Golf: Brown, Loupe share Farmers lead

San Diego • Scott Brown and Phil Mickelson both had reason to believe it could be a long day on the South Course at Torrey Pines. It turned out just fine Thursday in the Farmers Insurance Open, especially for Brown.

Brown hit into a hazard and made bogey on the first par 5 he faced and was 2 over through six holes. He finished with eight birdies over his last 11 holes for a 6-under 66, giving him a share of the lead with Andrew Loupe.

Only it felt much better for Brown because it was on the South, which played 2½ shots harder than the North Course where Loupe shot his 66.

"Extremely hard," Brown said of the South, which already hosted one U.S. Open and has another coming in five years. "But it's fair. It's just tough. If you're out of position, you just have to play for par or bogey and you can't make any big numbers out there because as soon as you get behind the 8-ball, you can't press and try to make birdies."

He did, anyway, including a 30 on the front nine.

Brown and Loupe had a one-shot lead over five players, including Billy Horschel, who all played the North Course.

Defending champion Jason Day, who missed the pro-am because of the flu, made his tee time but not a lot of birdies. He shot 72 on the North Course. That was one shot better than Rickie Fowler, who won Sunday in Abu Dhabi and couldn't buy a putt on the North Course in his round of 73.

"Couldn't get anything going," Fowler said. "Couldn't make a putt. So looking forward to getting on the South greens, that's for sure."

Mickelson, whose last win at Torrey Pines was 15 years ago, didn't have the ideal start, either. On the second-easiest par 4 on the South Course, he hit into a fairway bunker, caught the lip trying to get out, hit his third shot just over the green and failed to get up-and-down, making double bogey.

"I thought anything in the 60s would have been a good score," Mickelson said. "It's a very difficult golf course. But after doubling the second, I was able to kind of just keep things calm until I made a few birdies, and it was a good back nine."

As significant as his birdies was a par on No. 11, where his tee shot found a bunker and he escaped with a 20-foot par putt. Mickelson hit enough good drives to set up three straight birdies. He reached the 614-yard 13th hole in two, hit wedge to 5 feet for birdie on the 14th and an 8-iron to 4 feet on the next hole.

He ended with a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th.

Of the 33 players who shots in the 60s, only 12 of the scores came on the South Course. K.J. Choi and Chesson Hadley each had a 68.

Paul Dunne of Ireland made his PGA Tour debut with a 69 on the South, while 17-year-old Ryan Ruffels of Australia opened with a 70 on the North Course in his first professional event in America. Ruffels, the son of tennis parents Ray Ruffels and Anna-Maria Fernandez, won a Junior World Championship at Torrey Pines, and he beat Mickelson in a practice round last December.

Mickelson figured the South Course would be a good test for his driver, and he had mixed results.

"It was not what I expected, but better than I'm used to," he said.

Jimmy Walker was expecting much better. He was excited about the way he was driving the ball until a piece of epoxy on his driver came loose during the pro-am. He missed it left of the gallery on No. 7, and so far right on the par-5 ninth on the South that it landed beyond a blue mesh fence of a concession area. At that point, he still was 4 under. Walker kept it together for a 69 and then headed for the range.

"It's tough when you've got a two-way miss going," he said. "But I hit some good irons, good wedges and some good putts."

This tournament typically isn't sorted out until the weekend because of the disparity of the courses, though the North is no longer a pushover. It has tighter fairways with thick rough. The scoring difference comes largely from the par 5s, which all are reachable with good tee shots.

That's where Brown is headed on Friday with the same plan — keep it in the fairway, keep big numbers off his card.

Wie stung, Park hurt

Paradise Island, Bahamas • Michelle Wie was stung by a bee Thursday in the season-opening Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic, and second-ranked Inbee Park withdrew because of back pain after the second-worst round of her LPGA Tour career.

Wie was stung on the palm of her right hand on the 16th hole, her seventh of the day at the windy Ocean Club. She finished with a 3-over 76 to fall eight strokes behind first-round leaders Paula Creamer, Charley Hull, Alison Lee, Ashlan Ramsey, Catriona Matthew, Mika Miyazato and Haru Nomura.

"I was waiting to hit my tee shot and I felt something sting and it hurt really, really bad and I knew it was a bee," Wie said. "I brushed it away and the stinger was still in there. We were trying to find a tweezer and out of all the people, our security guy had tweezers on him, so I got it out."

She bogeyed three of the first five holes on her back nine.

"It just kind of felt so swollen it was kind of hard to grip the club. I was hitting the ball so well on the front nine and just definitely had a couple loose ones coming in making the turn. You can kind of feel the venom kind of spread. But the last couple holes, it's feeling better."

She struggled with her putting.

"I only missed two greens," Wie said. "I just putted horribly."

Park shot an 80, playing her final four holes in 5 over with a double bogey on the par-5 15th and three bogeys. She will sit out the Coates Golf Championship next week in Florida, and hopes to return late next month in the Honda LPGA Thailand.

"I've always had a little lower back problem and some weeks it just gets bit worse and today happened to be one of those days," Park said. "Hopefully, in Thailand I'll be in really good shape."

Creamer played a late three-hole stretch in 4 under, making an eagle on the par-4 eighth.

"I'll definitely take it," Creamer said. "This golf course, it's a great track. It really does play well. The wind makes it very difficult, but these greens, they're challenging. The biggest thing is get it as close as you can from the fairways and see what you can do."

