Scottie Scheffler is happy to be back at his hometown event and showed it.

Cameron Champ isn’t far from familiar territory, either, which is a good thing considering he got the call that he was in the Byron Nelson as an alternate about 18 hours before his tee time.

Scheffler made the turn in 29 on his way to a 10-under 61 for a two-shot lead over Rico Hoey and Jhonattan Vegas, with Champ among six players another shot back at 64.

Defending champion Taylor Pendrith shot 67 with players allowed to lift, clean and replace their shots in the fairways after the par-71 TPC Craig Ranch got heavy rainfall Wednesday.

The top-ranked Scheffler outshined fellow hometown star Jordan Spieth with the former Texas Longhorns paired together along with Si Woo Kim, a South Korean who also calls Dallas home and was showcased in an event sponsored by CJ Group, a conglomerate based in his home country.

Kim shot 67, capping his round with a lofty chip-in for eagle at the par-5 18th and rolling onto his back in celebration. Spieth is 2 under. Vegas, another Texas alum, had a bogey-free round along with Scheffler and Hoey.

The others at 7 under with Champ are Stephan Jaeger, Michael Thorbjornsen, Eric Cole, Andrew Putnam and Patton Kizzire.

Scheffler missed last year’s event in Dallas’ northern suburb of McKinney for the birth of his first child, son Bennett.

“Jordan and I love playing here. This tournament has meant a lot to us over the years,” Scheffler said. “Obviously last year I was missing for some pretty good reasons. I wasn’t too sad about what was going on in my life at the time.”

Haeran Ryu and Ariya Jutanugarn didn’t waste time moving on from the disappointment of the first LPGA major behind them, both opening with bogey-free rounds Thursday for an ideal start in the inaugural Black Desert Championship.

Ryu missed only one fairway, one green and took 27 putts in her round of 9-under 63, giving her a one-shot lead over Jutanugarn in the LPGA’s return to Utah for the first time in just over 60 years. Black Desert hosted a PGA Tour event last fall.

Tennis

Coco Gauff overpowered defending champion Iga Swiatek 6-1, 6-1 to reach the Madrid Open singles final for the first time Thursday.

Gauff broke Swiatek’s serve three times in the first set and twice in the second to cruise to a 64-minute semifinal victory over the second-ranked Swiatek at the clay-court tournament.

Gauff will face top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated Elina Svitolina to reach the Madrid final for the fourth time in her career.

It was Gauff’s first win over Swiatek on clay.

“The mentality that I had in the whole match was aggressive,” the fourth-ranked Gauff said. “Maybe it wasn’t her best level today, but I think I forced her into some awkward positions.”

Swiatek had recovered from losing the first set 0-6 to Madison Keys on Wednesday.

“I couldn’t really get my level up,” the four-time French Open champion said. “Coco played good, but I think it’s on me that I didn’t really move well, I wasn’t ready to play back the shots with heaviness, and with that kind of game. It was pretty bad.”

Gauff is 5-4 against Sabalenka and won their only prior meeting on clay, in Rome in 2021.

In the men’s quarterfinals, Casper Ruud advanced by defeating Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-5 to become the first player born in 1990 or later to reach 30 tour-level semifinals on clay.

The 15th-ranked Norwegian had been 0-3 against Medvedev in his career.

Ruud will next face Francisco Cerundolo, who rallied to defeat teenager Jakub Mensik 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2.

Horse racing

Rodriguez has been scratched from the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, leaving trainer Bob Baffert with one entry in his return to Churchill Downs after serving a three-year suspension.

Baffert made the decision Thursday, leaving fellow Hall of Famer Mike Smith without a mount in what would have been his record-extending 29th Derby start.

There was no immediate reason given for the scratch.

Baffert will saddle Citizen Bull, last year’s 2-year-old champion, in pursuit of a record-breaking seventh Derby win. The colt drew the dreaded No. 1 post and will be under pressure to break quickly before the rest of the field comes over on him.

With the defection of Rodriguez, Baeza will make the field of 20 3-year-olds. The colt has been on the grounds since last week training in the hopes he would get in. He is trained by John Shirreffs.

Baeza was runner-up in the Santa Anita Derby last month.

Basketball

Gordie Herbert played for Canada at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. And now he’s in position to coach Canada at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Canada Basketball brought Herbert — who coached Germany to a World Cup title in 2023 — home on Thursday, announcing that the British Columbia native will take over as its men’s national team coach in 2026. His first two major international events as Canada’s coach would be the 2027 World Cup in Qatar and the Olympics a year later.

Herbert is taking over for Brooklyn Nets coach Jordi Fernandez, who stepped down as Canada’s coach earlier this year after leading the country to a bronze medal at the 2023 World Cup and a fifth-place finish at last year’s Paris Olympics.

“I’m incredibly honored and excited for the opportunity to coach my home country,” Herbert said. “Canada Basketball has made tremendous progress in recent years, and the depth of talent in the program is as good as anywhere in the world.”

Herbert stepped aside as Germany’s coach after last year’s Paris Games. He led Germany to the World Cup title in the Philippines, then took that team to a fourth-place finish at the Olympics.