Zach Bauchou closed his bogey-free round with birdies at Nos. 17 and 18 to post a 9-under-par 62 and take the outright lead at the Bank of Utah Championship on Thursday in Ivins, Utah.
The PGA Tour rookie was part of a seven-way tie for the lead at 8 under when he two-putted for birdie at the par-5 finishing hole at Black Desert Resort. The 62 marked his career-best round on tour.
“You have a lot of long shots into the greens here,” said Bauchou, who led the field by making 17 of 18 greens in regulation. “You do have some reachable holes, and those are the holes you’re going to score on, but you have a lot of shots from 175 and 200 (yards), and it’s not always that easy to hit a 6- or a 7-iron on the green or even close to make a birdie. So that’s kind of where you’ve got to focus this week.”
Bauchou, 30, is not only hunting for his first PGA Tour title but also is aiming to maintain his tour card in the FedEx Cup Fall series. He entered the week No. 86 in the points standings and would rocket to No. 51 with a win.
The top 100 players at the end of the fall earn full status for 2027, and finishing Nos. 51-60 gets players into the first two signature events of next season.
“To be honest, I’m not a big goal-setter,” Bauchou said. “I just try to do the best I can every day, try to improve every day. I felt like I spent some time the last couple weeks reflecting on the season. Felt like I played pretty solid most of the year, just didn’t have that many high finishes. But like when I looked at my strokes gained, I was like 40th in strokes gained, which for being almost 90th on the FedEx Cup, that’s a pretty big disparity.
“Yeah, just try to improve when I’m home and know that I am actually playing probably better than what my results are.”
Nine players wound up tied one back at 63: David Lipsky, Steven Fisk, Kevin Roy, Kevin Streelman, Nick Dunlap, Austin Smotherman, Canadian Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Germany’s Stephan Jaeger and Englishman Jordan Smith, who holed out for albatross at No. 18 to finish 5 under over his last three holes.
Smith was 238 yards from the pin and watched his approach shot take one long bounce on the side of the green and track directly to the cup. He held his arms out in disbelief as he waited for confirmation that he had found the hole.
“It took a nice favorable bounce on the green and it sort of shot it towards the hole, but then it goes over a bit of a crest and we couldn’t see it, and then everyone was cheering, putting their arms up, so then we knew,” Smith said. “Yeah, pretty special.”
It tied him for the lead at the time and, according to the tour, marked the fifth albatross of the 2026 season.
Yellamaraju is a rookie like Bauchou, and also like Bauchou, he shot his career-low round with an eventful 63. He rallied after double-bogeying his second hole (No. 11) and recorded two eagles, the first at No. 18. The latter capped a hot streak on the front nine, in which he followed four straight birdies with an eagle at the par-5 seventh, where he sank a 13-foot putt.
“Perfect tee shot, perfect approach. Just a perfect putt. Again, three good shots, can’t ask for anything better than that,” Yellamaraju said.
South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Canadian Nick Taylor, fresh off competing in the Presidents Cup last week, opened the tournament with rounds of 7-under 64 and are tied with defending champion Michael Brennan, John VanDerLaan, Garrick Higgo of South Africa and Rico Hoey of the Philippines.
Joel Dahmen and Max Homa were part of a large tie for 17th at 6-under 65.
Jackson Koivun, the only member of the victorious U.S. Presidents Cup team who is back in action this week, carded a 2-under 69 and is tied for 65th.
–Field Level Media
