Seung-yeol Noh's '11 Under Par 60'... "Regrettable, Dream 59"

AT&T Byron Nelson 1R Leading Run
One Eagle and Nine Birdies 'Flawless Play'

No Seung-yeol's flawless play.

On the 11th (local time), No Seung-yeol dominated the top of the leaderboard with an 11-under-par 60 in the first round of the PGA Tour AT&T Byron Nelson (total prize money $9.5 million) held at TPC Craig Ranch (par 71, 7,414 yards) in McKinney, Texas, USA. It was an exhilarating march that could have recorded the 'dream 59' with just one more stroke reduced. As of 6 a.m., he leads by three strokes over the group tied for second place (8-under-par 63) including Adam Scott (Australia).

No Seung-yeol (right) shakes hands with James Han after finishing the first round of the AT&T Byron Nelson with 11 under par 60. [McKinney, USA = AP·Yonhap News]

No Seung-yeol collected one eagle and nine birdies. After a pleasant start with consecutive birdies on holes 1-2 and 5-6, he snagged an eagle with a '2-on 1-putt' on the 9th hole (par 5). In the back nine, he added birdies on the 11th hole (par 4), consecutive birdies on the 14th-15th holes, and again on the 17th-18th holes. He relied on long drives up to 319 yards and an impressive 1.23 putts per hole. This marks his second career win after a long nine years since his first victory at the Zurich Classic in April 2014.

No Seung-yeol is a player who went through the national team and dominated the Asian Tour Media China in 2008 and the European Tour Maybank Malaysia in 2010. He crossed over to the U.S. in the following year through the 2011 Qualifying (Q) School and won the Zurich Classic. At that time, he became the fourth Korean PGA Tour champion in history, following K.J. Choi, Yang Yong-eun, and Bae Sang-moon.

No Seung-yeol enlisted in November 2017 and was discharged in August 2019. Since completing his military service, he has not achieved remarkable results. In the 2022/2023 season, he participated in 12 tournaments and advanced to the final stage nine times. His best result this season is a tie for 19th place at the RSM Classic last November.