third time in his career.

He was diagnosed in 2011 with structural defects in the cerebellum known as Chiara malformations, and he had surgery twice – once to remove a piece of his skull that he still keeps at home, another because of an allergic reaction to the adhesive on the titanium plate at the base of his skull.

Then, he injured his elbow by hitting too many balls in an attempt to return from the brain surgery. He didn’t bother having surgery on his elbow until last year, when he was sidelined by a broken ankle and couldn’t play, anyway.

Only last week, Holmes earned enough money to keep his card for the rest of the year from a medical extension. Now, he’s headed to The Players Championship next week for the richest prize in golf, and more importantly, secured a spot in the PGA Championship this summer in his native Kentucky.

“It’s been a long journey for me,” Holmes said. “I’ve had some ups and downs. It’s a great feeling to be out there and to get one done.”

His only other victories were in the Phoenix Open in 2006 and 2008.

Holmes made enough key putts to allow for some mistakes at the end. He ran off three birdies in a four-hole stretch around the turn, including a 30-footer on No. 11 that opened up a two-shot lead. He gouged a fairway metal out of the rough on the par-5 15th to set up a 6-foot birdie putt that stretched his lead to three shots.

Perhaps the biggest putt of all was an 8-foot par save on the 17th hole. That kept his lead at two shots, and he needed it. Instead of playing an iron off the tee, he drove into the right rough, came up well short of the green and chipped weakly to 45 feet.

Furyk was watching on TV in the locker room when Holmes knocked in the bogey putt to finish at 14-under 274.

Martin Flores, in his first time playing in the last group, fell too far back with a three-putt bogey on the 13th. He made bogey on the 18th for a 72 and was third, the best finish of his PGA Tour career. Bohn also bogeyed the 18th for a 70 to finish fourth.

Bohn received a bad time on the 16th hole – one more would have been a one-shot penalty – and said he let it get to him.

“I didn’t feel comfortable with the wind starting to gust up a little bit, and I went ahead and hit it anyhow in a situation that I probably would have backed off in,” Bohn said. “So I’m more disappointing in myself and the way that I handled that than the golf shots that I hit.”

Still, the biggest disappointment might have been Mickelson.

He was in great shape going into the final round, two shots out of the lead, and the two players ahead of him stalled at the start. Instead, Mickelson matched his highest final round on the PGA Tour since The Barclays in 2012. And it was an old nemesis – short putting – that did him in. Mickelson three-putted from 15 feet on No. 8. He missed a 3-foot par putt on the 11th, a 4-foot birdie putt on the 14th and four-putted from 30 feet on the 16th.

“I had two great rounds and I had two pathetic rounds this week,” Mickelson said. “The greens putted perfectly, even though I didn’t.”

The challenge came three others, with a series of eagles that injected some drama into Quail Hollow, if only briefly.

Furyk chipped in for eagle from off the 15th green and then closed with three straight pars for a 65 to sit in the clubhouse at 13-under 275. Bohn holed out a sand wedge from 95 yards on the par-5 10th hole that disappeared into the cup on the third bounce. He also chipped in for birdie on No. 12.

Flores chipped in for eagle from short of the 10th green that allowed him to tie for the lead, but only until Holmes made a short birdie putt of his own on No. 10. Holmes ran in the long birdie putt on the next hole for a two-shot lead, and he stayed in control the rest of the way.

David Hearn shot an even-par 72 Sunday to finish tied for 44th at 1-under 287.

Mike Weir had trouble finding the bottom of the cup, firing a 5-over 77 on the day to finish tied for 57th at 2-over 290.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Phil Mickelson’s best round of the year wasn’t enough for him to stay in the lead Saturday in the Wells Fargo Championship, just enough to give him a chance to end his slowest start to a season in 11 years.

