Noh Seung-Yul yesterday wowed his home fans with a best-of-the-day 65 in testing conditions at the CJ Cup and then revealed he had not played in weeks because of impending military service.
The South Korean was without a caddie this week and had to ask his “quite useful” dad to carry his bag as he returned a card 14 strokes better than his opening 79 at Nine Bridges Golf Club on Jeju Island.
His seven-under-par round was even more remarkable, as the feared Jeju Island wind finally bared its teeth, meaning the likes of first-round leader Justin Thomas struggled to a two-over-par 74 after his opening nine-under 63.
“I only found out on Sunday that I had got into this event,” said Noh, who won the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans in 2014. “I start my military service in a month, so for a long time I hadn’t actually played any golf.”
The 25-year-old flew to Jeju on Monday having laid off his regular caddie who he uses in the US before joining the army for two years, a mandatory requirement for all South Korean young men.
“I needed a caddie and I remembered I had worked with my father at the Genesis Open and I found him to be quite useful, so that’s how he has joined me here,” Noh said.
The wind caused a logjam at the top of the leaderboard, with the top 14 players within four strokes of each other. It also wreaked havoc with the cards of some notable players, as the course bit back hard after a low-scoring day on Thursday.
Malaysia’s Gavin Green on Thursday shot six-under 66 for a share of second place, but had the devil’s own luck with six, six, six from the fourth to sixth holes yesterday.
By the time he registered a seven on the long 12th, it was the fifth double-bogey of a chastening round of 10-over-par 82 for the 23-year-old Asian Order of Merit, leaving him tied for 64th in the 78-man field.
Green’s former US college foe, 23-year-old PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Xander Schauffele, also carded a sorry 82, less than a month after winning the Tour Championship. His card contained two triple-bogey eights, at the third and ninth, with just a solitary birdie at the short 13th.
Fellow American Cody Gribble’s round was almost over before it began, as he took a quintuple-bogey nine on the first on his way to a disastrous 81.
Taiwan’s Pan Chung-tseng yesterday carded a five-over 77 to leave him sharing 67th.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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