Justin Rose shot a superb 10-under-par 62 on Torrey Pines’ North Course to steer the Farmers Insurance coverage Open as Brooks Koepka laboured by way of a gap 73 on what proved a low-key return to the PGA Tour.
Rose carded 10 unanswered birdies because the 45-year-old claimed a one-shot lead over American Justin Decrease – whose spouse is at present 34 weeks pregnant and anticipating twins.
“It’s a funny one, I feel like I managed my game really, really well today,” Ryder Cup star Rose advised the PGA Tour web site. “I felt like I learn the greens phenomenally, putted as you may see actually, rather well.
“However I would not say it felt in full cruise management – there was nothing sort of off, however some days you shoot 10 below par and each shot is as you see it, as you propose it, and I in all probability solely had three or 4 right this moment that I felt like had been precisely as I used to be drawing up.
“However it was a very good spherical of golf, the North Course is a course that you just really feel like it’s best to be capable of get but it surely’s truly grown a number of tooth over time.
“You’ve got to play well, you’ve got to drive the ball in play which I did a reasonable job of. I got momentum when I needed it, hit the odd good iron shot, made the odd 20 footer and before you know it you’re five, six, seven under par.”
The higher scores all got here on the North Course, with Eire’s Seamus Energy firing a seven-under 65 to put up the bottom spherical on the South Course and declare a share of fifth place.
After Koepka agreed a launch from his contract with the Saudi breakaway LIV Golf sequence a 12 months early on the finish of the 2025 season, the PGA Tour subsequently then launched a hastily-written Returning Members Programme to accommodate the five-time main winner again into the fold.
Beginning on the South Course, Koepka, who had joined LIV in 2022, made three pars earlier than dropping a shot on the fourth and was not in a position to land a birdie probability on the ninth as he headed into the flip at one over.
Koepka overshot the inexperienced on the par-five thirteenth which resulted in one other bogey after which narrowly missed a birdie alternative on the par-three sixteenth earlier than sinking his fourth shot on the ultimate gap to signal for a one-over spherical.
“I’ve fallen back in love with the game,” Koepka advised reporters. “Watching my son play a little bit and wanting to be able to see him watch me play well and realise how much this game has given me and how fun it is.
“It was very cool to listen to ‘welcome again’… it was just about each gap.”
Elsewhere, Tony Finau sank the primary hole-in-one of the PGA Tour season on Thursday, acing the par-three sixteenth gap on the South Course at Torrey Pines.
It was Finau’s fourth hole-in-one in 285 begins on Tour and first because the second spherical of the 2025 Valero Texas Open.
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