Ryo HIsatsune
Ryo Hisatstune fired a stunning opening round of 10-under 62 to take a one shot lead ahead of Sam Burns and Keegan Bradley at the Pebble Beach Pro-am golf championship.
While Hisatsune fired his career-best round, defending champion Rory McIlroy and top-ranked Scottie Scheffler have plenty of catching up to do.
Hisatsune earned his best career finish on Tour earlier this season with a runner-up at the Farmers Insurance Open and is looking to build on the momentum.
Seeking to become the sixth Japanese player to win on the PGA Tour after Hideki Matsuyama, Shigeki Maruyama, Isao Aoki, Ryuji Imada and Satoshi Kodaira; he carded ten birdies without a bogey in ideal conditions on Pebble Beach Golf Links, one of two courses in use over the first two rounds.
The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am features an 80-player field with no cut; the event is played over two courses (Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course), with amateurs competing alongside professionals the first two rounds, with competition limited to professionals only over the final two rounds at Pebble Beach.
The 2023 Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year on the DP World Tour, is one stroke ahead 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.
Burns is only the second player to shoot sub-30 on the back nine of the event Ken Duke in 1983.
The hottest player on the Tour this season, Chris Gotterup, who 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.
He is tied on 64 with Tony Finau and Patrick Rodgers, with another four players sharing seventh on 65.
Making his season debut, defending champion and World No. 2 McIlroy is tied T28 after he opened with a 4-under 68 at Spyglass Hill Golf Course. The champion has plenty of work to do if he wants to win a season debut title for the fourth time.
McIlroy was motoring picked an 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 his four-under 68.
World No. 1 Scheffler fared even worse, tied T62 with even-par 72. Making his third career appearance at the tournament, he was down one stoke before a birdie at the par-five 18th helped him to finish the day even.
Jordan Spieth, winner here in 2017, was tied 11th on six under.
