Roberto Castro fired a seven-under par 65 to grab a one-stroke lead over fellow American Brian Harman after darkness halted Thursday’s opening round of the US PGA BMW Championship.
Castro, seeking his first PGA title, birdied the second and fourth holes and added another at the par-5 ninth for a solid start, then birdied six of the final nine holes only to take a bogey at 18 to halve his edge.
“I started off pretty well,” Castro said. “Got going coming back and was thinking about birdies.”
Lightning and heavy rain in the Indianapolis area stopped play for three hours and 31 minutes, leaving the late threesomes in the field of 70 no hope of finishing before sunset.
“There have been a lot of delays this year so we are used to it,” Castro said. “I’m glad we got to get the round in.”
In all, 36 players were forced to conclude their first rounds yesterday before an early start to the second round in hopes of completing play before storms return to the 7,516-yard Crooked Stick layout.
All players completed the front nine except Australia’s Aaron Baddeley, who has a 13-foot eagle putt at the ninth when play resumes.
US major champions Dustin Johnson and Jason Dufner shared third on 67 with compatriot Chris Kirk, who had the back nine yet to play.
Argentina’s Fabian Gomez was in the clubhouse on 68 with Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama at four-under with six holes to play and England’s Paul Casey and Australian Adam Scott on four-under with eight holes remaining.
Top-ranked Aussie Justin Day opened on 73 with six bogeys and five birdies.
Third-ranked Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland was three-under after 10 holes. He opened with a birdie and had tap-in birdies at the par-5 fifth and ninth. He made a five-footer for birdie at the par-3 sixth but missed a six-footer for par at eight.
Castro has a pair of runner-up PGA finishes for his top showings, at Congressional in 2013 and this year at Quail Hollow.
Castro sank a 17-foot birdie putt at the second and drained a stunner from 54 feet to birdie the fourth, but the highlight shot of his round was a 41-foot chip-in birdie at the 14th. He missed an eagle chip-in at the par-5 15th by inches then sank a 15-foot birdie putt at the par-3 17th only to miss the green with his approach at 18 and suffer his lone bogey.
“Those greens were firm and really gettable after the delay,” Castro said. “To make a lot of birdies was a great way to start.”
Harman made a 34-foot birdie chip at the seventh and birdied three of the last five holes on the front side. He followed with a 15-foot eagle putt at the 15th and a clutch 21-foot par putt at 16th.
World number two Johnson could have shared second but closed with a bogey after finding water off the tee while Dufner birdied three of the last four holes to stand on 67.


Froome storms to time trial, cuts Quintana’s lead
AFP
Calpe, Spain


Tour de France winner Chris Froome maintained his outside hopes of winning the Vuelta a Espana by romping to victory in yesterday’s 19th stage time trial and cutting race leader Nairo Quintana’s advantage to 1min 21sec.
Froome finished the 37km route from Javea to Calpe in 46min 33sec to claim his second stage win of the race, 2min 16sec ahead of Colombia’s Quintana, who finished 11th.
Two stages of the three-week tour remain, but with tomorrow’s finale a mere procession around the streets of central Madrid, today’s 193.2km ride from Benidorm to Alto de Aitana will determine whether Froome can become the first man in 38 years to do the Tour de France-Vuelta double.
“Of course I’m really happy with the result today, especially at this point of the season. This is the last race of my season, so I am really happy to still be in good condition,” Froome told Spanish TV station Teledeporte.
“There is still one really tough day of racing tomorrow. Quintana still has more than one minute of advantage, but we will keep fighting all the way.
“Quintana, with Movistar, he has a really good team around him, so it is going to be difficult to beat him.”
Three-time Vuelta winner Alberto Contador moved up to third overall by finishing eighth on the day to leapfrog Esteban Chaves.
Spain’s Jonathan Castroviejo finished second, 44 seconds behind Froome, with Sweden’s Tobias Ludvigsson third a further 40 seconds back.

