McCarthy: 60 at Travelers
Denny McCarthy came inches from shooting a 59, settling for a 10-underpar 60 on Thursday for the lowest round of his PGA Tour career, and Rory McIlroy made his first ace on tour on a day of low numbers at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn.
Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott also made runs at golf ’s magic number — on a course where Jim Furyk set the PGA Tour record with a 58 in 2016 — but faltered late. Each shot 62.
Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, finished with a 7-under 63.
The 30-year-old McCarthy, who started on the back nine, had five birdies on his first six holes and five more coming in.
The Maryland native’s last birdie came on the 403-yard ninth hole after his 169-yard approach shot skirted just left of the cup, eliciting a gasp from the crowd. He holed a 5-footer for birdie.
“I felt positive from the second I woke up this morning,” said McCarthy, who is winless on tour despite several close calls, including at the Memorial this year. “So, everything just kind of clicked today. It was obviously just a great day.”
Scott was at 9 under when his second shot at No. 17 found the lake. He made double bogey, then finished with a 20footer for birdie on No. 18.
“It’s a shame, but it’s hard to be disappointed with a 62,” the 42-year-old Australian said.
Shane Lowry, Eric Cole, and 2019 champion Chez Reavie each finished with bogey-free 64s.
Eight players shot 65, and 91 players broke par on a day where the expected rain and wind held off and the sun broke through in the afternoon.
Bradley got things started in the morning with birdies on his first five holes. Those included a 75-foot downhill putt from just off the green on the 17 th hole, which kept gaining speed, but hit the flagstick and dropped.
The TPC River Highlands is known for low scoring. In addition to Furyk’s 58, Patrick Cantlay shot 60 as an amateur in 2011 and Mackenzie Hughes matched it in 2000. Hughes withdrew with an illness Thursday after shooting 76.
Bradley, a 37-year-old who attended Hopkinton High, said he could not help but think about matching Furyk’s record.
“When I made that really long putt on 17, and it could have gone in the water, I don’t know, it crossed my mind,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking about it a lot, but I certainly was going to try and do it.”
The shot of the day came from McIlroy, whose tee shot on the 214-yard eighth landed just below the hole and rolled into the cup. McIlroy, the runnerup at last week’s US Open, finished with a 2-under 68.
It was McIlroy’s second ace in competition. He made one in Abu Dhabi on the European tour in 2015.
Wyndham Clark, fresh off his US Open win, shot 68.
Clark hit a spectator in the head after slicing his tee shot on the par-3 fifth hole. He holed a 16-foot putt to save par.
The Travelers Championship became one of the PGA Tour’s designated events this year, with the purse raised from $8.3 to $20 million.
LPGA — Lee-Anne Pace of South Africa made a two-putt birdie on the final hole in fading daylight for a 5-under-par 66 and the first-round lead in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Springfiel, N.J..
Two-time major winner Brooke Henderson of Canada and Ruoning Yin and Xiyi Lin of China were a shot back as Baltusrol’s historic Lower Course yielded 16 under-par rounds to the field of 156 players.
Pace, 42, won her lone LPGA Tour title in 2014 in China. She’s playing in her second event in the US this year.
World No. 1 Jin Young Ko and Lilia Vu, the only two-time winners on the LPGA Tour this year, shot 72. No. 5 Minjee Lee also had a 72. Second-ranked Nelly Korda and No. 9 Lexi Thompson each shot 76.