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PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) — Stewart Cink made a great escape from the pine straw for an unlikely birdie and had a 4-under 67 that gave him a five-way share of the lead Friday in the Valspar Championship and a chance to entertain thoughts of winning for the second straight tournament.

There's just one difference for Cink. The golf course is a lot longer. And the guys he is trying to beat are a lot younger.

The 50-year-old Cink, who blew a chance to win on the PGA Tour Champions two weeks ago with a back-nine meltdown, looked steady on a day of 30 mph gusts in the morning, some wind in the afternoon but not close to the nasty weather expected at Innisbrook.

He was tied at 6-under 136 with Kevin Streelman (72), tour rookie Chandler Phillips (68), Brendon Todd (69) and Mackenzie Hughes (68).

“There's a reason that so many players rave about this course,” Cink said. “It requires everything, and so far this week I've done everything fairly well.”

Everyone faced various conditions, though Streelman and Phillips got the tougher end of the draw with wind bending pine branches and snapping pant legs. At least it was in one direction, not the scary, swirling nature in the afternoon.

“This place is tough even in good weather,” Streelman said.

Justin Thomas was poised to join the log jam at the top until he badly missed the 18th green to the right in a tough lie in the bunker and made bogey for a 69, leaving him in the group one shot behind that included Lucas Glover (69).

“I think we got very lucky with the weather,” Thomas said. “I know those guys had a lot of wind this morning, we had some this afternoon, it just was very gusty and it made that back nine very challenging.”

He said he lost focus on his 8-iron from the 18th fairway — “a bad time to have the worst shot of the tournament so far,” he said — but had no complaints about his position going into the weekend on the Copperhead course.

The cut won't be official until Saturday morning with about a dozen players failing to finish before darkness, but one thing was clear — this tournament was wide open. Only six shots separated the players sharing the lead to the players making the cut on the number.

The cut was set at even-par 142, sending home an All-Star cast from a tournament that didn't have all that many in the first place — Jordan Spieth, two-time Innisbrook winner Sam Burns, British Open champion Brian Harman, Tony Finau and Keegan Bradley all missed the cut.

For Spieth, it was the first time since 2017 that he missed the cut at regular PGA Tour events in consecutive weeks (Players Championship, Byron Nelson).

None of the players who share the lead are in the Masters — a win would take care of that — and Todd is best positioned to at least try to get into the top 50 after next week to earn his way back to Augusta National.

Todd was most pleased that he had a good attitude on Thursday in sunshine, knowing Friday would be tougher. It was all of that for just about everyone.

“With the wind blowing that hard, you just had to expect that every once in awhile a shot was going to go somewhere you didn’t want,” Todd said. “It happened a couple times to me, but I was able to grind through it with a few birdies and a few great par saves.”

Cink, who recently became a grandfather, is still irritated by playing the final six holes in 5 over — including a triple bogey — at the Cologuard Classic in Arizona two weeks ago on the PGA Tour Champions.

“Being in contention feels the same way no matter where you are, to be honest,” he said. "Obviously, the field is a little different here at Valspar than it was the last time I teed it up at Cologuard in Tucson. But it still feels the same and I didn’t have a very good finish there. ... I should have won the tournament and I didn’t finish it off. I had a little bit of a meltdown.

“So I’m just thrilled to be right back at the top of the leaderboard,” he said. “I get another chance to learn some really great lessons and maybe some hard lessons this week again.”

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

3c:T10c3,

There's just one difference for Cink. The golf course is a lot longer. And the guys he is trying to beat are a lot younger.

He was tied at 6-under 136 with Kevin Streelman (72), tour rookie Chandler Phillips (68), Brendon Todd (69) and Mackenzie Hughes (68).

“There's a reason that so many players rave about this course,” Cink said. “It requires everything, and so far this week I've done everything fairly well.”

“This place is tough even in good weather,” Streelman said.

For Spieth, it was the first time since 2017 that he missed the cut at regular PGA Tour events in consecutive weeks (Players Championship, Byron Nelson).

Todd was most pleased that he had a good attitude on Thursday in sunshine, knowing Friday would be tougher. It was all of that for just about everyone.

