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Bubba Watson entered the Zurich Classic as a favor to his mother.

“My mom really wanted me to come,” said Watson, tied for first-round lead with Matt Jonesafter opening with a 6-under 66 on Thursday. “My mom always comes to this golf tournament, so when my mom says she wants to come, I’m here. And somehow I shot 6 under today.”

Watson, the winner at Torrey Pines in late January, made a 32-foot eagle putt on the par-5 11th and had six birdies and two bogeys at TPC Louisiana — far from his favorite course.

“The way the course is, it just doesn’t fit my eye the way it is,” Watson said. “It’s a great golf course, a great layout. For me, it’s just not one that I want to play every day.

“Today, it just worked out. I hit my driver really well. I’ve been hitting it good all year, but I made some putts and hit some good iron shots and somehow came out 6 under.”

Jones chipped in from 57 feet for a birdie on his final hole.

“I pitched it perfectly,” Jones said. “It grabbed a little and just trickled in nicely.”

Jones had eight birdies and two bogeys. Playing the back nine first, the Australian reeled off four consecutive birdies beginning at the par-4 16th. He followed with a 30-foot birdie putt on the 17th, an 11-footer on the 18th and a 20-foot putt on the first.

Jones and put in a lot of work this week with swing coach Gary Barter.

“My hands are pretty sore, actually, after all the work we’ve done,” Jones said. “So it’s coming slowly. Today we saw some positives out of what we’ve been doing.”

Watson and Jones played in the afternoon in better scoring conditions after a strong north wind made morning play more difficult.

“The guys set it up pretty well with the conditions that we had out there with the wind and everything,” Jones said. “The greens are perfect. And I played well. … I actually made a lot of putts today and chipped in on the last to finish the round, which is good.”

Joe Durant, Tommy Gainey, Carl Pettersson, John Rollins, Nick O’Hern and David Duvalopened with 67s. Durant played in the morning.

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Tiger Woods has a minor injury to his left knee and Achilles tendon that will keep him out of the Wells Fargo Championship next week, raising more questions that his health might be the biggest obstacle in his chase of Jack Nicklaus’ record.

Woods said on his website Tuesday that he hurt himself hitting a shot during the third round of the Masters. It’s the fourth time he has missed a tournament because of his left knee. Woods did not say when he might return, but he hopes to be back in a few weeks.

“This is precautionary. We’re not at all concerned,” said Mark Steinberg, his agent at IMG. “He’s just listening to his doctors, which is kind of nice. He certainly didn’t listen to them before the U.S. Open in 2008.”

Woods won that U.S. Open in a playoff for his 14th major. He hasn’t won a major since then, leaving him four behind the record 18 professional majors won by Nicklaus.

Steinberg said Woods has been in a protective boot when he’s moving around and has not hit a shot since the Masters. He said Woods considered playing the Wells Fargo until Tuesday.

Woods won at Quail Hollow in 2007 and had not finished worse than 11th in four appearances until a year ago when he missed the cut with his highest 36-hole score.

The following week is The Players Championship, which Woods won in 2001, although it is not among his favorite courses. He has finished in the top 10 only four times in 13 appearances and withdrew from the final round a year ago with a neck injury.

Steinberg said there was a “reasonable chance” Woods will be at The Players Championship.

“We’ll do the same next week, do an early to midweek test to see if it’s good enough where he can be hitting the ball,” he said.

Woods, however, is slated to be on the golf course on July 5 where he will play in the fourth annual Notah Begay Challenge at Turning Stone Resort and Casino’s Atunyote Golf Club.

Woods will join a field that will also include fellow PGA star Rickie Fowler as well as NFL quarterbacks Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys and Sam Bradford of the St. Louis Rams. The event benefits Begay’s NB3 Foundation.

Woods described his current injury as minor — a mild sprain of his medial collateral ligament in the left knee, along with a mild strain to his left Achilles. Woods said the injury occurred when he had to squat to play a shot from under the Eisenhower tree left of the 17th fairway.

His left foot got caught in the pine straw as the momentum of the swing carried him backward. Woods hit into a front bunker and saved par on his way to a 74, then shot 31 on the front nine Sunday to tie for the lead. He wound up tied for fourth, and he appeared to be limping coming to the 18th green.

Woods, who held a series of clinics in Asia the week after the Masters, said he later sought a medical evaluation. He said doctors have advised rest and cold-water therapy, along with soft tissue treatment that is to begin this week.

“I personally contacted tournament officials and expressed my regret in not being able to play,” Woods said. “This is an outstanding event, but I must follow doctors’ orders to get better.”

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Garrett Willis may have regained his putting touch at The Heritage. He’ll need it with some of the world’s best trying to chase him down.

