Feb 25, 2021 3 min read

Webb Simpson ran off three straight late birdies for a share of the lead Thursday in the Workday Championship. Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau ran up some big numbers.

Simpson matched Matthew Fitzpatrick with a 6-under 66 at The Concession in the World Golf Championships event moved from Mexico to Florida because of COVID-19 circumstances.

Simpson birdied the par-4 15th and 16th and par-5 17th. The 2012 U.S. Open champion won twice last season and has seven PGA Tour victories.

Fitzpatrick had a bogey-free round. The Englishman has six European Tour titles.

The top-ranked Johnson had two double bogeys in a 77. DeChambeau and Bubba Watson also shot 77, with DeChambeau making a triple bogey on the par-4 16th.

Brooks Koepka was a stroke out of the lead at 67 with Billy Horschel, Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner. Koepka won the Phoenix Open this month for his eighth PGA Tour title.

Second-ranked Jon Rahm bogeyed the final hole late in the afternoon for a 68.

Tony Finau, coming off a playoff loss to Max Homa last week at Riviera, also was at 68 with defending champion Patrick Reed, Wade Ormsby, Sungjae Im and Cameron Smith.

Rory McIlroy had three bogeys in a 69.

Third-ranked Justin Thomas birdied three of the last four for a 73. He dropped four strokes in a three-hole stretch on his first nine, making a double bogey and two bogeys.

Homa also shot 73.

Gainey leads in Puerto Rico: Tommy Gainey birdied five of the last seven holes at breezy Grand Reserve for a 7-under 65 and the first-round lead Thursday in the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open.

Gainey, the 45-year-old from South Carolina who won his lone PGA Tour title in 2012, had a one-stroke lead over local favorite Rafael Campos, Robert Garrigus, Taylor Pendrith, Lee Hodges, Greg Chalmers, Fabian Gomez and Brandon Wu.

“It’s windy. It’s Puerto Rico,” Gainey said. “I’m just glad that it’s 80 degrees outside, because back in South Carolina, all it is, is 40 degrees and raining. So, I’m just glad to be in some hot weather. Wind, I can deal with. But I just hit it really good today.”

The tournament is being played opposite the World Golf Championship event in Florida. The winner will get into the PGA Championship in May but not the Masters in April.

Sorenstam returns: Annika Sorenstam doesn’t remember golf being this difficult.

She still managed plenty of smiles Thursday when the most dominant player of her era played her first LPGA Tour event in more than 12 years. With one birdie and one bad hole, Sorenstam had a 3-over 75 in the LPGA Gainbridge on her home course at Lake Nona.

“It seems a little bit more stressful, this kind of golf,” she said.

Sorenstam was 10 shots behind another Lake Nona member, Lydia Ko, who opened with a 7-under 65 for a two-shot lead.

But then, this week isn’t about Sorenstam adding to her 72 career victories or even starting a comeback at age 50. The LPGA Tour came to her home course and she wanted to play.

With that early heard turn and tee shots that more often than not found the fairway, it didn’t seem like Sorenstam had been away from the LPGA Tour since Nov. 23, 2008, when she retired after a three-win season to start a family.