The PGA Tour is visiting the eastern tip of the North Atlantic Ocean and the infamous Bermuda Triangle, which is best known as a place where planes, ships and people are alleged to have gone mysteriously missing. But this week at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, it is where a lot of veterans are finding their game.
None more so than Sweden’s Alex Noren, who made a tournament-record 11 birdies in calm conditions Thursday morning at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda. Noren tied the course record with a 10-under 61 and set his personal low 18-hole scoring mark in 510 official stroke-play rounds on the Tour.
“It was a long time ago I had like a really low round, you know, lower than maybe 5, 6 under, so I feel good,” Noren said. “That was pretty much the closest I’ve got to the hole in a very, very long time.”
That included finishing the day in style by stuffing his approach inside a foot for his third birdie in his final four holes. Noren, for one, hopes that the trademark wind at Port Royal, which is the course’s main defense, will pick up as the tournament continues.
“I like the wind,” Noren said. “If it’s not windy, it’s like you’ve got to keep these unbelievable low rounds up and it’s not that easy.”
It’s been a bit of a struggle this season for the 41-year-old Noren. He has 10 career wins on the DP World Tour and once ranked as high as No. 8 in the world but remains winless in 162 career starts on the PGA Tour. He’s dipped to 62nd in the world and recorded just three top-10 finishes this season.
“It’s been a weird year,” he said, but he’s trending in the right direction after a T-3 at the Shriners Children’s Open last month.
A tap-in for a career-low 61
pic.twitter.com/ernb5WtNDj
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 9, 2023
If Noren has had a weird year, Robert Garrigus has had a downright dreadful one. He’s missed the cut in all eight of his PGA Tour starts this season and 15 straight overall. But on Thursday, he signed for a bogey-free 8-under 63.
“My putting, it was just as good as I think I’ve putted in, I don’t know, 5 years,” he said.
Garrigus, 45, was a late addition into the tournament, flying to Bermuda figuring he’d enjoy a vacation if he failed to get a spot.
“Just knowing that I was playing in a tournament like gave me a little juice,” he said. “I was just coming out to shake the rust off and have a good time today and I guess I did. It was a lot of fun.”
He’s tied for second with Dylan Wu and Vincent Whaley, who posted 63 out of the first group of the day and predicted the scoring would be low all day. Whaley, 28, ranked No. 222 in the FedEx Cup standings during the regular season and is making just his 13th start as he battled back from a right wrist injury he suffered two years ago at the RBC Canadian Open. He said he’s finally healthy again. That and a coaching change to Cameron McCormick before the FedEx Cup Fall began has helped him make four straight cuts.
“I grew up working with him in Dallas and kind of got back into it, and it’s been great,” Whaley said.
There was also a Tour record set on Thursday. Veteran pro Adam Long hit his 60th straight fairway when he found the short grass on his second hole, a par-5, after going 56-for-56 last week at the World Wide Technology Championship, shattering Brian Claar’s record of 59 straight fairways hit, set in 1992. Long’s streak dated to his final two holes at the Shriners Children’s Open and finally came to an end with 69.
“The one that missed, yeah, it was a 3-wood that I kind of hit up in the air a little too spinny and the wind caught it. Didn’t quite go far enough so it stayed in the rough,” Long said. “Made Thursday a little more exciting than usual.”