J.B. Holmes overpowered Quail Hollow on a good day for scoring, and he made a 20-foot birdie putt from the fringe on the final hole for a 6-under 66. That wound up giving him a one-shot lead when Martin Flores made his only bogey on the final hole. Mickelson had a 63 and was two shots behind.

Flores hit his tee shot into the creek left of the 18th fairway and missed a 20-foot par putt, settling for a 69 that at least put him in the final pairing with Holmes.

They’ll be looking at Mickelson, who filled the course with one big cheer after another. Mickelson rolled in birdie putts of 30 feet on No. 4 and 40 feet on the par-3 sixth hole and went out in 29. He took the outright lead with a 7-iron from 216 yards into 10 feet on the 13th hole and closed with a par as exciting as some of his birdies. After having to lay up out of a fairway bunker, his wedge spun by the hole and left him a tap-in for par.

“I don’t think I’ll be leading at the end of the day because I think there are some birdies out there,” Mickelson said. “But just to be in contention, and to have a chance at a golf course that I’ve become so close to over the years, I’m excited about tomorrow’s round.”

Not since 2003 – his last winless year on the PGA Tour – has Mickelson gone this deep into the season without a victory. This year has been so difficult, mainly through injuries, that he doesn’t even have a top 10.

Holmes only last week secured his card for the rest of the year through a medical extension from ankle surgery last year. He hasn’t won since the Phoenix Open in 2008, though he can be scary when he’s finding fairways with his enormous length.

He birdied all the par 5s and only dropped one shot.

“A good week so far,” he said.

Holmes was at 13-under 203, and he’ll have inexperience at his side. Flores is in his fourth full year on the PGA Tour, and he has never finished in the top three. That would have been hard to guess by the way he played. Flores kept it simple on a gorgeous afternoon and never had more than 4 feet left for par until his final hole. He blew past Mickelson and built a two-shot lead after the turn when he made three straight birdies, the last one from 40 feet just off the 12th green.

Only the finish knocked him out of the lead.

Even so, the strong player by Holmes and Flores on the back nine at least gave them some separation. Midway through the third round, nearly two dozen players were separated by only four shots.

When it ended, the list of serious contenders was considerably smaller.

Kevin Kisner had a 68 and was alone in fourth at 10-under 216.

Justin Rose (71) and Jason Bohn (67) were four shots behind. Former PGA champion Martin Kaymer bogeyed his last two holes for a 70 and was five behind.

Rory McIlroy set the tone for the low scoring. Coming off a 76 in which he missed five putts from 6 feet or less, the two-time major champion made five birdies in his opening eight holes and saved par on the 18th for a 65. But at the end of the day, that left him seven shots behind.

Mike Weir carded a 70 Saturday – his lowest round of the event – and is sitting at 3-under 218. He’s tied for 38th. David Hearn is 2-shots back at 1-under 220. A third-round 71leaves him tied for 50th heading into the final round.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.– Angel Cabrera never knows when he’s going to play his best golf. This could be shaping up as one of those weeks at the Wells Fargo Championship.

On a Quail Hollow course that lets the Argentine hit driver on just about every hole, two exquisite short-game shots late in the second round carried Cabrera to a 3-under 69 on Friday and a share of the lead with Martin Flores going into the weekend.

It was the first time Cabrera had at least a share of the 36-hole lead on the PGA Tour since the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont. The last time he was part of the lead after any round was in the 2013 Masters.

With one of the most powerful and reliable swings in golf, the mystery about the 44-year-old Argentine is that his only two on the PGA Tour are majors – Oakmont for the U.S. Open, and Augusta National when he won the Masters in a playoff in 2009.

“I’m of course happy to be in position to win this tournament, but every time I go out and play, I’m hoping to win,” Cabrera said. “It’s difficult to know exactly when you’re going to play well. I don’t think anybody knows when they’re going to play well.”

Flores couldn’t ask for a better start, and his finish wasn’t too bad, either. Flores began his second round birdie-eagle when he holed out with a wedge from 105 yards in the 11th fairway. He added a pair of birdies late in his round for a 68.