‘Flying’ Froome
Quintana’s early race prediction that he needed at least a three-minute lead over Froome to see off the Briton’s superior time-trialling ability proved correct as the Sky rider was in a class of his own in the race against the clock.
“Froome was flying, he posted a much better time than we expected,” said Quintana.
“My stats weren’t bad and the important thing is I continue to have strong legs to be able to defend the lead in a very important day tomorrow.”
Froome was already 46 seconds up on Quintana at the first check point after 12.5km and passed Chaves, who had started two minutes ahead of him, before the end of the second sector.
His lead on Quintana continued to rise from 1min 13sec at the second check to over two minutes by the end, but it is still unlikely to be enough after Quintana built up a huge 3min 37sec advantage with a surprise early attack on stage 15 which caught Sky cold and left Froome isolated.
“Initially we thought we needed more than three minutes to be able to defend the leader’s jersey and we have done it. We have an advantage in our favour and now we need to defend it to Madrid,” added Quintana.
“It is going to be a very important stage, the demands of today will cause some to suffer and we hope it doesn’t affect me.
“There will be battles in the general classification which will interest a lot of people to push the pace. I have to just cover Chris and I have the team to do it.”
Chaves lost over a minute on Contador to slide to fourth, whilst American Andrew Talansky moved ahead of Britain’s Simon Yates into fifth.

Stage 19 results (top 10)
1. Chris Froome (Team Sky)  46:33”
2. Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar)  +44”
3. Tobias Ludvigsson (Giant)  +1:24”
4. Yves Lampaert (E-Quick-Step)   +1:26”
5. Victor Campenaerts (LottoNL)  +1:47”
6. Leopold Koenig (Team Sky)  +1:51”
7. Andrew Talansky (Cannondale)  +1:54”
8. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff)  +1:57”
9. Fabio Felline (Trek)  +1:58”
10. Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana)  +2:10”

Overall classification
1. Nairo Quintana (Movistar)   75:18:52”
2. Chris Froome (Team Sky)   +1:21”
3. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff)   +3:43”
4. Esteban Chaves (Orica)   +4:54”
5. Andrew Talansky (Cannondale)   +7:12”
6. Simon Yates (Orica)   +7:32”
7. Michele Scarponi (Astana)   +10:01”
8. Daniel Moreno (Movistar)   +10:07”
9. David De La Cruz (EQuick-Step)  +10:11”
10. Davide Formolo (Cannondale)   +11:14”

Sky’s Chris Froome crosses the finish line to win the 19th stage of the Vuelta a Espana in Calpe, Spain, yesterday. (AFP)

UCI RWC Doha 2016 will be perfect showcase for Qatar: Merckx
By Sports Reporter
Doha


With only one month to go for the historic UCI Road World Championships Doha 2016, cycling legend and Doha 2016 ambassador Eddy Merckx believes the event will be an unforgettable experience.
“Doha deserves to host the UCI Road World Championships,” said the Belgian cycling legend, who first came to Qatar 15 years ago and has watched cycling develop at a rapid pace in the Middle East ever since.
“Qatar was the first country in the Middle East to organise a professional cycling race. The country developed rapidly over the past decade. Each year I got back and each year there were new roads, new buildings.”
The UCI Road World Championship Doha 2016 will be the first World Championships held in the Middle East, a historic event that will see 12 titles of UCI World Champion awarded across Elite, Under-23 and Junior categories. Each of the 12 races will finish at Qatar’s flagship development, The Pearl.
Merckx, who has a total of 525 victories as a professional cyclist (1978-1965), says the UCI Road World Championships are a perfect showcase for Qatar.
“Cycling is the best sport to show the features of this country, because the television spectators will get to see a lot of the impressive desert landscape and the beauty of the city of Doha.”
The Belgian legend believes that Qatar will continue to play a critical role in the competition and training schedules of the world’s best cyclists each season.
“Doha is beautiful and it’s an excellent place for professional riders to get in shape for the Spring Classics. The climate is nice in January, when it’s often too cold to train or race in the rain and snow in Europe.”
Merckx is the only rider to have won all five monuments (Milan–San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and the Giro di Lombardia), all three Grand Tours (Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a Espa?a) and the UCI Road World Championships.

Belgian cycling legend Eddy Merckx (left) on the podium for the 2015 Ladies Tour of Qatar.