Blixt blisters back nine to lead John Deere
Jonas Blixt heated up on the back nine at TPC Deere Run on Thursday, playing his last six holes in six-under par for a nine-under 62 and a two-shot lead over Grayson Murray in the first round of the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Ill.
Murray was eight under through 13 holes but stalled from there. He bogeyed his final hole and shot 64. Cameron Young, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 19, also closed with a bogey and was part of a big group three shots back.
The 39-year-old Blixt, a three-time winner on tour, has only conditional status and is making his first PGA Tour start since the Byron Nelson in May. He spent most of the last six weeks working at home with his swing coach and missed the cut last week on the Korn Ferry Tour, but he felt like something clicked on the range Tuesday.
“I kind of came to the point in my season where it’s so late that I don’t feel any pressure anymore really and just kind of go out and swing at it,” Blixt said. “Golf is weird. Like, tomorrow I can shoot 100 I feel like, but today was a great day.”
Blixt shot seven-under 29 on the back nine — his first time breaking 30 for nine holes on tour — and the 62 matches his career-best round. He drove the green on the 360-yard, par-four 14th hole and made a 43-foot putt for eagle. On the parfour 18th, he hit his approach from a fairway bunker within five feet for a closing birdie.
Blixt last won in 2017 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, paired with Cameron Smith in the team event. He had back surgery two years later and has struggled since. He entered the week ranked 842nd in the world.
“I played a lot of years on tour, and I’m very thankful for it, and I got to play with a lot of good players, a lot of good golf courses, a lot of good sponsors,” Blixt said. “Sometimes you just have to be grateful for what you have and what you experience as well and not always think about what could have been. So I kind of lean on that a little bit. Obviously I’m still hungry. I’m not saying that I’m quitting.”
Murray’s 64 was his best round on tour in three years.
Lin, Kim atop tough U.S. Women’s Open
Xiyu Janet Lin and Hyo Joo Kim had rounds that matched the beauty at Pebble Beach, each of them with a four-under 68 to share the lead in the first U.S. Women’s Open held at one of America’s most famous courses.
With only mild wind and a marine layer over the Monterey Peninsula that kept temperatures in the 50s, this was the gentle version of Pebble Beach. This also is a U.S. Open, and it didn’t take much to take a toll, especially at the top.
The top four players in the world ranking were a combined 22-over par. Jin Young Ko, the No. 1 player in women’s golf, and Lilia Vu, who won the first LPGA major of the year, each shot 79.
Irvine’s Rose Zhang, the 20-year-old Stanford sensation who won in her pro debut last month, wasted a good start with a double bogey on the eighth hole that slowed her momentum. She didn’t make a birdie the rest of the way, and had to chip on her last four holes — one of them from the wrong side of the green on the par-three 17th just as Gary Woodland did in 2019 when he won the U.S. Open.
Lin began her round on the tough par-four 10th and saved par on four of her opening five holes before holing an eight-foot birdie putt on 15. Lin’s lone bogey came when she failed to get up-and-down from short of a bunker on No. 9.
“At the beginning, putting definitely save me,” said Lin, who took only 25 putts and was leading the field in the key putting statistic. “Making those short putts really kind of boosted my confidence, making me feel more comfortable to attack when I needed to.”
Irish amateur Aine Donegan didn’t get her clubs until Tuesday — only to find her driver damaged — and had a 69 that included a wedge she holed out from 96 yards on the 15th.
She was in a large group one shot behind that included the more notable Irish player, Leona Maguire, who birdied the 18th.
Natthakritta Vongtaveelap of Thailand made it through only five holes when she was disqualified for her caddie using a rangefinder.
The United States Golf Assn. said the Thai’s caddie used the distance-measuring device on multiple occasions. She was even par through the 14th hole — having started on No. 10 — when she was disqualified.
Koepka calls out teammate Wolff
Brooks Koepka has accused LIV Golf teammate Matthew Wolff of quitting on the course, telling Sports Illustrated he has “basically given up on him.”
Wolff, who won in his third start as a pro on the PGA Tour in 2019, joined LIV Golf last year and plays for Smash, the team captained by Koepka. He has finished out of the top 30 against 48man fields in his last five events, including a withdrawal.
“I mean, when you quit on your round, you give up and stuff like that, that’s not competing,” Koepka told Sports Illustrated.