Canada’s Adam Svensson used two eagles to fire a 10-under 62 Thursday and take the first-round lead at the Barbasol Championship in Nicholasville, Ky.
Svensson leads Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia and France’s Robin Roussel by two strokes. The 28-year-old has yet to win on tour but has two top-10 finishes this season.
Svensson started his round on the back nine and made his first eagle at the par-5 15th hole on a 23-foot putt. He shot 30 on his second nine, punctuated by his 31-foot eagle putt at the par-5 eighth to take the lead.
“It just kind of all came together today,” Svensson said. “I made two nice eagles. The one on 8 was exceptional, made a 30-footer, but was just trying to stay in there because it was just so hot. I was losing energy, I was trying to hydrate and stuff like that.”
The Barbasol Championship is being co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour for the first time, just as this week’s Scottish Open is being co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour.
That allowed Roussel to make his PGA Tour debut and post a bogey-free 64 with a chip-in eagle and six birdies.
“I used to be a very straight player so I could miss left, I could miss right,” Roussel said, “and now I’m hitting more fades like big fades, like at least I would say 5-, 6-, 7-yard fades maybe. It helps me a lot because I’m missing only right now, I’m not missing left anymore.”
Gouveia made his second career PGA Tour start and rolled in nine birdies with just one bogey.
Eight players were tied for fourth at 7-under 65: Trey Mullinax, Max McGreevy, Michael Kim, Mark Hubbard, Bo Van Pelt, Matti Schmid of Germany, Camilo Villegas of Colombia and David Skinns of England.
–Field Level Media