MCKINNEY: Matt Wallace was relegated to watching the Masters amid a self-described “terrible” season when he found himself pondering what makes some of the best golfers in the world so good.

Asked if Scottie Scheffler was among the players he was watching, Wallace stumbled over his words just a bit.

“Well, him, but, I mean, so good that it’s difficult to take a lot from him because he’s playing unbelievable golf,” Wallace said. “It’s not as realistic for everyone else out there.”

Well, maybe Wallace can take advantage of the world No. 1 sitting out his hometown tournament awaiting the birth of his first child.

The one-time PGA Tour winner shot an 8-under 63 for a one-shot lead over seven players in the first round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson on Thursday.

Taiga Semikawa, a 23-year-old from Japan playing on a sponsor exemption, settled for 64 after a three-putt par on the par-5 18th just before a rain-delayed round with preferred lies was suspended by darkness with nine players on the course.

Taylor Pendrith, Alex Noren, Chesson Hadley, Jake Knapp, Davis Riley and Kelly Kraft also were at 7 under at TPC Craig Ranch, just north of Scheffler’s hometown of Dallas.

Defending champion Jason Day was in a large group trailing by three after he and Jordan Spieth, the biggest local favorite with Scheffler absent, struggled down the stretch playing in the same threesome. Spieth was 3 under.

Brad Hopfinger, a 35-year-old making his PGA Tour debut, was two shots behind Wallace along with Ben Kohles, Alex Smalley and Hayden Buckley.

Wallace, who has missed the cut five times and doesn’t have a top-10 finish in 11 tournaments this year, birdied five of the first six holes and capped his bogey-free, career-low round with a tap-in birdie on the 18th.

The 34-year-old Englishman has found himself taking mental notes about the likes of young Swede Ludvig Aberg, who played at Texas Tech but is among 27 of the top 30 players skipping the Nelson with a $20 million signature event, the Wells Fargo Championship, and the PGA Championship coming the next two weeks.

“What I’m seeing from a lot of them, especially the younger guys, younger than me — I’m not too old, but younger than me — they’re so focused in their shot and not worrying about the outcome or what’s out there,” said Wallace, who won in the Dominican Republic a little more than a year ago.

Day and Spieth both stumbled with bogeys on the par-5 fifth hole, their 14th of the day. Day had two birdies and a bogey over the final four holes, including the par-5 ninth. Spieth could only par the finishing hole and was 1 over on the par 5s.

“It’s a very gettable golf course,” Spieth said. “I just played the easy holes poorly. That was kind of the story of the day.”

Spieth is still seeking his first victory in his 12th appearance at event in which he debuted by contending as a 16-year-old amateur in 2010. Day got his first PGA Tour win when Spieth was making those headlines, then ended a five-year victory drought last year.

The 30-year-old Spieth missed last year’s Nelson because of a wrist injury. He was the runner-up in 2022.

Rain delayed the start by an hour and remains in the forecast through the weekend. If the rain stays away, players could have minimal wind on a soft course that has surrendered among the most birdies on tour in its four years as the home of the Nelson.

“I’m not out of it, but certainly you want to stay within two or three of the lead as you get through the first couple rounds,” Spieth said. “Doesn’t look like we’re going to get a ton of wind or anything, so I am going to have to really make it up, because there will be a lot of guys shooting low scores.”

Raul Pereda aced the 236-yard seventh hole and shot 68, as did Kris Kim in the tour debut of the 16-year-old from England whose South Korean-born mom played on the LPGA Tour in the 1990s.

Playing on a sponsor exemption in the first year of the Nelson carrying the name of the South Korean company CJ Group, Kim chipped in for eagle at No. 9 to finish an up-and-down round that included five birdies and four bogeys.

“First couple holes the nerves were definitely there, but as we got on, it was just playing golf,” said Kim, who went undefeated in the Junior Ryder Cup last year and is the first amateur sponsored by CJ Group.

ROME: An imposing stadium in a major foreign capital did nothing to stop Bayer Leverkusen’s record unbeaten march across Europe.

The freshly crowned first-time Bundesliga champions silenced the Stadio Olimpico with a 2-0 win at Roma in the first leg of the Europa League semifinals on Thursday to extend their unbeaten streak to 47 matches across all competitions.

