South Korea’s Ben An carded nine birdies to tie the course record with a 61 and grab the clubhouse lead by three strokes at the Scottish Open on Thursday at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland.
An, a three-time runner-up who has zero PGA Tour wins in 175 career starts, began play on the 10th and, with five birdies, hit the turn with a 30. His final putt for birdie on the par-3 ninth, a 24-footer, left him a career-low 61, three better than Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy and Belgian Thomas Detry.
“I couldn’t play any better,” An said. “I drove it well and hit it well and chipped it well and putted well. That’s a clean scorecard.”
McIlroy held the lead for part of the first round on Thursday, surging to the top of the leaderboard on his 12th hole of the day — No. 3 — with an eagle on the 630-yard par-5.
An, 31, missed an ace at the 14th and tapped in during a stretch of four consecutive birdies on his opening nine. He grabbed the lead on the par-5 3rd with a chip to within 3 feet and the ensuing birdie putt to get to 7 under. He’s one month into a switch to a broomstick putter after consulting with fellow pros Si Woo Kim and Adam Scott about the value of the change.
“I talked to other fellows who use the broomstick putter — Adam, Si Woo — asking the pros and cons about it, and spoke to my putting coach,” An said. “We said, it looked good, felt good, and we are trying to get the hands out of it and that helps me a lot with the long putter.”
McIlroy, who had started 5 under through seven holes, wasn’t lamenting a missed chance to throw up a lower number. He walked off the course pleased with his putting, confessing he struggled with reads in practice rounds due to the slower pace of the links greens.
“I got off to a great start, a really fast start,” McIlroy said. “(Putting was) probably the one thing I was not worried about going into today. But more so like I was questioning … didn’t feel like I had maybe had enough time to adjust to links greens, and I didn’t putt very well in the Pro-Am (Wednesday).”
South Korea’s K.H. Lee shot 5-under 65 and was tied for fourth place ahead of a pack tied at 4-under 66, including American Will Gordon, who dropped a stroke with a bogey at the 18th. Ewen Ferguson of Scotland also bogeyed his final hole, the ninth, to join the crowd at 4 under.
Detry came within a whisker of an ace on the 17th, the eighth hole of his round, and wrapped up on the front nine with a pair of birdies at Nos. 8-9 to pull even with McIlroy despite two bogeys.
“I was inches away from walking away with two cars today,” Detry joked about the near-miss on No. 17. “But yeah, played some really good golf today. Actually had a couple of big misses but every time I managed to get some great up-and-downs and keep going, like on my 16th hole, way right, and getting my ball on the fairway, wedge shot and good putt and it was amazing to finish birdie, birdie.”
–Field Level Media
