Alex Noren carded a 10-under 61, his career-low 18-hole score on the PGA Tour, in spite of a bogey at the par-4 5th, to take a two shot lead at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship before play was suspended due to darkness.
“Very happy. I mean, it was quite easy conditions and there’s a lot of wedges out there, but I improved the wedges a lot coming from Japan where I struggled with them, so I’m very, very happy. It was great to get a 10-under. It was a long time ago I had like a really low round, you know, lower than maybe 5, 6 under, so I feel good.
“Worked quite hard over the last two weeks at home as well and working on things that me and my coach [Matt Belsham] have worked on just trying to get a bit more fade bias. Tend to hit more greens like that. I maybe hit the driver OK with the draw as well with it turning both ways, but the irons into the greens get — sort of hit the wrong distances more often, too many gaps and I don’t have the distance control. So here today was — that was pretty much the best I’ve — closest I’ve got to the hole in a very, very long time.
His eleven birdies marks his most in a single round and he tied Taylor Pendrith (R2/2021) for the tournament record 18-hole score.
The Swede seeks a first victory in his 162nd career start on the PGA Tour. He has recorded three top-10 finishes this season.
Vince Whaley posted an 8-under 63, his career-low round on Tour, for a share of second place alongside fellow Americans Robert Garrigus, Dylan Wy and D.J. Trahan.
“It was nothing too fantastic ball-striking wise,” said Whaley, “I just made a lot of 10- to 15-foot putts. The conditions were really good.”
The top 125 in the FedExCup Fall standings thru The RSM Classic will be exempt into all Full-Field events and The Players Championship next season.
Nos. 51-60 in the standings at the conclusion of The RSM Classic will qualify for two Signature Events in 2024 via The Next 10 (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, The Genesis Invitational).
| Pos. | Player | To Par | Thru | R1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Noren | -10 | F | 61 |
| T2 | Vince Whaley | -8 | F | 63 |
| T2 | Robert Garrigus | -8 | F | 63 |
| T2 | Dylan Wu | -8 | F | 63 |
| T2 | D.J. Trahan | -8 | F | 63 |
| T6 | Davis Riley | -7 | F | 64 |
| T6 | Stewart Cink | -7 | F | 64 |
| T6 | Ryan Brehm | -7 | F | 64 |
| T6 | Ryan Gerard | -7 | F | 64 |
| T6 | Satoshi Kodaira | -7 | F | 64 |
| T6 | Austin Smotherman | -7 | F | 64 |
| T6 | D.A. Points | -7 | F | 64 |
| T6 | Matti Schmid | -7 | F | 64 |
| T14 | Kelly Kraft | -6 | F | 65 |
| T14 | Akshay Bhatia | -6 | F | 65 |
| T14 | Ryan Moore | -6 | F | 65 |
| T14 | Kevin Stadler | -6 | F | 65 |
| T14 | Charley Hoffman | -6 | F | 65 |
| T14 | Taylor Pendrith | -6 | F | 65 |
| T14 | Adam Scott | -6 | F | 65 |
| T14 | Brendon Todd | -6 | F | 65 |
| T14 | Doc Redman | -6 | F | 65 |
| T14 | Ben Martin | -6 | F | 65 |
| T14 | Kyle Westmoreland | -6 | F | 65 |
| T14 | Kevin Roy | -6 | 17 | - |
| T26 | Tommy Gainey | -5 | F | 66 |
| T26 | Adam Long | -5 | F | 66 |
| T26 | Greg Koch | -5 | F | 66 |
| T26 | Ryan Armour | -5 | F | 66 |
| T26 | Andrew Landry | -5 | F | 66 |
| T26 | Nico Echavarria | -5 | F | 66 |
| T26 | Lucas Herbert | -5 | F | 66 |
| T33 | Kramer Hickok | -4 | F | 67 |
| T33 | Justin Lower | -4 | F | 67 |
| T33 | Martin Laird | -4 | F | 67 |
| T33 | Camilo Villegas | -4 | F | 67 |
| T33 | Matthias Schwab | -4 | F | 67 |
| T33 | Ryan Palmer | -4 | F | 67 |
| T33 | Andrew Novak | -4 | F | 67 |
| T33 | Brian Gay | -4 | F | 67 |
| T33 | Robert Streb | -4 | F | 67 |
| T33 | Russell Knox | -4 | F | 67 |
| T33 | David Lipsky | -4 | F | 67 |
| T33 | Paul Haley II | -4 | F | 67 |
| T45 | C.T. Pan | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Nick Hardy | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Nick Watney | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Fabián Gómez | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Chris Stroud | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Sean O'Hair | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Tano Goya | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Kyle Wilshire | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Danny Guise | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Brandon Wu | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Scott Piercy | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Austin Cook | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Kyle Stanley | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Mark Hubbard | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Tyson Alexander | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | David Lingmerth | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Alex Smalley | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Peter Kuest | -3 | F | 68 |
