By Tom Zulewski, Iron County Today
IVINS – On the strength of a 29 score on the front nine, Canadian Sudarshan Yellamaraju led a group of four players who shared the lead midway through the opening round of the PGA Tour’s Bank of Utah Championship at Black Desert Resort. He began the round with a double-bogey on the 529-yard par-4 11th hole, then birdied the 12th and returned to red figures after an eagle at the par-5 18th.
Yellamaraju found his second gear on the opening nine, delivering four straight birdies and another eagle at the par-4 7th. He closed the run with another birdie at the 9th.
David Lipsky, Steven Fisk and Stephan Jaeger joined Yellamaraju at the top of the leaderboard later in the round. Lipsky shot a 30 on his back nine that included an eagle at the par-4 14th hole. Jaeger had eight birdies to form his round, while Fox had an eagle at the 9th hole to go with six birdies.
American John Vanderlaan had a shot to grab the lead outright, but bogeyed the par-5 18th and fell back into a four-way tie for 5th at 7-under 64. Defending champion Michael Brennan and last year’s runner-up, Rico Hoey, are also in the group. Garrick Higgo had the low nine of the round with a 7-under 28 to move into contention.
Five more players are two shots back at 6-under. Live TV coverage of the rest of the first round is available on Golf Channel from now until 6 p.m
Bank of Utah Championship
Here are the current leaders as of 3:40 pm Thursday in the first round at the PGA Tour Bank of Utah Championship being played at Black Desert Resort (7,421 yards, par 71)
- Sudarshan Yellamaraju 34-29-63
- David Lipsky 33-30-63
- Stephan Jaeger 32-31-63
- Steven Fisk 32-31-63
- Garrick Higgo 36-28-64
- Michael Brennan 34-30-64
- Rico Hoey 34-30-64
- John Vanderlaan 31-33-64
- Doug Ghim 35-30-65
- Ben James 31-34-65
- Max McGreevy 31-34-65
- Joel Dahmen 33-32-65
- David Ford 33-32-65