Willis used a run of six straight birdies to shoot a 7-under 64 and grab a one-shot lead after completion of the first-round at Harbour Town Golf Links on Friday. The tournament featured seven of the world’s top 20 golfers — many within striking distance of the top.

Third-ranked Luke Donald was three shots behind after a 67. The group at 68 included U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell (No. 5 in the world), Matt Kuchar (No. 10) and defending Heritage champ Jim Furyk (No. 13).

Willis, whose only PGA Tour victory came in his first event at Tucson 10 years ago, is confident he can rise to the challenge.

“I just want to be able to play the golf that I know I’m capable of playing,” he said.

He’ll need it this week with 24 golfers within four strokes of the lead. Arjun Atwal, Matt Bettencourt, Chad Campbell and Tim Herron were at 65, while Mark Wilson, Camilo Villegas and 2009 Heritage winner Brian Gay were another shot back.

The round was slowed by a rain delay of 2 hours, 16 minutes that forced 18 players to return Friday before starting their second rounds. Ben Martin made the most of his morning finish with birdies on the 16th and 17th holes for a 67.

Donald could move to No. 1 with a win. The Match Play Championship winner, the highest-ranked player in the field, rallied from a sluggish start with three birdies in his final six holes. He’d rather not think about what a victory could mean.

But “a lot of people are telling me about” No. 1, Donald said. “So it’s hard to put out of your brain. But that would be awesome.”

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Royal & Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson believes the PGA and European tours should start going public with their discipline of players.

The U.S. tour does not disclose when a player is fined, and the European Tour typically keeps such matters quiet. It made an exception when Tiger Woods was shown on TV spitting on the green in Dubai because of the enormous publicity. Woods later apologized on Twitter.

“I would not want to give the impression in any way that the standards of behavior in golf are poor,” Dawson told the Press Association on Tuesday at Royal St. George’s. “I think they are very high, and golf is still held up as a model for many other sports. These particular incidents that we see do get a great deal of publicity and rightly so.

“As regards what the tours’ disciplinary policy should be in terms of whether it should be made public, I think if you look at the wider world of sport, that has become the norm,” he said. “There are many good reasons for keeping it quiet, but I think it’s possibly something that the tours who do that should look at changing, because I think putting these things in the public domain has a lot of benefits — especially now that golf is an Olympic sport.”

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The 21-year-old from Northern Ireland shot an 8-under 64 in the rain-shortened second round of the Malaysian Open on Friday and shares the lead with Alexander Noren of Sweden at 11-under 133. Noren had a 69 to go with his first-round 64.

Play at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club was halted for nearly three hours before it resumed. Later, it was suspended because of thunder and lightning.

Masters champion Charl Schwartzel was among 77 players who failed to complete their rounds. Play is scheduled to resume Saturday.

McIlroy led last week’s Masters for 63 holes before a back nine of 43 crushed his hopes of winning a major tournament.

He said he’s in “great position” heading into the weekend.

“It helps when you have a morning tee time here as you are up pretty early,” McIlroy said of Friday’s round. “I went out and played well, and holed a couple of putts. I’ve been driving the ball pretty good, which you need to around here.”

Simon Dyson of England was one stroke off the lead after shooting a 64, while top-rankedMartin Kaymer of Germany was eight strokes back after a 71.

Noren struggled with the tropical weather.

“I had 14 great holes, but the heat got to me and I was just counting how many holes I had left,” he said.

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Alexander Noren shot an 8-under 64 to take a two-stroke lead in the weather-shortened first day of the Malaysian Open on Thursday.

Masters champion Charl Schwartzel (73) struggled after arriving in the country only a day earlier, while Rory McIlroy (69) was five shots behind Noren in a tie for ninth.

Most competitors finished the first round, but some will have to wait until Friday morning because inclement weather forced play to be stopped.

Schwartzel carded a 39 on the front nine at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.

“I didn’t sleep very well,” Schwartzel said. “I’m struggling to focus. The golf swing is tight … I was swinging so good last week and the weeks before that. The body isn’t responding right now, but it will come.”

Noren started on the back nine and birdied the 10th, 11th and 12th holes before a bogey on No. 14. The Swede got back on track with two more birdies on the 16th and 17th.

The 2009 European Masters champion started his second nine with more birdies at the first, third and fifth holes and closed out his round with a birdie on No. 9.

“I had two weeks off and I worked a lot harder on my game,” Noren said. “I felt lucky at times when they kept rolling in, but you have to have that sometimes.”

Italian teenager Matteo Manassero, who finished his round with four straight birdies, was two behind at 66. Manassero turns 18 next week and said it would be a “nice way to celebrate” by winning in Malaysia.

“It will be good to get to a major age,” said Manassero, who became the European Tour’s youngest winner when he captured the Castello Masters Costa Azahar last year. “I played well and holed a few nice 20-footers. I like the grainy greens. I feel like I can hit every putt solid and it gives me confidence putting.”

