Bob Heintz always has wanted some fans to follow him around the course for a change. For one day anyway, he got that kind of attention, even if it took some ribbing and a remarkable start to the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C.

Heintz and rookie Martin Laird matched the course record yesterday with 7-under 63s at Sedgefield Country Club to share the lead after the first round of the PGA Tour's final event before the start of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

They joined three other players who previously shot 63s at the Donald Ross-designed course -- nobody had done it since Gary Player in 1970, although the pros haven't played Sedgefield since 1976 -- and surpassed the venue's opening-round record by one stroke. Garrett Willis birdied his final five holes to join Scott Sterling, Tim Clark and Carl Pettersson one stroke back at 64. Steve Marino, Bob Sowards, Ken Duke and Scott McCarron were two strokes behind at 65.

Early in Heintz's round, he figured out that the gallery of roughly 50 people was far more interested in another member of his threesome, local amateur Drew Weaver.

"I said, 'I imagine y'all are here to watch Drew, right?' " Heintz said. "They kind of laughed and felt bad that they weren't there to watch me. I relayed to them that one of my career goals was to get where I'm good enough where someone might actually go to a golf course, pick up a pairing sheet and say, 'I'll follow Bob Heintz's group today.'"

Heintz started his round on the back nine and birdied five of his first eight holes. He could have pushed his score lower on his final hole, the par-4 ninth, but he pushed his 15-foot birdie putt to the right and tapped in for par.

Laird's round was bogey-free with five birdies -- including one on the course's toughest hole, the par-4 18th. Laird ranks 162nd on the money list and 164th in points. Heintz is one spot ahead of Laird in earnings but trails him by three spots in the FedEx Cup chase in which the top 144 players advance to the postseason.

• Tradition: Defending champion Mark McNulty shot a 5-under 67 for a share of the first-round lead in Sunriver, Ore., the fourth of the Champions Tour's five major tournaments. Craig Stadler, Gene Jones, Mark Wiebe, Tim Simpson, Jay Haas and David Eger joined McNulty atop the leader board.

• Canadian Women's Open: Defending champion Lorena Ochoa shot a bogey-free 6-under 66 to take a one-stroke lead over Annika Sorenstam in Ottawa, leaving Michelle Wie nine strokes back in her final LPGA Tour event of the year. Ochoa, the winner last year at Royal Mayfair in Edmonton, Alberta, hit all 18 greens in regulation and was in the rough only once in sunny, calm conditions. Wie, using the last of her six sponsor exemptions, bogeyed three of her final six holes.

• SAS Masters: England's Nick Dougherty holed a 142-yard wedge shot for an eagle on his way to a 4-under 66 and a share of the lead in Stockholm, Sweden. Dougherty, the runner-up last year, was tied with Sweden's Peter Hanson and Spain's Pedro Linhart of Spain.