Chris Gotterup leads the field after the opening round of the Phoenix Open, firing an 8-under 63.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Gotterup was sizzling at the front, world number one and two-time champion Scottie Scheffler struggled to a two-over round to trail tied 89th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The round was fueled by a scorching back nine, where Gotterup posted a 30 with four birdies and an eagle to separate himself from the pack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In two starts this season, Gotterup won the Sony Open in Hawaii and finished T18 at the Farmers Insurance Open<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trailing Gotterup by two strokes is Matt Fitzpatrick at 6-under after matching the TPC Scottsdale back-nine single-round scoring record with a 29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seven players previously recorded a 29 on the back nine, most recently Scheffler in 2022, who went on to win the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fitzpatrick played his first 16 holes bogey free before bogeying Nos. 8 and 9<\/p>\n\n\n\n Behind them, the leaderboard is already stacked, with four players tied for third at 5-under as the tournament heads into Friday with plenty still up for grabs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Thorbjornsen is T3 at five-under and sits inside the top five after 18 holes for the fifth time in his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Making his second appearance in the Phoenix Open after finishing T36 in 2025, Denmark\u2019s Nicolai H\u00f8jgaardis tied with Thorbjornsen after opening with a bogey-free 66.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his Phoenix Open debut, Pierceson Coody is also at T3. Coody, who finished tied second at last week’s Farmers Insurance Open, is one of three players to finish inside the top 25 in each of the first three events of the 2026 season. The other two are Ryan Gerard and Kim Si Woo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final player in the pack is Sam Stevens, who recorded a bogey-free 66 with three birdies and an eagle on the par-5 13th.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n 2016 and 2017 winner Hideki Matsuyama is the best of the former champions, tied 13th<\/sup> in three-under.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chris Gotterup leads the field after the opening round of the Phoenix Open, firing an 8-under 63.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Gotterup was sizzling at the front, World number one and two-time champion Scottie Scheffler struggled to a two-over round to trail tied 89th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The round was fueled by a scorching back nine, where Gotterup posted a 30 with four birdies and an eagle to separate himself from the pack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In two starts this season, Gotterup won the Sony Open in Hawaii and finished T18 at the Farmers Insurance Open<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trailing Gotterup by two strokes is Matt Fitzpatrick at 6-under after matching the TPC Scottsdale back-nine single-round scoring record with a 29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seven players previously recorded a 29 on the back nine, most recently Scheffler in 2022, who went on to win the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fitzpatrick played his first 16 holes bogey free before bogeying Nos. 8 and 9<\/p>\n\n\n\n Behind them, the leaderboard is already stacked, with four players tied for third at 5-under as the tournament heads into Friday with plenty still up for grabs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Thorbjornsen is T3 at five-under and sits inside the top five after 18 holes for the fifth time in his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Making his second appearance in the Phoenix Open after finishing T36 in 2025, Denmark\u2019s Nicolai H\u00f8jgaardis tied with Thorbjornsen after opening with a bogey-free 66.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his Phoenix Open debut, Pierceson Coody is also at T3. Coody, who finished tied second at last week’s Farmers Insurance Open, is one of three players to finish inside the top 25 in each of the first three events of the 2026 season. The other two are Ryan Gerard and Kim Si Woo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final player in the pack is Sam Stevens, who recorded a bogey-free 66 with three birdies and an eagle on the par-5 13th.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n 2016 and 2017 winner Hideki Matsuyama is the best of the former champions, tied 13th<\/sup> in three-under.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2018 winner Gary Woodland is tied 27th\/-2), 2024 winner Nick Taylor (T56\/E), 2019 winner Rickie Fowler (T56\/E), 2020 winner Webb Simpson (T76\/+1), 2015 and 2021 winner Brooks Koepka (T116\/+4).2018 winner Gary Woodland is tied 27th\/-2), 2024 winner Nick Taylor (T56\/E), 2019 winner Rickie Fowler (T56\/E), 2020 winner Webb Simpson (T76\/+1), 2015 and 2021 winner Brooks Koepka (T116\/+4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first round was suspended due to darkness with nine players yet to complete their round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PARTIAL First-Round Leaderboard<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chris Gotterup leads the field after the opening round of the Phoenix Open, firing an 8-under 63. While<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Gotterup.jpg",2002,1127,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Gotterup-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Gotterup-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Gotterup-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Gotterup-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Gotterup-1536x865.jpg",1536,865,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Gotterup.jpg",2002,1127,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Gotterup-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Gotterup-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Gotterup.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9063"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9066,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9063\/revisions\/9066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Pos.<\/td> Player<\/td> Total<\/td><\/tr> 1<\/td> Chris Gotterup<\/td> 63 (-8)<\/td><\/tr> 2<\/td> Matt Fitzpatrick<\/td> 65 (-6)<\/td><\/tr> T3<\/td> Michael Thorbjornsen<\/td> 66 (-5)<\/td><\/tr> <\/td> Nicolai H\u00f8jgaard<\/td> 66 (-5)<\/td><\/tr> <\/td> Pierceson Coody<\/td> 66 (-5)<\/td><\/tr> <\/td> Sam Stevens<\/td> 66 (-5)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"