SNEDEKER FIRES RARE 59 TO TAKE GREENSBORO LEAD
WASHINGTON: Brandt Snedeker became only the ninth golfer in US PGA Tour history to fire a 59 on Thursday, his 11-under effort putting him in the lead in the irst round of the Wyndham Championship.
Snedeker rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt at his final hole, the par-4 ninth, to join one of golf’s most exclusive clubs.
“To roll that putt in was such a cool feeling,” said Snedeker, whose 10 birdies, six pars and one eagle virtually erased any memory of an opening bogey at the 10th hole.
“I got so excited, goosebumps... jumping around like I won the golf tournament and it’s Thursday morning,” Snedeker said. “I’ll have to get the emotions in check this afternoon, get back to reality.” Snedeker finished with a four-shot lead over Ryan Moore and John Oda at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina.
He improved on his career best of 61 -- which he has shot three times on tour -- and came up one shot shy of Jim Furyk’s record low of 58 for a single PGA Tour round, achieved at the 2016 Travelers Championship.
The 37-year-old American, whose most recent of eight PGA triumphs came in 2016 at Torrey Pines, made an inauspicious start when he went way left off the 10th tee beyond a cart path on his way to an opening bogey.
Snedeker turned things around with 26-foot birdie putts at the par-4 13th and 14th holes, missed a 30-foot eagle putt at the par-515th but tapped in for birdie, then completed a run of four consecutive birdies with a 14-foot putt at the par-3 16th.
He ran off three birdies in a row after making the turn, all from within 5 1/2 feet, and sandwiched two more short birdie putts at the par-5 fifth and par -3 seventh around his greatest shot of them all: a hole out from 176 yards out in the fairway for eagle at the sixth.
But at the par-4 eighth, Snedeker missed a six-foot birdie putt and tapped in for par.
The 59 broke the course and tournament record of 60 set in 2016 by South Korea’s Kim Si-woo.
S ne de ker also fired the first sub -60 round to open with a bogey.
It was the US PGA’S first 59 since Canada’s Adam Hadwin at last year’s Careerbuilder Challenge.
Other 59s were fired by Al Geiberger in 1977, Chip Beck in 1991, David Duval in 1999, Paul Goydos in 2010, Australian Stuart Appleby in 2010, Furyk in 2013 and Justin Thomas in 2017.
Only five players have gone on to win the tournament in which they shot 59, and Snedeker knew he had work to remain on top come Sunday.
Behind Moore and Oda, seven players were tied on 64 and a group of nine on 65 included US Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk.
SALAS LEADS
American Lizette Salas fired a course record-equalling 10-under par 62 on Thursday to take a two-shot first-round lead over Japan’s Nasa Hataoka and Angel Yin in the LPGA Indy Championship.
Salas birdied the last three holes at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Club course in indianapolis, indiana, two of them after waiting through a weather delay.
With an eagle and eight birdies total, her career best round put her two ahead of two 19-year-olds -- American Angel Yin and Japan’s Nasa Hataoka.
Sweden’s Caroline Hedwall, South Korean Ko Jin-young and Americans Danielle Kang and Jane Park shared fourth, a further stroke back on 65 and New Zealand star Lydia Ko headed a group of six players on 66.
Salas got going early with an eagle at the par-five second hole. She birdied three in a row from the fourth through the sixth and bagged two more birdies at 12 and 14.
After a birdie at 16, she was on the green and looking at a birdie putt when play was halted for more than an hour.
Yin exploded out of the gate with eight birdies in her first nine holes, her eight-under 28 on the front nine one short of the LPGA’S nine-hole record. He needed just nine putts on her front nine and came home in even par with one more birdie and a bogey in her eight-under 64.
Hataoka had eight birdies without a bogey for her share of second.