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 [July 12, 2024]
Justin Thomas rolled in eight birdies and claimed the solo
lead at the Scottish Open on Thursday with a first-round 62 at The
Renaissance Club in North Berwick.
Thomas stands one shot clear of South Korea's Sungjae Im (63), who
bogeyed the first and 17th holes on his opening 18 but has a stroke
on five players tied at 6-under, including Sweden's Ludvig Aberg,
Justin Lower, Germany's Maximillian Kieffer, China's Haotong Li and
Belgium's Thomas Detry.
"It's always good to get off to a good start, and even better to get
off to a great one," Thomas said of his bogey-free round, his 11th
career tournament lead through 18 holes. "I felt like I was in great
control of everything. Just when I missed it, I missed it in the
right spots and had a lot of really quality shots. On those 4-, 5-,
6-footers to kind of make something out of them, I stole a couple
with some long or mid-range putts."
Aberg is tied for fourth or better for the third time in his last
four starts.
His approach on 8 would have landed inside of 15 feet to the cup had
it not landed directly on top of Morikawa's resting ball, kicking
both further from the cup in opposite directions. Instead of a
birdie putt, Aberg wound up with a one-of-a-kind bogey. Morikawa
made his putt for a birdie on the par-4.
"You can't really see the bottom of the flagstick from the fairway.
So I didn't see it," Aberg said. "I thought I hit a decent shot, and
we just saw the ball just go straight sideways. And I didn't really
know what it did but then we kind of realized that's pretty much
where Collin's ball was and then I saw his ball go that way. So it's
just one of them -- I've never seen it before. Probably not going to
see it for a long time again."
Im had nine birdies in his first under-par score in five career
rounds at The Renaissance Club. He missed the cut in each of his two
previous appearances at the Scottish Open.
Thomas posted his best first-round score since the 2017 Sony Open as
part of a rebound season that includes five top-10 finishes in 14
starts on tour this season.
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He posted eight birdies in a round for the 54th
time in the last 10 years, more than any other player on Tour with
ideal playing conditions: 58 degrees, dry and moderate wind speeds.
"Obviously this is as easy as you're going to get a links golf
course weather-wise and conditions. When you drive it well like I
did for the most part today, you have a lot of short clubs, and I
see nothing but the pin," Thomas said. "You have opportunities to
get the ball close with some slopes. If I have a good number, for
the most part I'm trying to figure out how I can hit it as close as
possible. I'm not scared to do so."
Defending champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, Tommy Fleetwood
of Great Britain and Morikawa are among the 15 players tied for
eighth at 5-under. John Deere Classic winner Davis Thompson is also
in that pack looking to win his two career starts.
McIlroy, starting his round on the par-5 10th, recovered from two
early bogeys with a birdie-par-eagle-birdie stretch on his back
nine.
"Especially on the front nine, our back nine, I started to hit some
good drives, some good iron shots," McIlroy said. "You know, I give
myself plenty of chances on that back nine and actually felt like I
left a couple out there, as well. You know, overall, a good start,
especially after sort of the scrappy start over the first six or
seven holes."
--Field Level Media
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