They were at 9-under 135, one shot ahead of Justin Rose, who had a 67.

Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy went the other direction.

Mickelson, one shot out of the lead to start the second round and perfect conditions ahead of him, seemed to miss every putt that he made on Thursday. He had a 75 and fell seven shots out of the lead.

“I can’t believe the difference in putting from yesterday to today,” Mickelson said. “Yesterday, I saw every ball go in the hole. And today I couldn’t get them to fall and was three-putting, which is funny because the greens today were so perfect. … I struggled today. I don’t have any great reason. It didn’t feel far off.

“I just struggled getting the ball in the hole.”

So did McIlroy, starting with a three-putt from 18 feet on the second hole. He drove behind a tree on the third hole and hit into a bush on the fourth hole, both times taking a penalty drop and making double bogey. He wound up with a 76 and made the cut on the number at 1-over 145.

McIlroy missed five putts from 6 feet or closer.

“I just didn’t have my game today,” McIlroy said. “Off the tee it was good. I didn’t get the ball close enough. My putting didn’t feel as comfortable as it did yesterday.”

The 16th hole sized up his day. McIlroy blasted a tee shot beyond the crest of the hill, a 375-yard drive that left him a simple wedge to the green. He wound up making bogey when he missed from just inside 4 feet.

The biggest turnaround in the other direction belonged to Brendon de Jonge, who grew up in Zimbabwe and now lives in Charlotte. He opened with an 80, and followed that by tying the course record at Quail Hollow with a 62. Now he’s tied with Mickelson.

“Strange game,” de Jonge said.

The leaderboard was filled with players trying to win for the first time. Flores is in his fourth full season on the PGA Tour and has never finished in the top three. Shawn Stefani had a 68 and was two shots behind, while Kevin Kisner had a 66 and was three back.

And there are plenty of major champions who haven’t been heard from much over the last few years.

Martin Kaymer (2010 PGA Championship) had his second straight round of 69. Stewart Cink (2009 British Open) salvaged bogey from the water on the 17th and finished with a birdie for a 70. They were in the group at 6-under 138. Geoff Ogilvy (2006 U.S. Open) had seven birdies in his round of 67 and was four shots behind.

Leading the way was Cabrera, who only seems to win majors.

He made his move late with four birdies, and the last two were superb. Cabrera hit 8-iron over the lip of a fairway bunker on the par-5 seventh hole, but left himself 40 yards from a front pin. He played a pitch-and-run to about 5 feet behind the hole for a birdie to tie for the lead.

“The chip was more complicated,” he said. “I needed to decide if I wanted to bring it up or keep it low and let it bump, so I ended up doing that. It was a great shot.”

Then, he judged perfectly with a flop shot out of the rough from in front of the short par-4 eighth hole, and made the 3-foot putt for birdie to take the lead. He drove into the rough on the ninth, clipped the top of a tree and sent his ball into a bunker and failed to save par.

Mike Weir and David Hearn both made the 36-hole cut. Weir is tied for 39th at 1-under 143, Hearn is sitting at even-par 144 and tied for 47th. Stephen Ames did not qualify for weekend action.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Phil Mickelson was entertaining to the very end Thursday and finished one shot behind Angel Cabrera in the first round of the Wells Fargo Championship.

Cabrera played in early, calmer conditions and thrived on the new Bermuda greens at Quail Hollow. He made seven birdies, including a 40-footer from just off the green, and turned in a 6-under 66 that stood as the lead the rest of the day.

Mickelson caught him twice and couldn’t hold it.

Coming off his first missed cut at the Masters in 17 years, Mickelson handled the strong, swirling wind in the afternoon for a 5-under 67, tied with Martin Flores. Mickelson hit only one fairway on the back nine. He bogeyed both the par 3s. He chipped poorly and atoned for that with long par putts.

And he wound up with the start he wanted at a tournament he badly wants to win.

“It was important for me to get off to a good start today because I haven’t played as well as I would like to this year, and I haven’t been getting off to great starts,” Mickelson said. “So I’m always playing from behind. And it feels great to get off to a quick start where I don’t have to feel like I’m playing catch-up.”

Webb Simpson, the former U.S. Open champion and a member at Quail Hollow, might have joined Cabrera except for the way he finished each nine. He took double bogey on No. 9 when he hit into the trees and three-putted, and made bogey on No. 18 with another wayward tee shot. Other than that, his card was filled with seven birdies for a 68.

Stewart Cink and Jonathan Byrd also were at 68.

Rory McIlroy also had a few patches of wild play – a tee shot down the side of the hill toward the water on No. 16, another that hit a tree and bounced so far left that Boy Wonder thought about playing a shot down a service road behind the corporate tents. Wiser heads prevailed – his caddie’s, in this case – and he limited the damage to bogey.

He still made six birdies and was in the large group at 69 that included U.S. Open champion Justin Rose and Martin Kaymer, who played his final four holes in 2-under par despite not making a birdie or a par. Kaymer went bogey-eagle-eagle-bogey.

“Two eagles in a row, pretty rare. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before,” Kaymer said. “I missed a lot of short putts today as well, so therefore, 3-under par is OK.”

Cabrera’s round was not nearly that dramatic. He made a couple of long putts, most of the birdie chances one would expect to make and hit it close enough times to post his lowest score of the year, and only his fourth round this year in the 60s.

“It was a very good first round, and we have a lot to go,” the Argentine said through a translator.

Even though he struggled to hit fairways, this wouldn’t classify as a wild round by Mickelson’s standards. But there was rarely a dull moment.

From the trees on the par-5 10th, he escaped with a strong shot just short of the green, only to hit his chip too hard and nearly roll off the green. He holed that from 10 feet for birdie. From the pine straw left of the 11th fairway, he hit a low bullet in good shape just short of the green, only to catch his chip too heavy and leave himself 25 feet short. He made that one for par. And he caught Cabrera at 6 under for the first time with another shot from the pine straw to 4 feet.

But then, Mickelson hit another chip too hard and failed to save par from 15 feet. He tied for the lead again with a solid pitch to 2 feet for birdie on the par-5 15th.

The final three holes were symbolic of the grind.

He rammed a 30-foot birdie attempt some 6 feet past the hole and made that for par. He left a 45-foot birdie putt about 5 feet short and missed that for a three-putt bogey on the 17th. And made a remarkable recovery from a tough lie in a bunker on the 18th.

Being left-handed, his feet were up the slope of a bunker and the ball was well below his feet. Mickelson hit 6-iron from 210 yards and caught it so perfectly that it rolled up the hill and onto the collar of the green just over 40 feet away.

And then he blasted the putt 10 feet past the hole – and made that with a sigh of relief, a par and a good start going into a morning tee time Friday.

“I made a lot of really good putts today, and it covered up some very poor chips – a number of poor chips 15, 20 feet from the hole that should be tap-ins,” Mickelson said. “Ended up making three out of the four, so it covered up a lot of mistakes.”

Leading the Canadians is David Hearn, who opened with a 2-under 70 to sit tied for 16th.

Stephen Ames and Mike Weir are two back of Hearn after shooting matching 70’s.

Brad Fritsch struggled to a 79 and withdrew. After his round, he tweeted…

WD’d today for personal reasons. Thanks to all who asked and showed concern. Trying to move ahead and look forward to the Byron Nelson.

— Brad Fritsch (@BradFritsch) May 1, 2014

AVONDALE, La. – As Seung-Yul Noh exhaled and tilted his head back in a skyward gaze on the 18th green, follow South Korean players Y.E. Yang and Charlie Wi charged toward him, spraying him with bottled beer.

