Charl Schwartzel will be happy with his opening six-under-par 66 on Thursday in the opening round of the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson in McKinney, Texas which put him in a share of seventh.
The only problem is that his eight birdies and two bogeys left him an astonishing six shots off the lead which was set by Sebastian Munoz of Colombia who fired a 12-under-par 69 with two eagles, nine birdies and, amazingly, a bogey. That gave Munoz a four-stroke lead over Mito Pereira of Chile, KH Lee of Korea and Americans Peter Malnati and Justin Lower.
Schwartzel started shakily with a bogey on the second, but birdies on five, six, eight and nine got him going. There were four more birdies on 11, 13, 14 and 18, and another bogey on 12.
He was one shot ahead of Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who also had a good start with a bogey-free five-under par 67. Dawie van der Walt was also on five-under in a share of 12th after making six birdies and a bogey in his 67.
Dylan Frittelli’s three-under put him in a share of 40th, while Branden Grace was in a share of 66th on two-under. Shaun Norris signed for a one-under and a share of 79th, and James Hart du Preez battled to a two-over 74.
