Casey Wittenberg leads after round one of the News Sentinel Open
The two-time Web.com Tour winner Casey Wittenberg showcased a superb putting display to charge into an early lead in Thursday's opening round at the News Sentinel Open Presented by Pilot.
On a firm and fast-running layout at the sun-drenched Fox Den Country Club in Knoxville, Wittenberg fired an impressive eight-under par 63, to hold off a pack of six players, two strokes behind him.
Patrick Sheehan, Lee Janzen, Will MacKenzie, Doug LaBelle II, Alex Aragon and Kevin Foley shot a 65 each to tie for the second position. Further a stroke back was a crowd of 11 players sharing the eighth position.
Wittenberg got off to a confident start on the back nine of the course and recorded a birdie on the very first hole that he played. Afterwards, he complemented that with another four birdies and a sparkling eagle for a seven-under par score on his front
nine.
Despite getting off to a solid start, he failed to maintain consistency and recorded two bogeys on the first three holes of the outward nine. Two birdies on the fifth and the eighth hole allowed him to take the commanding position on the leaderboard.
"I hit some great iron shots on my front nine," said the Oklahoma State Cowboy. "I drove the ball in the fairway which set me up for some good chances to hit good approach shots".
The highlight of his performance includes an 8-iron shot from 158 yards on the 17th hole that drew back on the green and entered the cup for the eagle.
"I was fortunate to have that ball go in on 17," Wittenberg says with a grin. "I hit a good shot but got a good break as well. It was just one of those things”.
According to him, he needs to remain consistent in the upcoming rounds along with recording much lower scores in order to remain on the top at the end of the tournament.
"It's one of those golf courses where you have to shoot low scores," he explained. "And I'm still going to have to go lower than this to get into contention".
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