AT&T Byron Nelson opening round: Noh overcomes broken driver and shoots 11-under 60

Posted on by

This morning was the opening round of this year’s AT&T Byron Nelson Golf Tournament at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. In the opening round, South Korea’s Seung-yul Noh overcame an equipment malfunction and went low with a 60, 11-below the course par 71.

Noh noticed partway through the round that his driver was misbehaving. After an errant tee shot at the par-4 12th, a well planned draw that ended up landing well right of the fairway, Noh closely examined his driver head and noticed a crack.

He was not allowed to replace the club at the time. Under Model Local Rule G-9, a club is not replaceable solely because of a crack. “There needed to be some more subsequent damage other than just a hairline crack,” Chief Referee John Mutch said.

That came on the par-4 13th, So Noh continued playing with his cracked driver. Noh then hit the driver significantly left on the par-4 13th, and then took a provisional, which went even further left. From there, he conferred with Mutch, who determined “significant damage” occurred, finally allowing Noh to take the driver out of play.

Noh wrapped up the round with 11-under 60, which was enough to tie the course record and set his own personal best round on the PGA TOUR.

The esteemed PGA Tour event, which was named after legendary golfer Byron Nelson, has been running since the year 1944. It is also one of only two PGA tour events which are named after legendary PGA professionals, the other being the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Scottie Scheffler, who is currently the second-rated golfer in the world and was last year’s winner of the Masters Tournament, went into the tournament vying for a world-number-one ranking.

Scheffler was rated as the expert’s favourite going into the tournament, but he appears to have faded from the experts’ picks at during the opening round. SportsLine expert Sia Nejad has faded him slightly and is now banking on somebody else as this year’s champion. The Dallas resident and former University of Texas star could still assume the World No.1 position, so he will have some motivation to win; but his past two showings since the RBC Heritage event have been some of his worst showings of the year so far.

The second expert pick for the tournament was USA’s Jordan Spieth, but unfortunately he had to withdraw from the tournament with a wrist injury. That means that the next in line for second-favourite is England’s Tyrell Hatton, who recently had a remarkable showing at last week’s Wells Fargo Championship in North Carolina, finishing in a tie for 3rd place.

The event will be running through Sunday, May 14th.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *