Christiaan Bezuidenhout closed with a birdie on Thursday in the opening round of the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas to move to three-under-par and a share of 46th.
Bezuidenhout started his round on the 10th, and dropped a shot on the 11th. But he kept things together, and picked up a birdie to get back to level-par on the 17th. Another gain on the 18th saw him move into red figures, and birdies in six and nine took him to 68 for the day.
That put him eight shots behind the superb 11-under-par 60 of Seung-yul Noh of Korea, who overcame a cracked driver head and a replacement driver mid-round. After an errant tee shot at the par-four 12th, well right of the fairway, Noh closely examined his driver head and noticed a crack.
“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 said. Noh was not allowed to replace the club at the time. Under Model Local Rule G-9, a club is not replaceable solely because of a crack.
“There needed to be some more subsequent damage other than just a hairline crack,” Chief Referee John Mutch said. That came on the par-four 13th, when Noh hit the driver well left, and his provisional went even further left. From there, he conferred with Mutch, who determined ‘significant damage’ occurred, allowing Noh to take the driver out of play. “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 said.
Noh received a replacement driver head on 16 and screwed it onto the shaft. Per Rule 4.1a(2) in the Rules of Golf, if a conforming club is damaged during a round, except in cases of abuse, a player may repair or replace it with another club.
Noh led by three from Adam Scott and Zecheng Dou of China. Six players were in a share of fourth on seven-under, including Scottie Scheffler and Jason Day.
Garrick Higgo opened with a two-under 69 for a share of 65th, while Dylan Frittelli had a one-under 70 for a share of 89th. Erik van Rooyen was on level-par for a share of 104th and MJ Daffue opened with a two-over for a share of 138th.