| T45 | Fred Biondi | -3 | 16 | - |
| T45 | Nick Dunlap(a) | -3 | 16 | - |
| T45 | Andy Zhang | -3 | 15 | - |
| T66 | Jeff Overton | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Kevin Tway | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Patton Kizzire | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Luke List | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Troy Merritt | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Hank Lebioda | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Henrik Norlander | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Jonathan Byrd | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Dylan Frittelli | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | S.Y. Noh | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Scott Brown | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Brent Grant | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Augusto Núñez | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Chase Johnson | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Harry Hall | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Zecheng Dou | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Brice Garnett | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Kevin Chappell | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Jim Herman | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Ricky Barnes | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Cody Gribble | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Brian Davis | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | George Bryan, IV | -2 | F | 69 |
| T66 | Sam Bennett | -2 | 16 | - |
| T90 | Doug Ghim | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | Martin Trainer | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | Ted Potter, Jr. | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | William McGirt | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | Lucas Glover | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | Lanto Griffin | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | Max McGreevy | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | Ben Crane | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | George McNeill | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | Scott Harrington | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | MJ Daffue | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | Brian Stuard | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | Carl Yuan | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | Trevor Cone | -1 | F | 70 |
| T90 | Trevor Werbylo | -1 | 17 | - |
| T105 | Bo Van Pelt | Par | F | 71 |
| T105 | Jason Dufner | Par | F | 71 |
| T105 | Michael Gligic | Par | F | 71 |
| T105 | Peter Malnati | Par | F | 71 |
| T105 | Arjun Atwal | Par | F | 71 |
| T105 | Ben Griffin | Par | F | 71 |
| T105 | Harrison Endycott | Par | F | 71 |
| T105 | Kevin Yu | Par | F | 71 |
| T105 | Chris Baker | Par | 16 | - |
| T114 | Richy Werenski | +1 | F | 72 |
| T114 | Thomas Detry | +1 | F | 72 |
| T114 | Sung Kang | +1 | F | 72 |
| T114 | Cameron Percy | +1 | F | 72 |
| T114 | Derek Lamely | +1 | F | 72 |
| T114 | Michael Sims | +1 | 15 | - |
| T114 | Oliver Betschart(a) | +1 | 15 | - |
| T121 | Omar Uresti | +2 | F | 73 |
| T121 | Derek Ernst | +2 | F | 73 |
| T121 | Martin Contini | +2 | F | 73 |
| T121 | Wesley Bryan | +2 | F | 73 |
| T125 | David Hearn | +3 | F | 74 |
| T125 | Richard S. Johnson | +3 | F | 74 |
| T125 | Jimmy Walker | +3 | F | 74 |
| T128 | Jonas Blixt | +4 | F | 75 |
| T128 | Harry Higgs | +4 | F | 75 |
| T130 | Greg Chalmers | +6 | F | 77 |
| T130 | Eric West(a) | +6 | F | 77 |
| T130 | Scott Roy | +6 | F | 77 |
Simon Bale
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