Ahn Byung-hoon "Fresh Start with 6 Under Par"..."I Like Bermuda"

Byeonghun An Tied 16th, 3 Shots Behind After Day 1 at Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Smotherman and Endicott Share Lead at 9 Under, Brown Tied 3rd
Sangmoon Bae at 5 Under, Seonghyeon Kim at 4 Under, Seungyul Noh at 3 Under

[Asia Economy Reporter No Woo-rae] An Byeong-hun (31) is enjoying a Bermuda breeze.

Ahn Byung-hoon is teeing off at the 10th hole on the first day of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Southampton (Bermuda) = Photo by AFP Yonhap News

On the 27th (local time), An Byeong-hun posted a 6-under-par 65 on the first day of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship (total prize money $6.5 million) held at Port Royal Golf Club (par 71, 6,828 yards) in Southampton, Bermuda, placing him tied for 16th. Austin Smotherman (USA) and Harrison Endycott (Australia) share the lead at 9-under-par 62, while Scott Brown (USA) and four others are tied for 3rd at 8-under-par 63.

The Butterfield Bermuda Championship is the PGA Tour’s regular event with the smallest prize fund held independently. This is why top-ranked players including ‘Number 1’ Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) and other top 10 world-ranked players, as well as elite Korean players such as Kim Joo-hyung (20), Im Sung-jae (24), Lee Kyung-hoon (31), and Kim Si-woo (27), have chosen to rest. Last year’s champion, Lucas Herbert (Australia), also did not participate.

An Byeong-hun recorded one eagle, five birdies, and one bogey. He started well with birdies on the 10th and 13th holes, then after a bogey on the 16th hole (par 3), he made an eagle on the 17th hole (par 5) and a birdie on the 18th hole (par 4), showing a sharp upward trend. In the back nine, he added two more birdies on the 2nd and 7th holes (both par 5). Leveraging his long drives averaging 311.5 yards, he gained four strokes on the three par-5 holes. He is three strokes behind the joint leaders, in a position to hope for a comeback victory.

Korea’s Bae Sang-moon (36) is tied for 29th (5-under-par 66), rookie Kim Seong-hyun (24) tied for 54th (4-under-par 67), and Noh Seung-yeol (31) tied for 67th (3-under-par 68). On the other hand, world number one Luke Donald (England) and sponsor invitee ‘maverick’ John Daly (USA) are tied for 110th (even par 71), and Kang Sung-hoon (35) is in 122nd place (1-over-par 72), struggling.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.