NEW DELHI (AP) Shubhankar Sharma had wildly contrasting nines but recovered for a 1-over 73 in his opening round at the Indian Open on his home course Thursday, two days after receiving a special invitation to play in the Masters at Augusta.

Starting on the back nine at the tough DLF Golf and Country Club, Sharma shot 41 with three bogeys and a double-bogey. But he came back on his final nine to shoot 32 with four birdies and was six strokes behind the early leaders.

The 21-year-old Sharma held the 54-hole lead in his first World Golf Championship appearance last week in Mexico. He finished tied for ninth after a closing 74.

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Sharma was at No. 462 in the world three months ago when he shot 61 in the second round and won the Joburg Open. He closed with a 62 last month to win the Malaysian Open, making him the only two-time winner on the European Tour this season.

Sharma, now ranked 66th, also leads the Race to Dubai on the European Tour.

NEW DELHI (AP) Pablo Larrazabal awoke with a start, just 38 minutes before his tee-off time in the first round of the Indian Open.

He had a ”10-second shower,” a wild car ride through the streets of Delhi, and hit just 10 balls on the range before dashing to his first hole, the 10th. The disrupted preparation didn’t seem to affect him.

With adrenaline pumping through his body, the Spanish golfer made nine birdies along with two bogeys and a double to shoot 5-under 67 on Thursday.

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Larrazabal was tied for second place with Paul Peterson and Matteo Manassero, two shots behind leader Emiliano Grillo.

Larrazabal said his phone reverted to Spanish time overnight, meaning his alarm didn’t go off, and he needed a wake-up call by a European Tour official.

”Waking up this morning, I didn’t think I was going to make it,” Larrazabal said. ”Delhi’s traffic is quite tough. I got lucky that we didn’t have traffic.”

Searching for his first European Tour victory, Gril..

PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) Tiger Woods has won five PGA Tour events that he played for the first time.

Two of them no longer exist (Disney and BellSouth Classic in Atlanta). One of them he stopped playing 12 years ago (Tournament of Champions). He has been ineligible for another (World Golf Championship now in Mexico) the last four years.

The other is Las Vegas .

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The next opportunity, which is rare in his predictable schedule, starts Thursday at the Valspar Championship.

That’s not to say Woods has never competed on the Copperhead course at Innisbrook. He played in 1996, but he had some help. It was the old JC Penney Mixed Team Classic. His partner was Kelli Kuehne, another amateur stalwart dressed up in the Nike swoosh whose career never got going.

What is Woods doing in the Tampa Bay area?

He wants to get his game ready for the Masters, and without being eligible for the two World Golf Championships in the spring, he needs places to play.

Woods has cap..

According to a Golf.com report, the PGA of America is moving to Texas, hopes to bring PGA Championship, Ryder Cup to Frisco

PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) Jordan Spieth is among the young stars in golf with only a glimpse – if even that – of how Tiger Woods could take over a tournament with his game and appeal.

That moment for Spieth came in a practice round at Muirfield Village, with Woods as his teammate.

Spieth was a 20-year-old in the Presidents Cup, playing with Steve Stricker against Woods and Matt Kuchar in a modified alternate shot. They were taken by cart to start on the par-5 seventh hole.

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”I stood on that tee,” Spieth said Wednesday. ”We were trying to get off quickly in front of the groups, and I remember being unbelievably nervous on that shot, and for most of the shots I hit in the round – even though it’s a practice round, and he was my teammate. They went eagle-birdie-birdie or something like that to start. I thought, `Man, this must be what it’s been like for the last 20 years for guys.”

Spieth made a hole-in-one that day on the 11th hole. He has played with Woods s..

When you think of Massachusetts, you think of the Patriots and Paul Revere, Red Sox and clams on the Cape. What happens west of Framingham remains mostly a mystery, but thanks to this local hero from quaint Shrewsbury, the world is finally getting a glimpse of one the strangest cultures in America. His mission? To rename an unmarked local island after Busta Rhymes. This is not drill.
While local officials have repeatedly rebuffed his attempts, savvy Google cartographers made a recent discovery proving that perhaps not all was in vain: The island is currently listed on Google Maps as— wait for it—Busta Rhymes Island.
https://twitter.com/atlasobscura/status/971097496503095301
FacebookPinterestNow that this has gone viral, there's no telling how long it will last. Soon enough it will probably go back to being a little green blob in the middle of nowhere, but for residents of Shrewsbury, they'll never forget March 6th, 2017—the day Busta Rhymes put their town on the map.

Justin Thomas is on such a roll right now that even when he finished runner-up to Phil Mickelson at last week's WGC-Mexico Championship, he still gave golf fans the highlight of the season so far with that ridiculous hole-out from 121 yards on the final hole of regulation. But Thomas, the reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year and the early front-runner to win the award again, finally had a truly rough day this week. It just happened nowhere near a golf course.
RELATED: Justin Thomas is just getting started in 2018
On Wednesday, the World No. 2 who has won seven of his past 32 starts on the PGA Tour took a trip to the dentist. And let's just say he didn't get a typical cleaning. . .
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Rough. . .
Thomas isn't playing in this week's Valspar Championship, but don't worry, JT. According to WebMD, “It should only take a few days for you to heal and feel back to normal” after having wisdom teeth removed. And in the meantime, you have the per..

Our equipment editors dissect the latest distance report from golf's governing bodies to help you understand what it really means

VCGIt's been a tough couple of weeks here on earth, with tragedy, political strife, and the biggest federal investigation since Watergate (and its cast of increasingly desperate Looney Toons villains) occupying the front and back burners of our collective mental stove. If it feels like the sky is falling, well, you wouldn't necessarily be wrong, because the latest batch of super great news is pretty much exactly that.
According to aerospace authorities, Tiangong-1—an 8.5 ton Chinese space station launched in September 2011—has spiraled out of control and is now set to crash back to earth sometime between March 29th and April 9th. It's likely point of reentry? Along a narrow probability band that happens to include 25 states, from California to New York and several rectangular splotches in between. And if you're wondering why NASA hasn't assembled a rag-tag team of miners, construction workers, and chopper enthusiasts to go blow this thing out of the sky a la Ar..

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) The longest-running PGA Tour event still being played at its original site has been renamed the Fort Worth Invitational for this year’s event.

Colonial Country Club officials announced the name Wednesday, about 2 1/2 months before the first round May 24.

Local companies American Airlines, AT&T, XTO Energy and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway have signed on to support the 2018 tournament.

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Dean and Deluca notified the PGA Tour and Colonial late last year that it may be unable to meet its financial obligations to remain title sponsor for the tournament. This 2018 tournament was supposed to be the third year of a six-year sponsorship deal for the upscale grocer.

The Colonial was first played in 1946.