Austin Cook is making the most of his unexpected start at the Bank of Utah Championship, sitting tied for the lead at 6-under when darkness halted Thursday’s first round at Black Desert.
Cook shares the top spot with Thorbjorn Olesen, Jesper Svensson and David Lipsky, who all posted complete rounds of 65 on the distinctive course framed by red dirt and black lava rock. Cook still has work to do, facing a 20-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole when play resumes Friday morning.
It’s been quite a journey to the leaderboard for Cook. The one-time PGA Tour winner was literally at the beach with his family when his tournament status changed.
“Saturday got all the way down to first alternate. I felt like I was going to get in so I helped drive everybody home on Sunday and flew out Monday and on the plane I got a text,” Cook said. He replaced Erik van Rooyen, who had withdrawn.
This marks just Cook’s eighth start of the year, making his strong opening even more impressive.
Olesen’s solid start came despite significant travel fatigue. The Danish player had crisscrossed continents in recent weeks, traveling from Mississippi to Spain, then to his Dubai home before flying to Utah.
“I would say my expectations were pretty low this morning,” Olesen admitted. “But did some recovery work the last few days and just tried to get the body ready for today.”
The leaderboard features several players with significant FedExCup implications. Olesen (No. 116), Svensson (No. 115) and Lipsky (No. 99) are all hovering near the crucial top-100 cutoff. With just three tournaments remaining after this week, players must finish inside that number to secure full cards for the 2026 season – a threshold that’s been reduced from the previous 125-player standard.
Paul Peterson sits one shot back after an extraordinary turnaround. He stood 2-over through eight holes before catching fire with six birdies and an eagle to post 66.
Black Desert’s unique layout offers plenty of scoring opportunities but punishes wayward shots severely. Billy Horschel learned this the hard way. The veteran, who missed five months this year recovering from hip surgery, was cruising at 1-under until disaster struck on the 11th hole.
Horschel’s adventure in the desert resulted in a quadruple-bogey 8. After finding trouble off the tee, he attempted to play from the desert only to find the black lava. His drop wasn’t much better – trying to balance on rocks while playing from red dirt, he sent his shot left of the green. A pitch and three putts later, he’d dropped four shots.
To his credit, Horschel bounced back immediately by driving the 14th green and converting the eagle putt, then adding a birdie on 15 to salvage a 72.
Max Homa also experienced the course’s Jekyll-and-Hyde nature. He reached 3-under before finding water off the tee on 13 for a double bogey. Though he drove the 14th green for a birdie, soft bogeys on 16 and 17 dropped him back to even par with one hole to play when darkness fell.
Alex Noren finished with a solid 67. The Swede, who was sidelined by a leg injury until May, is working to climb back inside the top 100 in FedExCup standings. The former BMW PGA Championship winner and European Ryder Cup vice captain sits just two shots off the lead heading into Friday.
The 38 players who didn’t complete their rounds will resume at 8 a.m. local time Friday.