No club from Europe’s five biggest leagues — in Germany, England, Italy, Spain and France — has had a longer unbeaten streak.

“We take things game by game and we are not thinking about being unbeaten,” Leverkusen midfielder Amine Adli said. “We are not thinking about making history or things like that — that’s why we are playing like this and the team is strong. We just want to enjoy ourselves.”

The result also marked a measure of revenge for Leverkusen — since Roma had beaten the German club in this exact same stage last season for their last defeat in Europe.

“We know it is not easy to play here,” Adli said. “We played a very serious game.”

Leverkusen’s last loss across all competitions was a 3-0 defeat to Bochum in the final round of last season’s Bundesliga nearly a year ago — on May 27, 2023.

Roma were dangerous with an early header off the crossbar from Romelu Lukaku. But then Leverkusen scored on the counterattack seven minutes later.

A failed back pass from Roma right back Rick Karsdorp under pressure from Alex Grimaldo on the left flank resulted in a 3-on-1 for Leverkusen. Grimaldo then passed to Florian Wirtz, who calmly slotted in from the center of the area.

Midfielder Robert Andrich added another goal for Leverkusen in the 73rd with a long-range shot — just as Roma had been threatening on the other end.

In the other semifinal, Atalanta drew 1-1 at Marseille.

The second legs will be held next Thursday, with the final to be held in Dublin on May 22.

Leverkusen has won only one European trophy: the 1988 UEFA Cup, which was then predecessor to the Europa League. Its only other European final came in the 2002 Champions League, won by Real Madrid.

Roma are aiming to qualify for their third consecutive European final after winning the Europa Conference League in 2022 and losing last year’s Europa League final to Sevilla in a penalty shootout.

Daniele De Rossi replaced Jose Mourinho as Roma’s coach in January.

The Giallorossi hadn’t lost a European knockout stage game at home in seven years — since getting beat 1-0 by Villarreal in the 2017 Europa League.

Roma fans’ pre-match choreography across one entire end of the stadium spelled out the word “AVANZIAMO” (“Let’s advance”). But Roma now face an uphill challenge to eliminate Leverkusen, who haven’t lost all season.

Marseille-Atalanta

Marseille’s players were treated to an ovation at Stade Velodrome from their hard-to-please fans after the draw with Atalanta — who eliminated Liverpool in the quarterfinals.

Atalanta took the lead in the 11th when striker Gianluca Scamacca hit a low shot into the bottom corner after reading Teun Koopmeiners’ clever pass.

But Marseille equalized in the 20th when central defender Chancel Mbemba collected Geoffrey Kondogbia’s pass and his fine curling shot from the edge of the penalty area hit the left post and rolled in.

The second half was almost entirely one-way traffic as Marseille pushed forward. Winger Ismaïla Sarr had a goal disallowed for an offside following a video review and substitute Azzedine Ounahi hit the crossbar with a curling shot in the 73rd.

Europa Conference League

In the third-tier competition semifinal first legs, Aston Villa’s hopes of reaching a first European final since 1982 were diminished with a 4-2 home loss to Olympiakos, the first defeat at Villa Park in the European campaign for the last English club in European competitions.

Villa came back from 2-0 down but were not able to answer Ayoub El Kaabi’s third goal of the game. The striker converted from the penalty spot to make it 3-2 for his eighth goal in the competition this season. Santiago Hezze finished the scoring before Douglas Luiz wasted a penalty for Villa.

Olympiakos are aiming to play on home soil in the May 29 final in Athens.

Earlier, El Kaabi scored twice within a half hour put the visitors in charge.

In Florence, substitute M’Bala Nzola netted in stoppage time for last-year’s runner-up Fiorentina to secure a 3-2 victory over 10-man Club Brugge.

Brugge’s Raphael Onyedika was sent off after receiving his second yellow card on the hour when the Italian club was 2-1 up but the visitors equalized through Igor Thiago to complete a counter just minutes later.

Riccardo Sottil put Fiorentina ahead early on, Brugge captain Hans Vanaken answered with an equalizer from the penalty spot and then Andrea Belotti restored the lead for Fiorentina on a rebound.