By Tom Zulewski, Iron County Today
IVINS – As the sun rose on a historic day at Black Desert Resort, Kevin Streelman stood at the par-4 1st hole with more cameras in position than what he was used to seeing before. It came with good reason as his tee shot welcomed the PGA Tour back to Utah for the first time since 1963.
When the 46-year-old finished his round, he left the 18th green with sole possession of the lead – even if it was only for a short while.
Streelman shot a round of 7-under par 64, and it was good enough to be on top of the leaderboard as the morning wave of players finished the opening round of the Black Desert Championship, the third of eight scheduled events of FedEx Fall on the PGA Tour.
The native of Wheaton, Illinois started with a birdie at the opening hole and finished with four birdies in the last five holes to complete the round.
“When I saw that people had their phones out, I was like ‘wow. This is actually the first shot of the tournament.’ That was pretty cool, and to make birdie on the first was a nice way to start it off,” Streelman said.
After Streelman had his early run of birdies, he bogeyed the par-3 8th and immediately bounced back with a birdie at the par-5 9th. Streelman went bogey-free on the inward nine with birdies at 14, 15, 17 and 18.
In the end, Streelman knew his score wouldn’t hold up on top for very long.
“I’ll have the course record for about nine minutes,” he joked.
It actually lasted about 90 minutes before Henrik Norlander of Sweden closed with four birdies on the back nine and finished with a 9-under round of 62, sharing the lead with 26-year-old Matt McCarty, a left-hander who earned a battlefield promotion to the PGA Tour just last week after his third win on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Among the other prominent names in the morning groups, Ben Kohles had the first hole-in-one of the week when he aced the 130-yard, par-3 17th – his eighth hole of the opening round. Kohles finished among a group of 10 players who shot a round of 6-under 65, three strokes off the lead.
Round 2 of the Black Desert Championship will be played today starting at 7:40 a.m., and groups will tee off from the 1st and 10th holes in the 132-player field