Lee finished with a bogey on the par-4 ninth after playing the previous three holes in 4 under with an eagle on the par-5 seventh. She is still a student at UCLA.

"I'm taking four classes right now," Lee said. "Each week, I think, I counted to about 13 hours of class, so it's not too bad. I have friends in each class that can give me notes."

The 46-year-old Matthew also eagled No. 7.

"You would much rather get off to a good start than a bad start," Matthew said. "I think this course is tough because there's a lot of crosswinds, which makes it difficult."

Miyazato had only 10 putts in a first-nine 6-under 31.

"Very excited because if green in regulation, I make it, make it, make it," Miyazato said.

The Japanese player had an interesting answer when asked if she did anything exciting in the offseason.

"Too much drink," Miyazato said.

Her drink of choice?

"Whiskey," Miyazato said. "Only in the offseason."

Hull had a bogey-free round.

"It's quite quiet this week," Hull said. "You can really focus and get your head down and just get back out on tour."

Jennifer Johnson and Min Seo Kwak were a stroke back at 69.

Defending champion Sei Young Kim opened with a 71, and 2014 winner Jessica Korda had a 72. Third-ranked Stacy Lewis shot 73, No. 4 Lexi Thompson 74, and No. 11 Christie Kerr 77.

Spieth beats fatique, leads in Singapore

Singapore • A good night's sleep and a helping hand from his manager was all Jordan Spieth needed to get back in the swing of things on the latest leg of his globe-trotting tour.

The world's top-ranked player had arrived at the Singapore Open exhausted and complaining of fatigue after playing in the Middle East last week, but Spieth looked revitalized as he grabbed a share of third place in Thursday's opening round.

With his agent filling in as his caddie, Spieth began with a birdie at Sentosa Golf Club and birdied three of his last 10 holes to complete a bogey-free round of 4-under 67 at the co-sanctioned Asian and Japan Tour event.

That left him just one stroke behind the clubhouse leader, South Africa's Keith Horne, and Berry Henson of the United States, who still had one hole to finish when play was suspended for the day because of a thunderstorm.

An Byeong-hun of South Korea, the next highest-ranked player in the field at 26 in the world, matched Spieth's 67. They were joined at 4-under by Japan's Shintaro Kobayashi and Thailand's Namchok Tantipokhakul, who were among 57 players still on the course when play was suspended.

Spieth, who has played his past five tournaments in five different countries, turned to his manager and agent, Jay Danzi, to carry his bag after his long-time regular caddie, Michael Greller, injured an ankle in Abu Dhabi last week and canceled his trip to Southeast Asia.

"I thought Jay stepped in extremely well," Spieth said. "It's a tough place to caddie when you are not used to carrying the bag, with the weather, but he took it like a champ."

By his own standards, Spieth was not at his best, missing four fairways off the tee and misjudging most of his approach shots to the green.

"I felt like the entire day today was very stress-free driving the ball, which is the most important part out there, but from there I just couldn't get it on the right tier," the 22-year-old American said. "Ï just couldn't quite get the right distance. My distance control was just off, trying to judge the wind, the humidity and the heat."

Spieth escaped the worst of Singapore's stifling humidity when he teed off just after sunrise and made a perfect start when he made a 20-foot birdie putt on his first hole. He struggled to get his yardage right on the unfamiliar Serapong course but birdied each of the three par-5s and did not three-putt a single hole.

"It's just the first round," Spieth said. "Coming here, to a different country, a different time zone, it's still an adjustment and I think each day should get a bit better."

Putting tip works for Lawrie

Doha, Qatar • Paul Lawrie benefited from a putting tip off a friend in shooting a 6-under 66 at the Qatar Masters, giving the former British Open champion a one-shot lead after the second round on Thursday.

The 47-year-old Lawrie followed up a first-round 67 to move to 11-under par, a stroke clear of Nicolas Colsaerts (68).

Lawrie missed the cut in Abu Dhabi last week and was given some putting advice from fellow Scottish player Marc Warren, who said Lawrie's stroke was too long and slow.

"I've been working on it the last couple of days and certainly feels as though I've got it," said Lawrie, who rolled in seven birdies on Thursday and has 13 in all this week as he bids to win the event for a third time.

Joint first-round leaders Louis Oosthuizen (73) and Pablo Larrazabal (72) dropped off the leaderboard, while Sergio Garcia was in a five-way tie for sixth place after a 66 that included a long putt for birdie on No. 8. It prompted Garcia to dance a jig of delight on the green.

"I don't know if they were dance moves. They were like jabs," said Garcia, the 2014 champion. "When we got to the ninth tee, I said to my caddie and to the guys, 'I think that celebration is going to look a little bit funny on TV.'"

Matthew Fitzpatrick, Stephen Gallacher, and Matteo Manassero were among those to miss the cut.

Lawrie is making his 16th appearance in Qatar. He won the event in 1999 and 2012, before going on to represent Europe in the Ryder Cup the same year.

Lawrie went out in the morning and avoided the worst of the windy conditions. Starting on the back nine, he birdied Nos. 10 and 12 and responded to a bogey at No. 15 by picking up more shots on the 16th and 18th holes. More birdies came on the fourth, seventh and ninth holes.

"I got a little frustrated after No. 15 because I thought, 'You are not taking advantage of the conditions,'" Lawrie said.