IVINS (AP) – Adam Svensson made a 35-foot eagle putt he thought he had missed and closed with a birdie from the bunker for a career-best 11-under 60, giving him a two-shot lead on Thursday in the Black Desert Championship as the PGA Tour returned to Utah for the first time in 61 years.
Black Desert Resort had a gorgeous day to make its debut with a Tom Weiskopf design cut through an ancient field of black lava and surrounded by the red rock mountains some 30 miles from Zion National Park.
Svensson and so many others made short work of the course in ideal scoring conditions.
Henrik Norlander hit all 14 fairways and all 18 greens in posting his career-low of 62. He was joined by Korn Ferry Tour grad Matt McCarty, who had an eagle on the reachable par-4 fifth.
And the Svensson came through in the afternoon and made seven birdies through 10 holes before he finished with a flourish.
The Canadian chose to lay up on the fifth – reachable par 4s are a signature of the late Weiskopf in his golf course designs – and made an 8-footer. Then came his 35-foot eagle on the par-5 seventh to move into the lead.
“I thought it was going to go left and it went right and went in,” Svensson said. “You’ve got to get a little bit lucky here and there. But overall I played very well.”
He saved par from 8 feet on the par-3 eighth and then got up-and-down from a bunker by making a 4-foot birdie putt on the par-5 ninth.
