Patrick Cantlay fired a 10-under 62 on Thursday to tie the course record and take a two-stroke lead after the first round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Henrik Norlander sits tied in second place with Akshay Bhatia at 8 under at Pebble Beach, Calif.
Jordan Spieth and Nate Lashley are three strokes back after matching 65s, and four players are tied for sixth — Will Gordon, Brian Stuard, Tom Lewis and Mark Hubbard — four strokes behind Cantlay.
Gordon played his round at Spyglass Hill Golf Club. All of the players ahead of him on the leaderboard played the Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Cantlay came out on fire, birdying his first three holes en route to seven on the front nine. He completed his flawless round with three more on the back nine against zero bogeys.
Cantlay tied the Pebble Beach course record set by Tom Kite in 1983 and David Duval 24 years ago. Two of the three lowest scores of Cantlay’s career have come in his last two rounds.
“I feel like I’m in a groove right now,” Cantlay said. “I think we got Pebble in pretty much ideal conditions and I don’t think it’s going to be like that the rest of the week. The greens were good this morning and receptive, and so I hit a lot of good shots just right out of the gate and made everything.”
Norlander carded nine birdies against just one bogey on the par 3 12th, and sponsor exemption Bhatia hit all 18 greens in regulation, becoming the first to do so in a round at Pebble Beach since 2008 and sixth since 1985.
“Hitting 18 greens out here with the greens being small helps,” Bhatia said.
Spieth opened with a 7-under 65 on the strength of an eagle on the par 4 10th hole. Last week Spieth tied his career-low score and finished T4 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
“Pebble presents a lot of precision and you’ve got to really trust what you’re doing,” Spieth said. “When the conditions were going to be easier today, you needed to kind of shoot a low round and make sure you’re in this tournament because it’s going to be a grind the next few days.”
Phil Mickelson opened with a 74 at Spyglass, and defending champion Nick Taylor shot an opening round 3 under, tied for 32nd.
–Field Level Media