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BLAINE, Minn. — Adam Svensson made a 48-foot eagle putt on the closing hole to complete an 11-under 60 on Thursday that gave him a two-shot lead over Sam Stevens and Thorbjorn Olesen after one round of the 3M Open.
Svensson also made nine birdies and did not drop a shot in the lowest round in the tournament’s seven-year history. He tied the TPC Twin Cities course record set by Paul Goydos at the 2017 3M Championship on the PGA Tour Champions.
Chris Gotterup, who finished third at last week’s British Open and won the Scottish Open two weeks ago, was three shots back along with Chad Ramey and Matthias Schmid. Zac Blair, Chris Kirk, Jake Knapp and Brendan Valdes were another shot back, and Rickie Fowler and Emiliano Grillo were among those at 6 under.
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Svensson’s lone tour win is the 2022 RSM Classic. The 31-year-old Canadian has one top-25 finish in 21 starts this season and has missed 11 cuts.
“I had a great range session today,” said Svensson, who needed just 25 putts, including a nearly 40-foot birdie on the 11th hole and a 34-footer on the fourth. “Just really putted amazing, I made a bunch of breakers. It was probably my best putting round I ever had.”
His career-best 60 is the second-lowest score on the PGA Tour this season. Knapp shot 59 at the Cognizant Classic in February.
Stevens could have shot 59 with an eagle on the par-5 18th, but instead he put his second shot from 246 yards into the water in front of the green, leading to his lone bogey and a 62 that was still his lowest round on tour.
“I have a pretty big gap between my 3-iron and my 3-wood, and I hit a terrible shot. I thought if I hit a 3-wood, it was just going to fly to the back of the green, and I kind of had to hit a 3-iron perfect to even cover the water. But I figured that was my best chance to shoot 59, so I gave it a go,” he said.
Fowler and Grillo are among a group of 18 players who rank between 60th and 80th in the FedEx Cup standings, needing a strong performance to help secure spots in the 70-man field for the first playoff event in two weeks. Fowler entered the week at No. 63 and Grillo is No. 71.
“At the end of the day, good golf solves a lot of things,” Fowler said.
Patrick Rodgers and Gary Woodland (66th and 78th, respectively) each shot 67. No. 70 Keith Mitchell had a 68, and 65th-ranked Cam Davis shot 71.
Defending champion Jhonattan Vegas shot 68. Haotong Li, who was in the final pairing with Scottie Scheffler at last week’s British Open and finished tied for fourth, shot a 1-under 70.
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