{"id":913401,"date":"2026-10-02T11:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T11:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/913401\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T11:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T11:38:14","slug":"sizzling-low-scores-the-order-of-day-one-in-utah-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/913401\/","title":{"rendered":"Sizzling low scores the order of day one in Utah \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Photo: Jono Searle\/AAP PHOTOS] A first-ever albatross at the PGA Tour event in Utah has fired Jordan Smith up the leaderboard. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zach Bauchou has birdied his last two holes for a career-best round of nine-under 62, giving him a one-shot lead on a day of low scoring at the Bank of Utah Championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With several players having set the pace at the Black Desert Resort on Thursday (Friday AEST), Bauchou holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th and reached the 602-yard closing hole in two for a two-putt birdie and his first 18-hole lead on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bauchou is at No.86 in the FedEx Cup. Only the top 100 at the end of the FedEx Cup Fall in November retain full cards for 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI felt like I \u2026 played pretty solid most of the year, just didn\u2019t have that many high finishes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cJust try to improve when I\u2019m home and know that I am actually playing probably better than what my results are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1790941094_487_.jpeg\" alt=\"Steven Fisk.\"\/>[<a href=\"https:\/\/photos.aap.com.au\/search\/20251006121069182342\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AP PHOTO<\/a>] American Steven Fisk drained six birdies and an eagle during his blemish-free opening round. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Canadian Sudarshan Yellamaraju was the first of the nine players to post a 63. He is 59th in the FedEx Cup, among those who are hopeful of a good fall to finish among the top 60 and be eligible for signature events at Pebble Beach and Riviera.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jackson Koivun (69) took a while to get back to his Presidents Cup form. The 21-year-old, who was unbeaten in his Presidents Cup debut last week, had three straight bogeys and was two over for his round before four birdies in his last five holes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He still has work to do to make sure he sticks around for the weekend because of the low scoring on a beautiful day in southern Utah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nick Taylor is still making big putts, as he did at Medinah last week for the International team, and finished his round with a 50-foot eagle putt to be among a group of six at 64 that included Presidents Cup teammate Christiaan Bezuidenhout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three players from the group at 63 are outside the top 100, including Kevin Streelman, who birdied six of his last eight holes, and Nick Dunlap.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jordan Smith of England reached eight under in most spectacular fashion. He holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the eighth and then holed out his second shot from 238 yards on the par-5 ninth for an albatross.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever done it, so it was pretty special, and to end a round like that is even more special,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cam Davis is the only Australian in the field and opened with a four-under 67, while defending champion Michael Brennan carded a 64.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Jono Searle\/AAP PHOTOS] A first-ever albatross at the PGA Tour event in Utah has fired Jordan Smith&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,481248,33066,755,206799,6928,405163,1747,85,481249],"class_list":["post-913401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bank-of-utah-championship","tag-cam-davis","tag-golf","tag-jackson-koivun","tag-jordan-smith","tag-overseas-sport","tag-pga-tour","tag-sports","tag-zach-bauchou"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}