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Seung-yul Noh overcame an equipment issue to shoot an impressive 11-under 60 on Thursday at TPC Craig Ranch to take the three strokes lead in the opening round of the AT&T Byron Nelson.
On the par-4 12th hole, Noh noticed that his driver's head was broken after hitting a tee shot.
"I’m trying to hit a draw and it was a pretty solid hit but it went 70 yards right. I was like, where did this come from?" Noh told PGA Tour after completing his round.
However, as per the Model Local Rule G-9, the crack wasn't sufficient to get the driver replaced. As per the tournament's Chief referee John Mutch, it needed more than just a crack to be replaced.
The replacement came on the following hole when the shot on the par-4 13th damaged the driver further.
"There was definitely separation in the metal on the face, and there was clear concavity in the face. Concavity renders a club face non-conforming. So the club at that point was unfit for play," Mutch was quoted as per the PGA Tout.
Noh got the driver head on the 16th hole but he didn't need that to birdie the 14th and 15th.
He added:
"After making 16 long par putt, I talked to James Hahn, I say, ‘Oh! What's going on? What happened today?’ He said, 'Just don't think about it. Just go play, you know? No idea. Just go make everything today,'" said Noh in his post round press conference.
The 31-year-old golfer was surprised by his performance and summarized his day as 'amazing.'
He said:
"Everything was going amazing, like not perfect, it's going just amazing.
"Missed two drivers because the crack for the driver had except two shots of the tee through the green. Everything going perfectly today. I'm really happy for my career low on the PGA tour. And then one shot missed to the 59, but I'm really happy with that."
Seung-yul Noh leads by three strokes after the first round at AT&T Byron Nelson
Noh's 11-under 60 on the first day helped him to take the three-shot lead after the first round at AT&T Byron Nelson. He holed 9 birdies and an eagle in his bogey-free first round to get an edge over Australia's Adam Scott and China's Zecheng Dou.
Scott also dug in nine birdies but a bogey on the par-4 6th meant he had to finish at 8-under 63. Dou also shot 63 on Thursday, which started with a bogey but that was the only stroke he gained as he went on to shoot 9 birdies in the next 17 holes.
World No. 2 Scottie Scheffler is at 7-under, sitting in fourth place along with Luke List, Richy Werenski, Scott Piercy, Ryan Palmer, and Jason Day.
Mackenzie Hughes, David Micheluzzi, Sam Stevens, Doc Redman, Sean O'Hair, Si Woo Kim, and Doug Ghim carded 6-under to finish the day at T-4.
While many players carded quite low scores at TPC Craig Ranch on Thursday, two-time-defending champion K.H. Lee had a disappointing day at the office as he shot 1-under 70 to finish the day at T-89.
