Munoz shoots 60 at Byron Nelson
Kitayama has a 73
MCKINNEY, TEXAS » Sebastian Munoz was standing in the middle of the fairway on the 18th hole thinking about his shot at a 59 in the first round of the Byron Nelson. After missing the green, he became the first player in PGA Tour history with two rounds of 60 in the same season.
Munoz made a nice flop shot from the right of the green, then holed the 12foot birdie putt to wrap up his 12-under round that included an impressive surge after his only bogey.
“I mean, I wanted to give myself a chance . ... It was 250 (yards) to the pin into the wind. I kind of wanted to hit like a bullet, like a little draw,” Munoz said. “I knew if I want to hit it close, had to be a fade, softlanded shot. I tried to do that. Overdid it and ended up with a 60, which is really good around here.”
Good for a four-stroke
lead over defending champion K.H. Lee, Mito Pereira, Peter Malnati and Justin Lower. Kyle Wilshire, a Monday qualifier making only his third career PGA Tour start, was alone in sixth after a 65 that included a near hole-in-one when he banged the flagstick with his tee shot at the 230-yard, par-3 seventh.
Chico’s Kurt Kitayama opened with a 73 and is tied for 128th.
Lee won the 2021 Nelson
at 25-under par when his low round was a 65. He played in the same group Thursday with Scottie Scheffler and Justin Spieth, the major champions from Dallas whose first PGA Tour events were both as teenagers at the Nelson when it was still at TPC Four Seasons.
Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, and Spieth both shot 67. So did 11thranked Dustin Johnson, who started on the back nine with five birdies and then had four more, along with four bogeys.
It was the first individual start for Scheffler since winning the Masters five weeks ago. Three-time major champ Spieth, ranked No. 9, played for the first time since his RBC Heritage victory the week after the Masters.
Munoz was 2-under after a one-stroke penalty because of a wayward tee shot at the eighth hole. The 29-year-old Colombian, who also lives in the Dallas area, then went 6 under in the next four holes. He eagled the ninth and 12th holes and had 3-foot birdies on both holes in between those par 5s.
After just missing a long birdie chance on No. 13, he made four birdies over the last five holes — the longest of those putts being the last one after only his second missed green in the round. KORN FERRY TOUR » Former Chico State standout Brandon Harkins shot a 70 in the Visit Knoxville Open in Tennessee and is tied for 93rd.