“So I’m just thrilled to be right back at the top of the leaderboard,” he said. “I get another chance to learn some really great lessons and maybe some hard lessons this week again.”

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

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PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) — Kevin Streelman has a new ball marker to help with alignment that required USGA approval before he teed off Thursday in the Valspar Championship. He had 10 consecutive one-putt greens on his way to a 7-under 64 and a one-shot lead.

Streelman took advantage of gorgeous weather while it lasts with birdies on all four of the par 5s on the Copperhead course at Innisbrook. He took only 24 putts for the round.

“I knew today was going to be solid and then it's going to be hold-onto-your-shorts here for the next few days,” Streelman said. “So trying to just keep a good attitude and have some fun.”

Kevin Roy, who lost his PGA Tour card last year and is playing on a sponsor exemption, had eight birdies in his round of 65.

Streelman tried out a new ball marker during the pro-am. The circular piece on the top has a solid line and it has a long spike to put in the ground. He looks at the line and can turn the piece to give him a good visual before lining up his golf ball.

But he wanted to make sure it was legal, so the PGA Tour rules staff checked with the USGA. The spike can be no longer than an inch, so Streelman filed it down to that size.

“It's kind of cool little new ball marker I’m using that is legal that can kind of give you some visual cues that I think is pretty helpful,” Streelman said. “I was using that today, which I think kind of helped, as well.”

His streak of one-putts started with a 5-foot birdie putt on the par-5 14th and ended with a birdie from 8 feet on the par-5 fifth. He had four par saves in that stretch, some more difficult than others.

It added to his lowest score since a 64 in the 3M Open in Minnesota last summer when he went on to a runner-up finish.

Carl Yuan was in the group at 66 and he had a good time under direct orders from his wife. It was his birthday. He turned 27. She didn't want him to spend his day overthinking golf.

“Definitely had a little different mindset,” he said. “My wife called me this morning, told me about the birthday, so she said the only thing I’ll do is have fun on the course. Don't come out here to do golf swings, just play golf. That’s what I did. Yeah, it worked out pretty good.”

Roy can relate, even without a birthday and cupcakes in his honor in the locker room. He was just happy to be at the Valspar Championship after finding out two weeks ago about his sponsor exemption. Roy missed the cut by one shot in eight PGA Tour events last year and finished 174th in the FedEx Cup.

He's already off to a good start on the Korn Ferry with a runner-up finish in the Bahamas.

“I told my caddie, who is my buddy, ‘We got nothing really to lose. Let’s go out, have some fun. Because I'm mainly focused on the Korn Ferry Tour this year, but I'm going to try to keep the pedal down and see where it takes us," Roy said.

Conditions were ideal enough, even with a stronger breeze in the afternoon, that 27 players were at 68 or lower on one of the stronger courses on the Florida swing.

Yuan was joined by Peter Malnati and Adam Svensson of Canada, with Keith Mitchell in the group at 67. Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas were among those at 68.

Jordan Spieth looked as though he might join them until two bogeys on his final three holes, one a three-putt from long range on the 16th, the other on the 18th when he missed the green to the left and failed to get up-and-down. He still shot a 69.

The difficulty was to start Friday, with a forecast of rain and gusts in the 30 mph range.

DIVOTS: Even with a 152-man field — Garrick Higgo and J.B. Holmes withdrew — all but one player managed to finish before darkness, a tribute to how fast the Copperhead course plays with so many tees next to the greens. Kevin Dougherty chose not to try a 45-foot putt on the 18th hole in the dark. ... Kevin Kisner, in the broadcast booth for NBC during The Players Championship, put two tee shots in the water on the 16th for an 8 and shot 80. ... Kisner, Dougherty, Streelman and Roy are among seven players named Kevin in the field. The others are Tway, Yu and Aylwin, a Monday qualifier.

3e:T10b8,

Kevin Streelman

Kevin Streelman

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Streelman puts new gadget to use on the greens to lead Valspar

English part of 4-way tie atop Northern Trust after Round 1

Streelman, Hossler share 18-hole lead at Pebble Beach Pro-Am