San Francisco (United States) (AFP) – Ryo Hisatsune fired a career-best 10-under par 62 on Thursday to take a one-stroke first-round lead in the PGA Tour Pebble Beach Pro-Am as defending champion Rory McIlroy and top-ranked Scottie Scheffler left themselves work to do. Hisatsune nabbed 10 birdies without a bogey in ideal conditions on Pebble Beach Golf Links, one of two courses in use over the first two rounds. He was one stroke in front of Sam Burns — who carded seven of his nine birdies on the back nine in a nine-under 63 at Pebble Beach — and Keegan Bradley, who had an eagle and seven birdies at Spyglass Hill.
The 23-year-old from Okayama, who won the 2023 Open de France on the DP World Tour, has been stepping it up in pursuit of a first US PGA Tour title. After a tie for second behind runaway winner Justin Rose at Torrey Pines, Hisatsune held the halfway lead at the Phoenix Open last week and played in the final group on Sunday on the way to a share of 10th. He said the past two weeks had boosted his confidence in his putter, and it certainly showed as he needed just 22 putts, gaining more than five strokes on the field on the greens.
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“(I’m) feeling much more comfortable playing these greens,” said Hisatsune, who followed his four-foot birdie putt at the second with a 29-footer at the third and a 39-footer at the fourth. After birdies at the sixth, seventh, ninth and 11th, he capped his round with three straight birdies. Chris Gotterup, who has soared to fifth in the world with wins at the Sony Open and in Phoenix, headed a group on eight-under par, launching his round with six straight birdies and following his lone bogey of the day with three more.
“I was just kind of coasting along,” Gotterup said of his hot start. “You don’t really realize it in the moment and then when you look up you’re like, wow, I’m six-under through six — that’s nice.” The streak followed three closing birdies on the way to a playoff win over Hideki Matsuyama in Phoenix on Sunday. “I guess nine in a row would be my streak,” he said. “Nine’s pretty good.” He was joined on 64 by Tony Finau and Patrick Rodgers, with another four players sharing seventh on 65.
Meanwhile, neither McIlroy nor Scheffler took full advantage of the perfect scoring conditions. Northern Ireland star McIlroy was motoring with a hole-out eagle from a greenside bunker and three birdies in his first nine holes at Spyglass Hill. He was six-under after a birdie at his 11th hole of the day, the par-four second, but he had three-putt double bogeys at the par-three third and par-three fifth on the way to a four-under 68.
Scheffler was at even par after an erratic round that included three birdies and three bogeys. The American hit nine of 14 fairways in regulation and 11 of 18 greens, getting himself back to even par with a birdie at the par-five 18th, where he got up and down from a greenside bunker. “I feel like typically I’m good at scoring and today I felt like I didn’t score at all,” Scheffler said. “I actually feel like I’m playing pretty well, just one of those days.”
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