Beginning off No. 10 tee, World No. 408 Ted Potter, Jr. styled a 5-under-par 32-34=66 in the first round of the WM Phoenix Open to sit T6 on the leaderboard, three in arrears of co-leaders Matthew NeSmith and Mark Hubbard.
This is the 37-year-old’s sixth appearance with two previous cashes and one top 25, a T24 four tries ago in 2013 where he was T2 after 18 holes (64-69-68-70). He checked in this week just 1-for-8 on the season and off a T18 at last week’s Farmers on 5-under 283 (71-69-72-71). This is the Floridian’s first time in the top 10 after R1 since last season’s Sony Open 13 months ago, where he was T2 before finishing T7 (67-69-70-66). On seven (of 14) fairways and 13 greens in regulation, he lost strokes off-the-tee (-0.552) and on approach (-0.286), but gained 1.961 around-the-green and 3.241 on-the-green. Potter, Jr. squared a lone bogey-5 at 18 (watered tee ball), outpaced by six birdies at 13, 15, 17, 1, 4 and 8, three from between nine and 33 feet, with two of those from greater than 31 feet. He recorded 1.538 putts per GIR with 24 total putts.