Jeev Milkha Singh of India and Darren Beck of Australia were a further stroke behind at 67 in a tie for third, while British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen (69), top-ranked Martin Kaymer (70) and defending champion Noh Seung-yul (73) trailed.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Chubby Chandler chuckled telling the story, shaking his head at the same time.

It was the night before the first round of the Masters, a moment players have been pointing toward for days, weeks, months, and one of his prized clients chose to play football in the Augusta streets with his buddies.

“Your football, not our football,” Chandler said, knowing that his audience incorrectly assumed Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy was kicking a soccer ball around. “They were slinging it … passing it there and back. Then a little old lady came and — off you go.”

Apparently, McIlroy and his friends were making too much noise in front of their rented home, and out came a neighbor to admonish them.

Instead of pulling the “do you know who I am?” routine, McIlroy apologized — it was already dark — and retreated inside, his first-round tee time only about 12 hours away.

Clearly, this is a new way to prepare for major championships.

McIlroy put himself in the mix at his third consecutive major championship Thursday, shooting a 7-under-par 65 to share the 18-hole lead with Spain’s Alvaro Quiros. At 21, McIlroy is the youngest player to lead after the first round of the Masters — breaking the record set by Seve Ballesteros, who was 23 in 1980.

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Phil Mickelson will begin defense of his Masters title on Thursday at 1:48 p.m. ET as part of the second-to-last group to tee off in the opening round at Augusta National Golf Club.

Mickelson will be grouped for the first two days with 2006 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy and reigning U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein. They tee off at 10:30 a.m. ET Friday.

Tiger Woods, a four-time Masters winner, gets an earlier start, going off at 10:41 a.m. ET Thursday with reigning U.S. Open championGraeme McDowell and Australia’s Robert Allenby. They will play Friday at 1:48 p.m. ET.

Mickelson will attempt to become only the fourth player ever to win back-to-back Masters titles.

“I like the latest tee time possible here,” Mickelson said Tuesday, “and the reason is, at about 5 o’clock it just seems to calm down. It seems like any wind that might be out there just seems to subside. It seems very peaceful and I would love nothing more than to have the last tee time every day.”

Former Masters champions Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus will get the tournament under way as honorary starters, hitting tee shots from the first hole at 7:40 a.m. ET Thursday.

Woods continues to redefine his swing under new coach Sean Foley. Woods hasn’t won a major championship since the 2008 U.S. Open.

“I just know that what I’ve been doing was not as consistent as what I can be doing,” Woods said Tuesday. “I won here in ’97 thinking that was a great week, but I can’t repeat this. That swing would not put me in contention each and every week and I need to change that.”

The first round’s first group will be Jonathan Byrd, Ross Fisher and Sean O’Hair at 7:45 a.m. ET.

Other groupings include Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott and Nick Watney at 8:40 a.m.; Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler and Jason Day (nobody in the group is older than 23) at 9:24 a.m.; Ryder Cup captains Jose Maria Olazabal and Davis Love, along with amateur Lion Kim, at 12:31 p.m.; and Bubba Watson, Paul Casey and Edoardo Molinari at 1:15 p.m.

The last threesome of Jhonattan Vegas, Gary Woodland and Alvaro Quiros tees off at 1:59 p.m. ET.

ESPN will air first- and second-round coverage from Augusta beginning at 3 p.m. ET.

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How do we know when a golf shot is truly historic, when it will forever live in the hearts and minds of the fans? When it has a name.

Gene Sarazen’s is known as “the shot heard ’round the world.”

Seventy-six years after Sarazen holed a 4-wood from 235 yards for double-eagle on the 15th hole in the final round of the 1935 Masters, it endures as one of the single greatest shots in the history of the game.

“I took my stance with my 4-wood and rode into the shot with every ounce of strength and timing I could muster,” he later wrote in his autobiography, “Thirty Years of Championship Golf.” “The split second I hit the ball I knew it would carry the pond. It tore for the flag on a very low trajectory, no more than 30 feet in the air.”

Although he didn’t see the ball go into the hole, he could tell by the gallery’s reaction — all 23 members, he later estimated — that something special had just occurred.

With one swing, Sarazen — born Eugenio Saraceni and nicknamed “The Squire” — erased a three-stroke deficit, tying leader Craig Wood with three holes to play. Unlikely? That’s what those at the course writing out the winner’s check believed, too, as they had already scrawled Wood’s name on the $1,500 first-place prize.

Instead, the two men remained deadlocked through 72 holes, forcing the tournament’s first and only 36-hole playoff. While Sarazen failed to produce another shot worthy of worldwide remembrance, he did post scores of 71-73 to defeat Wood by five strokes, winning the second edition of the Masters in historic fashion.

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