Christiaan Bezuidenhout finished the first round of the PGA Tour’s Wells Faro Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday on one-under-par 70 to be in a share of 16th place.
Bezuidenhout made four birdies and three bogeys to share 16th with 14 other players. They were all six shots off the lead which was held by Xander Schauffele at seven-under. Schauffele had a three-stroke lead over American countryman Collin Morikawa, Sweden’s Alex Noren and world number two Rory McIlroy. There were seven players on three-under-par in a share of fifth, and four on two-under in a share of 12th.
After taking the lead at sex-under with an eagle on seventh, Schauffele sent his tee shot on the eighth about 10 yards into some heavy woods and the ball came to rest near a metal fence line. But instead of taking what seemed like an unplayable lie, Schauffele was able to get relief from a rules official and dropped outside of the woods because of a temporary immovable object.
McIlroy was within two shots of Schauffele, but his fairway wood out of the bunker on the par-five 15th caught sand and the ball squirted off to the right about 50 yards away. That led to bogey, one of two in his final four holes.
