SAN DIEGO: Ludvig Aberg shot a 9-under 63 Wednesday in what he calls his favorite place in the world, taking a two-shot lead over Danny Walker and Hayden Springer in the opening round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

Aberg took a first-round lead on the PGA Tour for the first time after posting the best opening-round score of his short career. The 25-year-old Swede capitalized on playing the easier North Course at Torrey Pines, hitting 16 of 18 greens in regulation while making eight birdies and an eagle on the coastal links.

“I like when you hit a lot of drivers, and I feel like I did that a lot today, and probably going to do the same tomorrow,” Aberg said. “(I love) any golf course when it looks like this, when you have the views, and Torrey Pines is a really, really cool place.”

The 25-year-old Walker was outstanding in his fourth career PGA Tour start. He posted the opening day’s best round on the tougher South Course, where the scoring average was 72.487 compared to 70.218 on the North.

Walker and Springer finished one shot in front of Lanto Griffin, Zac Blair, 48-year-old Zach Johnson and 20-year-old Aldrich Potgieter — all of whom played the North Course.

Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, the highest-ranked player in the field and the winner at The Sentry at Kapalua, shot a 68 on the South Course.

Aberg, who finished ninth last year in his Torrey Pines debut, began the new season with a fifth-place finish in Maui after undergoing knee surgery last fall. After winning the tour’s rookie of the year award in 2023, he went winless last year despite posting six top-five finishes, including runner-ups at the Masters, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the BMW Championship.

While many top players aren’t at Torrey Pines this week, Aberg couldn’t wait to get out to the beautiful coastal course, calling San Diego “my favorite place in the world” earlier this week.

Aberg also said he would love it if the Genesis Invitational is held here in three weeks. The tournament is expected to announce its 2025 home soon after being moved away from Riviera Country Club because of the deadly wildfires that destroyed part of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, near the famed course.

“I haven’t had any issues since the surgery, so it’s really nice,” Aberg said. “I think Maui was the ultimate test for that. I got some blisters on my feet. That’s another story, but the knee was holding up nice. Really looking forward to coming back and playing a lot of tournaments. ... I’m looking forward to a nice stretch of golf.”

Walker, a rookie who who earned his PGA Tour card on the Korn Ferry Tour, turned in a bogey-free round after missing his first two cuts of the season.

Johnson hasn’t won on tour since the 2015 British Open at St. Andrews, but he started impressively at Torrey Pines after getting in on a sponsor’s exemption.

Defending champion Matthieu Pavon shot a 73 on the South Course.

This famed tournament on the northern coast of San Diego has fewer stars than normal in its field this year. World No. 2 and San Diego native Xander Schauffele didn’t enter, while fifth-ranked and Southern California native Collin Morikawa withdrew on Sunday, followed by former Torrey Pines runner-up Will Zalatoris on Wednesday morning.

The Farmers Insurance Open starts on a Wednesday and ends on a Saturday to avoid a final-round conflict with the NFL’s conference championship games.

NEW DELHI: The ancient game of kho kho is enjoying a resurgence in India, with organizers of the first international tournament hoping their efforts will secure the sport’s place in the Olympics.
Kho kho, a catch-me-if-you-can tag sport, has been played for more than 2,000 years across southern Asia but only saw its rules formalized in the early 20th century.
It was played as a demonstration sport at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin but did not gather enough support to be included in the Summer Games and since then has been largely eclipsed by India’s ferocious love of cricket.
Nearly a century later, enthusiasts have sought to raise its profile with the inaugural Kho Kho World Cup featuring teams from 23 nations competing in India’s capital New Delhi.
The tournament’s opening ceremony saw a gala of song, dance and an Olympic-style team parade, reflecting the aspirations of organizers and athletes to take the sport global.
“My elder sister played the sport, but was not able to pursue her dreams,” Indian women’s team player Nasreen Shaikh, 26, told AFP.
“We have crossed the first barrier of playing in a World Cup. The next big step would be an entry in the Olympics.”
Kho kho is traditionally played outside on a rectangular court, divided in two by a line that connects two poles at either end of the field.
Teams switch between attack and defense, with the former chasing and tagging defending players around the field.
Only one player can give chase at a time and attacking players can only move in one direction around the court, forcing them to tag in team-mates crouched on the center line to take over pursuit.
The match is won by whichever team can gain the most points, primarily by tagging defenders faster than the opposing team.
The franchise-based Ultimate Kho Kho League, founded in 2022, brought the sport off grassy fields and onto indoor mats, also boosting its profile with a television audience.
Since then the league has become the third most-watched non-cricket sports tournament in the world’s most populous country after the Pro Kabaddi League — another ancient Indian tag sport — and the Indian Super League football competition.
“The turning point was when it transitioned from mud to mat. It made it into a global game,” Kho Kho Federation of India president Sudhanshu Mittal told AFP.
“Today we are in 55 countries... Native players in countries like Germany, Brazil, and Kenya are embracing the game because of its speed, agility and minimal equipment required.”
Mittal said he expected the sport to gain a foothold in dozens more countries by the end of the year, giving it a strong claim to be featured in the Olympics in the coming decade.
That would coincide with India’s audacious bid to host the 2036 Games in the city of Ahmedabad, 100 years after kho kho last appeared at the Olympics.
The United States, England and Australia were among the nations that competed in this month’s World Cup in New Delhi, with expatriate Indians heavily represented after taking the game to foreign shores.
But Pakistan is a glaring omission from the competition despite the sport being popular there — a reflection of the deep animosity between the nuclear-armed archrivals.
World Cup organizers refused to comment on the absence, which failed to dim the sense of optimism at the competition that the sport is destined to thrive.
“There has been a sea change in the sport,” Indian men’s team captain Pratik Waikar, 32, told AFP.
“Cricket has a rich history and they developed it well by going live on TV, and now our sport has also gone live,” he said. “In the next five years it will be on another level.”