The China Mail - Young fires 59 to grab share of early lead at PGA Travelers

The 27-year-old American walked off the course with a share of the lead early in the third round at 13-under 197 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.

Others on 13-under included top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, second-ranked Xander Schauffele, fellow American Akshay Bhatia and South Korea's Tom Kim.

Young, runner-up at the 2022 British Open, had seven birdies to go with his two eagles to match the second-best round in PGA history.

The only 58 in PGA history was fired by fellow American Jim Furyk at the final round of the Travelers in 2016.

"It's certainly pretty cool," Young said. "It's fun to have your name on a list that short. But there's some full tournaments that I probably would rank above it in terms of just like overall achievement. I feel like one day doesn't necessarily warrant like a crowning achievement of a career.

"I'm sure I will pretty much try to forget by tomorrow and go through my routine and see what I can do tomorrow," added Young, who started the day tied for 43rd in pursuit of his first US PGA Tour title.

Young's round was the PGA Tour's first 59 since current world number one Scottie Scheffler shot 59 at TPC Boston in the 2020 St. Jude Championship.

He got things going early with birdies at the first and second, then holed out from 142 yards in the fairway for an eagle at the par-four third.

He followed a 19-foot birdie at the fourth with birdies at the eighth and ninth, two putted for birdie at the par-five 13th then eagled the par-four 15th, where his tee shot bounced short of the green and rolled up to leave him a four-foot putt.

He missed a birdie chance at 16 but drilled a five-footer at 17. He preserved his sub-60 round with a testing par putt from outside nine feet at the last.

Young said he knew by the time he made the turn his round was "just, like, really good.

"Then didn't really think much about it until the putt went in on 15. Then I hit two really good putts on 16 and 17, then obviously 18 as well.

"I didn't think about it too much kind of the middle of that back nine, just because it didn't really feel all of a sudden like everything was going in after 10, 11, 12.

"Then all of a sudden I had a putt for 59 on 18 which was a blast.

"I would have preferred not to have to make a 10-footer, but I did and thankfully it went in."

L.Johnson--ThChM