From the late wave, PGA TOUR rookie and World No. 202 David Lipsky painted a bogey-free 5-under 34-33=67 in R1 of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, good for T8 and three shy of co-leaders and AM-wavers Tony Finau and Taylor Pendrith.
The Los Angeles native, who is making his tourney debut, drafted fellow Cali native and playing competitor Kurt Kitayama (67), or vice versa, each navigating Detroit Golf Club error-free. On nine (of 14) fairways and 16 greens in regulation, he did most of his damage on approach (2.014) and around-the-green (1.440), highlighted by a hole-out birdie-3 at 12 (from 99'8" away), but did let the flat stick speak from 23'4" for eagle-3 at 14. The Northwestern alum is in the top 10 after R1 for the first time since the Valspar 13 starts ago, where he was T1 before cratering to T68 (64-71-74-76), and checked in 85th in the FedExCup standings with three top 10s in 26 events, most recently a backdoor T6 at the Mexico Open nine starts ago (69-68-69-64).