Schauffele carded a 62 (-9), a course record and tied for the lowest round in the majors

Awesome start on PGA, second ‘major’ of 2024of American Xander Schauffele, world number 3 and Olympic gold in Tokyo. Round of 62 strokes, nine under parwith the 9 birdies and 9 parsto open up a gap in the classification and put in a very low home-club result with the afternoon session remaining.

This historic 62 leaves the course record it holds to be remembered. Txema Olazabal (63 hits in 2000). And the 62 equals the lowest round ever made in a ‘major’ and is also the best ever made in a PGA. Furthermore, Schauffele is the first golfer to shoot two rounds of 62 (one at the 2023 US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, par 70, like Rickie Fowler; the fourth 62 in history from to South African Branden Grace at The 2017 British Open at Royal Birkdale, like LACC, is a par 70 and Valhalla, in Louisville, Kentucky, is a 71.

A competitive obstacle for the American, whose father is half French, half German, and whose mother is Taiwanese, but grew up in Japan. Schauffele, companion 7 victories on the PGA Tour and gold in the Olympic Games. in 2021has not won a tournament since the Genesis Scottish Open in 2022. His notable achievements include the 2017 Tour Championship, the 2018 HSBC World Champions, the 2019 Tournament of Champions and gold at Tokyo 2021.

Schauffele’s course record includes 5 birdies between holes 10 through 18 and 4 from 1 through 9. As of 2024 he has 8 top tens on the PGA Tour, with two second place finishes as best finishes, at The Players and last Sunday at Wells Fargo Rory McIlroy stole from him. He is currently 2nd in the FedEx Cup rankings.

“I feel great. It’s only the first day, but if someone told me to shoot 9 under today, I’m sure I’d sign it,” Schauffele told ESPN after his round. “I’ve been playing very solid golf. My team and I asked ourselves why not keep moving forward,” he added.

Schauffele made history by being the only person to ‘double’ 62, which is said to be very early. So he puts himself on the same level as Branden Grace and his compatriot Rickie Fowler. In July 2017, the South African became the first golfer in history to reach 62 strokes in Grand Slam tournaments: Masters, PGA, US Open and British. Grace made 8 birdies without a mistake 7 years ago.

Schauffele’s 62 was the lowest total score relative to par (71, -9). In this sense, no one has surpassed the nine under par (par 72 courses) of Gary Player (PGA 1984), Nick Price (Masters 1986), Paul Broadhurst (British Open 1990), Greg Norman (Masters 1996), Txema Olazábal ( PGA 2000), Rory McIlroy (British Open 2010) and Hiroshi Iwata (PGA 2015).

A few minutes later it also ended Tiger Woods with a round of 72 (+1), after finishing the day with two greens in three putts (bogey-bogey finish).

And he also gave a nice card on this first day world number 2 Rory McIlroy, won the PGA here in 2014 and authored a 66 (-5) that puts him in the top 3 in the clubhouse. The Briton has won his last two outings on the PGA Tour: Zurich Classic in a pair and Wells Fargo.

It also entered the provisional top ten defending champion Brooks Koepkaauthor of 67 (-4) and rejoined the tournament with a good finish: eagle-birdie in the last three holes.