PINEHURST — The rain Monday didn’t stop the top of the field from a batch of low scores to open the 2023 U.S. Adaptive Open Championship.
Connor Stone from the Republic of Ireland started his day at Pinehurst No. 6 with a bang, carding an eagle on the opening hole. Stone proceeded to play the front two-under and had a strong bogey-free back nine to accompany his three birdies to end day one with the solo lead at five-under.
Close behind the opening day leader is last year’s men’s champion Simon Lee, who had an impressive day himself. Lee had a steady day, carding five birdies and one bogey to sit in solo second place, right on Stone’s tail, heading into day two.
Kipp Popert started his tournament with one of the hottest nine-hole scores in the Championship’s short history. Popert carded a five-under 31 on his opening nine holes, including a hot streak with four consecutive birdies to grab the solo lead around the halfway point of the first round.
Popert’s round came to a halt when he ran into trouble on the 10th hole of the day when he shot a double bogey on the par five first hole and then bogeyed the following hole to give back a chunk of his front-nine score. Popert did steady the ship afterwards and sits in solo third, two strokes behind the leader.
On the women’s side of the tournament, Ryanne Jackson holds the overnight lead after carding a plus-4 76 on Monday. Jackson holds a four-stroke lead over the nearest competitor and five-stroke lead over last year’s Champion Kim Moore.
Amanda Cunha, Moore, Natasha Stasuk, Chris Oviatt and Abigail Davis top a clustered leaderboard behind Jackson with only six shots separating the top six golfers.
