Munoz shoots 60 at Byron Nelson
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, soft-landed 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.
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 11th-ranked 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.
TPC Craig Ranch, the second-year home of the Nelson, is about 30 miles north of downtown Dallas and 30 miles east of the University of North Texas in Denton, where Munoz went to school.
LPGA Tour
CLIFTON, N.J. – Madelene Sagstrom
shot a flawless 9-under 63 during a round she felt holes kept getting larger to take one-stroke lead over Megan Khang after the first round of the Cognizant Founders Cup on Thursday.
Nasa Hataoka, who won in Los Angeles in April before taking time off, was third after a 65 on the Upper Montclair Country Club course, roughly 10 miles from New York City.
Bianca Pagdanganan, Amy Yang and Giulia Molinaro were tied for fourth at 66, a shot ahead of group that included Lexi Thompson and Minjee Lee. Twotime defending champion and topranked Jin Young Ko shot a 69.
Sagstrom, a runner-up last year in the Women's British Open, made birdies in batches, finishing with nine in a bogey-free round. The two-time European Solheim Cup from Sweden birdied the first four holes and had another run at Nos. 12-14.
“It was one of those days,” Sagstrom said.
Sagstrom recalled turning to her caddie, Sean Codd, and telling him, everything felt like a tap-in
The round was her best of the season and one shot off her career best of 62 in winning the 2020 Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio. Yuka Saso had the low round on tour this year, a 62 at the LPGA Hondo in Thailand in March.
Khang, who like Sagstrom played in the afternoon, was almost as good, making eight birdies on the course laid bare because of soft, slower-than-normal greens and a lack of wind.
The event, which is being played on its third course since 2019 – the pandemic canceled the 2020 edition, honors the 13 founding members of the LPGA Tour. The field of 144 will be cut to the low 70 and ties after the second round of the 72-hole tournament Friday.
Hataoka ignited her round with a 10foot eagle putt on the par-5 second and added five birdies the rest of the way in posting her fifth straight round in the 60s.
Ko, who finished second at Palos Verdes in the last event, had six birdies and three bogeys – caused by failing to hit the fairways.
Anna Davis, the 16-year-old who won the recent Augusta National Women's Amateur, shot a 70 playing on a sponsor's exemption. She made the cut in the Palos Verdes Championship in California, which was won by Marina Alex.
Alex of nearby Wayne, New Jersey, will have to rally to make the cut after shooting a 74.
PGA Tour Champions
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Steve Stricker shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday to take a two-stroke lead over Miguel Angel Jimenez and Wes Short Jr. after the opening round of the Regions Tradition, the first of five PGA Tour Champions majors.
Stricker, the 2019 champion, closed his bogey-free round with a birdie on No. 18 at Greystone Golf & Country Club. Jimenez, the 2018 winner, started on the 10th tee and broke out of a 10-player logjam at 4 under with a birdie on No. 8.
Short then joined him at 67 with a closing birdie on 18, his sixth along with one bogey.