Playing out of the early wave and beginning off No. 10 tee, World No. 283 Sung Kang walked off with eagle toward a 10-under-par 30-31=61 in the first round of the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas, good for the clubhouse lead by two over countryman Sungjae Im and Charley Hoffman. UPDATE: With R1 complete, Kang remained the leader by two. UPDATE #2: With the tournament complete, Kang finished T27 on 12-under 272 (61-73-69-69), dropping to 0-for-3 as an 18-hole leader/co-leader.
If this lead holds up, it would be the South Korean’s third 18-hole-lead/co-lead in 224 events, first since T1 at the 2011 Viking Classic during his rookie campaign (finished T7). His other, also in 2011, was at the Farmers, where he led by one before cratering to T51 (64-76-78-70). Today’s 61, his best in 15 rounds at TPC Summerlin, previously 63/R2 in 2020 (finished T29), is one shy of a career-low, tournament-record 11-under 60/R2 at MPCC at the 2016 AT&T Pebble Beach (finished T17). On nine (of 14) fairways and 16 greens in regulation, Kang squared a lone bogey-5 at hole 3 (3-putt from 20'8"), smothered by nine birdies, seven of those birdie-3s, and a walk-off eagle-3 at 9 from 17'10", after a brilliant 7-wood approach from a fairway bunker 259 yards away. At last check, he posted 0.946 SG: Off-the-Tee, 4.169 SG: Approach, -0.001 SG: Around, and 2.890 SG: Putting with 25 total putts, and preceded the eagle with a par-saver at 8 from 15'7". The 34-year-old arrived off a T65 at last week’s Sanderson Farms, where he was T17 after R1 (68-71-72-72). See link below to post-round comments.