Puerto Rico Open Round 1: Kevin Roy Rides a Career-Low 62 to the Lead

Kevin Roy waited out a rain delay, walked back to a par 3, missed the green and still made birdie. On the kind of Thursday where everything goes in, even the mistakes turn into red numbers.

Roy shot a 10-under 62 at Grand Reserve Golf Club to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the Puerto Rico Open, the PGA TOUR's opposite-field stop during Arnold Palmer Invitational week. Chris Gotterup sits alone in second at 9 under after a 63. Davis Riley and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, the Dane making his PGA TOUR debut, are tied for third at 8 under after bogey-free 64s, and Australian rookie Karl Vilips is alone in fifth with a 65.

Eleven Birdies and a Bunker

Roy started on the back nine and never really cooled off. He was 7 under through 10 holes and had pushed it to 9 under through 15 when rain stopped play in the early afternoon. The horn sounded at 12:27 p.m. local time and the course did not reopen until 1:44, a 77-minute wait that has stalled plenty of hot rounds before.

Not this one. Roy came back out on the par-3 seventh, hit a 7-iron into a greenside bunker, and then holed the bunker shot for birdie. He was refreshingly honest about it afterward. "That was silly, I'll be the first to admit it," Roy said, per the AP.

The only blemish came right after that, a bogey on the eighth, his 17th hole. He answered with a closing birdie on the ninth to sign for 62, with 11 birdies against that lone bogey. It is the lowest round of his PGA TOUR career.

"It was one of those rounds that just obviously everything was clicking," Roy said.

The Long Road Back

The backstory makes the number land harder. Roy, 34, made only nine cuts in 31 starts as a TOUR rookie in the 2022-23 season and lost his card. He went back to the Korn Ferry Tour, played his way back last summer, and came into this week making just the 38th PGA TOUR start of his career, according to Reuters.

Opposite-field events exist for exactly this kind of player. The top of the TOUR is at Bay Hill. Grand Reserve is where the grinders get 72 holes, 300 FedExCup points for the winner, a two-year exemption and a spot in both THE PLAYERS and the PGA Championship. What it does not hand out is a Masters invitation, since it shares the week with Arnold Palmer's event.

Gotterup and the Pond

Gotterup might have had the lead to himself, or at least a share of it. He stood on the 18th tee at 10 under, then found a small pond with the tee shot. The bogey that followed was his only one of the day, and it dropped him a shot behind Roy.

The rest of the card was loud. Gotterup made eight birdies and reached the par-5 14th in two, then rolled in a short putt for eagle. It still counts as a career-low 63 for a player who won the inaugural Myrtle Beach Classic as a rookie last season, and who has some history at this place: Gotterup won a college event at Grand Reserve.

Clean Cards for the Debutant and Riley

Neergaard-Petersen arrived on a commissioner's exemption for international players and wasted none of it. The 25-year-old Dane, who plays the DP World Tour, went bogey-free and made his own eagle on the 14th. For a first look at a PGA TOUR leaderboard, 8 under is a decent view.

Riley matched him with a bogey-free 64. Soft turf after the rain helped everyone, but keeping a card clean on a scoring day is its own skill, and neither of them dropped a shot.

Vilips, the former Stanford standout, is in only his fourth PGA TOUR start. His 65 put him alone in fifth when the horn blew for darkness, two shots back of the 62.

Traffic Behind the Leaders

The leaderboard gets crowded quickly at 6 under. Garrick Higgo, Matteo Manassero, Austin Cook, Noah Goodwin, Matti Schmid, Pierceson Coody, Tyler Duncan, Nick Hardy, Chan Kim and Danny Walker all posted 66. Four more players were sitting at 6 under with holes still to play, including William Mouw and amateur Kieron van Wyk, the College of Charleston senior.

Defending champion Brice Garnett, who won here last year in a playoff, opened with a 2-under 70 and has work to do.

The rain cost the field its daylight. Play was suspended for darkness at 6:32 p.m. with 18 players yet to finish. They will return at 7 a.m. Friday to complete the first round, while the second round goes off as scheduled at 6:45 a.m.

What Friday Brings

The math at Grand Reserve is simple: the course is soft, the greens are receptive, and 10 under already looks like a number the field can chase. Roy has the lead and the career round. Gotterup has the one swing he would like back. Neergaard-Petersen and Riley have clean scorecards, and Vilips has the quiet 65 that keeps him in the conversation.

Friday will tell whether Roy can back it up, and the cut line will tell everyone else how much ground they need to make.

Full scoring is on the official PGA TOUR leaderboard (opens in a new tab), and the TOUR's Round 1 recap (opens in a new tab) has more.

Sources: PGA TOUR (Round 1 recap and leaderboard), AP, Reuters, Golf Today. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.