Noh smiled, removed his hat, held both arms out and soaked it all in.

The 22-year-old overcame windy conditions and the pressure that goes with attempting to secure a maiden PGA Tour triumph, shooting a 1-under 71 on Sunday to win the Zurich Classic by two shots.

He also knew he achieved another goal of providing some joy to a nation that has been reeling since a passenger ship capsized April 16, leaving 300 missing or dead.

“Hopefully, they’ll be happy,” said Noh, who wore black and yellow ribbons on his white golf hat to honor victims of the ferry accident.

While Noh, the leader through three rounds, never fell out of first, he did make his first three bogeys of the tournament and briefly fell into a tie with Keegan Bradley, the 2011 PGA Championship winner who had the gallery behind him.

But Bradley did himself in with a bogey on the fifth hole and a triple bogey on the sixth.

“I actually played pretty well,” Bradley said. “Just made one bad swing on 6 and had a bunch of lip-outs.”

Noh remained steady enough- even with wind gusting up to 30 mph – to hold off the remaining challengers.

“Very challenging today out there, especially playing with Keegan, a major champion, and heavy wind,” Noh said.

Noh needed a few clutch shots on the back nine, including a chip out of a grassy downhill lie on the edge of a bunker on 13, which hit the flag on a bounce, setting up a routine birdie putt. On 16, with wind in his face, Noh landed his approach 3 feet from the hole to set up his last birdie, then made a 14-foot par putt on 17 to assure a two-shot cushion on the final hole, uncharacteristically pumping his first afterward.

“Yeah, that was a clutch putt,” Noh said, explaining that it left him “very comfortable” on 18.

Noh had made 77 previous PGA Tour starts, never finishing better than tied for fourth at the 2012 AT&T National.

He took the third-round lead in New Orleans while becoming the first to play 54 holes at TPC Louisiana without a bogey. The seventh first-time PGA Tour winner in the last 10 years in the New Orleans event, Noh finished at 19-under 269 and earned $1,224,000. He was playing for the first time with caddie Scott Sajtinac, who seemed awe struck by Noh’s combination of talent, wisdom and sense of calm for a player so young.

“He’s going to be good,” Sajtinac said. “He was unflappable. You need to be unflappable to win on the PGA Tour.”

Andrew Svoboda and Robert Streb tied for second. Svoboda had a 69. Streb shot 70, including an eagle on the second hole, and was one shot off the lead after a birdie on 8, but his tee shot was pushed into water by a crosswind on the par-3 ninth hole, and he made double-bogey.

Jeff Overton, who briefly pulled within a stroke of Noh on the back nine, had a 70 to finish fourth at 16 under.

Bradley wound up with a 75 to tie for eighth at 13 under.

On Saturday, Bradley worked his way into the final group, two strokes behind Noh, with a 65.

Bradley was within a stroke after the first hole Sunday, which saw Noh hit his drive into mulch right of the fairway en route to his first bogey. Bradley then birdied the par-5 second hole to tie Noh.

But just a few holes later, Bradley missed a par putt from less than 2 feet, and followed that up by hitting his drive into the water on No. 6. Then, he three-putted to complete a pivotal two-hole stretch in which he dropped four strokes.

While Bradley never recovered from his front-nine falter, Noh still had to ward off a challenge from Overton, who was one stroke back after his 20-foot birdie putt on 10.

Overton, however, bogeyed 11 when he hit his drive into a bunker left of the fairway and his second shot over the fairway and right of the cart path.

Noh, meanwhile, has the victory he needed to get into The Players Championship next month, and his first Masters next spring.

“Dreams come true,” Noh said. “When I started at 7 playing golf, I dreamed of always playing (on the) PGA Tour … or playing any major, especially the Masters.”

In Canadian action, Graham DeLaet secured a top-30 finish thanks for a 7-under 281 finish. David Hearn was a shot back at 6-under 282 and tied for 34th.