Paul Waring trying to get his game on track and leads in Houston by one shot over Woodland

HOUSTON (AP) — Paul Waring felt he had been giving away shots and he was in position to do that again Thursday in the Houston Open. Instead, the Englishman made a great escape for par and opened with a 7-under 63 for a one-shot lead over Gary Woodland.

Waring and Woodland are both in the midst of overcoming big obstacles of a different nature.

Woodland, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, had brain surgery to remove a lesion in September 2023, and two weeks ago opened up about his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder in an emotional interview with Golf Channel.

It was a relief to share it, and some comfort to be in Houston, where he was runner-up a year ago.

“I was crying going into the interview, and I left feeling a thousand pounds lighter,” Woodland said after birdies on his last two holes at Memorial Park for a 64.

Waring beat a strong field in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2024 that enabled him to get a PGA Tour card through his European tour standing. And then came a sore shoulder that required cortisone shots, and eventually sidelined him in July for five months.

It was a tough start to his PGA Tour career, particularly not being around familiar faces from players to caddies to golf officials.

He missed the cut in his first three PGA Tour starts, not overly concerned because he felt he could fix the mistakes. There weren't many in the opening round in Houston, except for a tee shot into the water on the 17th, and even then he made an 18-foot par save.

He was 7 under when his second to the par-5 eighth went left and into the hazard area with a small creek. The ball stayed in thick grass on the bank and Waring chose to play it. The risk paid off. He blasted it out to 20 feet for a two-putt par and closed out a bogey-free round.

“This week, a lot tidier,” Waring said. “No bogeys and ... I've just been told I holed over 160 foot of putts today, which is massive and gives you a massive advantage.”

Woodland also had a bogey-free round going until taking on a left pin on the par-3 seventh and going into a deep bunker. He safely blasted out to 20 feet and made bogey. But the response was strong, a nice pitch to 6 feet for birdie on the par-5 eighth and a 10-foot birdie to finish.

Sam Burns, Michael Brennan and Tom Hoge were at 65, with Marco Penge in a large group at 66. Penge challenged at Innisbrook last week and tied for fourth.

Brooks Koepka was going along fine until it fell apart on Memorial Park — he consulted on the design of the public course — in the middle of his round.

He went left into a creek on the par-3 seventh and made double bogey. His tee shot spun back into the water on the par-3 ninth for a double bogey. And it took him two to get out a bunker on the 10th leading to double bogey. He wound up with a 75 and will need his low round of the year to make the cut in his final start before the Masters.

This is the final week for players to move into the top 50 in the world to earn a Masters invitation. Pierceson Coody is on the bubble at No. 51 and opened with a 70, meaning he will start Friday outside the cut line.

Winning also gets a player into the Masters, and that would be a dream for Waring. The 42-year-old has only played seven majors, and he had to skip the British Open last year with his shoulder issue.

“All the work has been around what I did that couple years ago to get myself back in this place that I am now,” Waring said. “So hopefully, I can build on this today. See how the week goes.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Paul Waring places his ball on the 17th green during the first round of the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Rico Hoey tees off on the 18th hole during the first round of the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Tony Finau hits onto the 17th green during the first round of the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Gary Woodland watches his tee shot on the ninth hole during the first round of the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Paul Waring tees off on the 18th hole during the first round of the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s photo voter identification law was upheld on Thursday, as a federal judge set aside arguments by civil rights groups that Republicans enacted the requirement with discriminatory intent against Black and Latino voters.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs is a huge legal victory for Republican legislative leaders who passed the law in late 2018 — weeks after voters approved a constitutional amendment backing the idea.

North Carolina state Senate leader Phil Berger said in a news release that with Biggs' decision, “we can put to rest any doubt that our state’s Voter I.D. law is constitutional.”

Biggs had presided in spring 2024 over a non-jury trial in a lawsuit filed by the state NAACP and local chapters, which argued that the ID requirement violated the U.S. Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act. At trial, the NAACP alleged Republican legislators passed the voter ID law to entrench their political power by discouraging people historically aligned with Democrats from voting.

But lawyers for Republican lawmakers helping defend the law with state attorneys argued that Republicans wouldn’t have passed one of the most permissive voter ID laws among states that have them if they wanted to entrench themselves in state politics. They argued that the law is race-neutral and contains many more categories of qualifying ID than was allowed under a previously approved 2013 voter ID law that was struck down years ago.

The lawyers also said the General Assembly had legitimate state interests in building voter confidence in elections and preventing voter fraud. Still, nationwide voter identity fraud is rare.

State NAACP President Deborah Dicks Maxwell called Thursday's decision “deeply disappointing and ignores the real and documented barriers” that voter ID laws have on certain voters. No decision has been made on whether to appeal the ruling.

Even with the federal litigation, the 2018 voter ID law has been carried out since the 2023 municipal elections, after the state Supreme Court upheld the law in a separate lawsuit. Those elections have included the March 3 primary — nearly all of its results were certified on Wednesday.

In her 134-page decision and order, Biggs, who was nominated to the court by President Barack Obama, said evidence in the trial record did suggest the burden to obtain IDs fell more on Black and Hispanic voters. As a result, a disparate number of racial minority voters would be among thousands who will not possess the required ID on Election Day, and ultimately “for many their vote will not count when the election is certified.”

Biggs said the state's history of race-based discrimination and voter suppression favors a finding that the law was enacted with discriminatory intent. But she wrote that previous rulings — including one from an federal appeals court panel earlier in the case — requires "this Court to assign less weight to the historical background” and “almost impenetrable deference to the presumption” that lawmakers approved the law in good faith.

Biggs had previously issued in 2019 a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the 2018 law, saying it was tainted because the 2013 voter ID law was struck down on similar grounds of racial bias.

But the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed her decision, writing that she had put too much emphasis on the past conduct of the General Assembly when evaluating the 2018 law.

So based on the “preliminary injunction record, the limited evidence presented at trial, and the arguments of counsel,” the court "concludes that it is compelled by controlling case law” to side with legislative leaders and the state elections board, Biggs wrote Thursday.

North Carolina law offers free ID cards for voting at county election offices statewide and at the Division of Motor Vehicles. People lacking photo ID for the polls should have their votes count if they fill out an exception form or bring in their ID to election officials before the final tallies.

In the separate state court lawsuit, the 2018 law was struck down initially. But when the state Supreme Court flipped from a Democratic to a Republican majority, the justices agreed to revisit the matter and proceeded to uphold the law.

Thirty-six states have laws requesting or requiring identification at the polls, 23 of which seek photo ID, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

FILE - Sasha Dix holds his, "I voted," sticker after voting at T.C. Roberson High School on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, in Asheville, N.C. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, File)