PGA Tour: Austin Cook goes from late entry to share of lead at Bank of Utah Championship before play is suspended at Black Desert | Golf news
Austin Cook went from a late entry to a share of the lead at Black Desert in the Bank of Utah Championship after making six birdies before darkness halted a slow round.
Thorbjorn Olesen, Jesper Svensson and David Lipsky each posted a six-under 65 on the unique course lined with red dirt and black lava rock.
Cook was also six under and facing a 20-foot birdie putt on the reachable par-four 14th when it was too dark to continue. The afternoon departures were delayed by 15 minutes. The 38 players who did not finish had to start again in the early morning.
Cook had few complaints. A sole winner on the PGA Tour, this is only his eighth start of the year. He was well down the substitute list and was at the beach with his family, planning to play Monday’s qualifier.
“Saturday was until the first sub. I felt like I was going to go in, so I helped bring everyone home on Sunday and flew out on Monday and on the plane I got a text message,” he said. Cook replaced Erik van Rooyen, who had retired.
Olesen was also surprisingly pleased with his departure. He was in Mississippi for the Sanderson Farms Championship, then the Dane returned to Europe to play in the Spanish Open, went home to Dubai and then came to Utah.
“I would say my expectations were pretty low this morning,” Olesen said. “But I did a little bit of recovery work the last few days and just tried to get the body ready for today.”
Olesen is ranked 116th in the FedExCup and he has company on the bubble. Svensson is at No. 115 and Lipsky is at No. 99.
After this week, there are only three tournaments left in the season for players to finish in the top 100 in the FedExCup to keep their cards full for the 2026 season. The top 100 has been reduced from 125 players keeping their cards a year ago.
The group one shot behind at 66 included Paul Peterson, who was two points for his round through eight holes until finishing with six birdies and an eagle.
There are a lot of birdie chances at Black Desert and a lot of problems. Billy Horschel, who missed five months this year due to hip surgery, was one under for his round until he started the back nine with a bogey, then took a quadruple-bogey eight on the 11th hole.
He tried to get out of the desert and found himself in black lava. Horschel took a penalty, still playing in the red dirt while trying to balance some rocks. This shot went left of the green. He pitched and then three-putted from just under 20 feet.
Horschel at least bounced back by driving the 14th green to 20 feet and making the eagle putt, then adding a 12-foot birdie on the par-three 15th. He recovered a 72.
Max Homa was trying to get closer to the leaders and hit three under until going into the water on the 13th for a double bogey. He also bounced back while driving the 14th green (he birdied), but lost further ground with a soft bogey at the 16th and failed to save par from a bunker at the par-three 17th. He even reached par and made a 27-foot birdie on the 18th which will begin his day on Friday.
Alex Noren finished his round at a four-under 67. A leg injury kept the Swede out until early May and he is trying to get back into the FedExCup top 100. Noren won the BMW PGA Championship in England – the flagship event of the European Tour – and was vice-captain of the Ryder Cup-winning European team.
Watch ongoing coverage of the PGA Tour’s Bank of Utah Championship live on Sky Sports Golf from 9:30 p.m. Saturday.
