Tringale’s career-best 61 gives him lead in Scotland
NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — Cameron Tringale has played 331 times on the PGA Tour without winning. His career-best round of 9under 61 might help him change that at a tournament run by the European tour.
Tringale ran off six straight birdies to start the back nine at The Renaissance Club on Thursday and had a three-shot lead in the Scottish Open, the first European event cosanctioned by the PGA Tour.
Former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland saw work with putting coach Phil Kenyon pay off in his round of 64, the only one close to Tringale.
“I haven’t had a professional win on my own, and obviously Scotland is where golf started, so this place is special,” Tringale said.
And it was relatively benign, at least for Tringale. That wasn’t the case Thursday afternoon, when the average score was more than three shots higher.
Flags were crackling in 30 mph gusts that felt even stronger along the shores of the North Sea, conditions best described by the clubs that were used.
Some players barely reached the fairway on the par-5 16th, if they did.
Patrick Cantlay had 231 yards for his second shot on the 483-yard closing hole. He hit 3-wood, and even that wasn’t enough. Cantlay did well to close with three straight pars, which were at a premium. He had a hard-earned 70.
U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick opened with 71, while PGA champion Justin Thomas held on as long as he could. Thomas bogeyed three of his last five holes for a 73.
The low score from the afternoon was Kurt Kitayama at 66, and only five other players who faced the afternoon wind managed to break par.
Tringale had the lowest score of his PGA Tour career and matched the course record set three years ago by Bernd Wiesberger when The Renaissance played to a par 71.
Jordan Spieth set an early pace by running off five straight birdies, only to drop three shots over his last 10 holes for a 68. He called it a tale of two nines based on course knowledge.
“The nine I had never seen before went really well, and the nine I played yesterday went poorly,” Spieth said, who is playing a week before the British Open for the first time since 2015, the last time the Open was at St. Andrews.
It made sense this year with the PGA Tour cosanctioning the tournament for the first time, which led to 14 of the top 15 in the world at The Renaissance, a course that looks like one and is plenty fast without having true links soil.
Tringale, who has reached the Tour Championship only once in his 12 previous years on the PGA Tour, is having one of his better years. He missed a playoff at Torrey Pines by one shot and was a distant runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama in the Zozo Championship last fall.
Cejka’s 64 leads Senior Players
Alex Cejka birdied two of the final three holes for a 6-under 64 and a twostroke lead Thursday in the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship in Akron, Ohio.
Cejka birdied the par-3 seventh and par-4 ninth to cap a bogey-free round on Firestone Country Club’s South Course.
The 51-year-old Czechborn German is chasing his third senior major title after winning the Regions Tradition and Senior PGA last year.
David Toms was second, also closing on the front nine with birdies on Nos. 7 and 9.
Jerry Kelly and Ernie Els shot 67. Miguel Angel Jimenez and Steven Alker were at 68 with Rocco Mediate, Tim Petrovic, Shane Bertsch, Bob Estes, Cameron Beckman and Tom Gillis.