Kyle Westmoreland holds solo lead at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club

• United States Air Force veteran Kyle Westmoreland holds the solo lead after carding a first-round 6-under 66
• 23-year-old Ross Steelman, who finished solo third last week, opens with a 4-under 68
• Brandon Harkins, winner of the 2022 The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club, enters Monday positioned T3 after opening with a 4-under 68
• Kevin Roy and Dan McCarthy record the only bogey-free rounds Sunday, each sitting T9 at 3-under par
• The first round was suspended due to darkness and will resume Monday at 7:15 am ET with 30 players needing to complete the first round

Kyle Westmoreland (Leader/-6)

• Carded a 6-under 66 via one eagle, six birdies and two bogeys
  • Lone two bogeys of the day came on back-to-back holes at the third and fourth immediately before recording an eagle at the 342-yard par-4 fifth
  • Six birdies came on three par 5s (Nos. 1, 14, 18) and three par 4s (Nos. 7, 9, 16)
• This would mark his second-ever 18-hole lead on the Korn Ferry Tour after previously being an 18-hole co-leader at the 2023 UNC Health Championship presented by STITCH (finished solo fifth)
• Enters the week coming off a solo-fifth finish at last week’s The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay
• Making his second appearance at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club this week and first since 2022 when he finished 76th
• Played primarily on the PGA TOUR last year after earning his first TOUR card following the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour season
• In 32 starts made during the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season, Westmoreland made 10 cuts, and his best finish of the season was a T27 at the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open
  • Finished the 2022-23 season 196th in the FedExCup Standings
• Earned his first PGA TOUR card via the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Finals, finishing No. 25 within the group of 25 players awarded TOUR cards, becoming the first Air Force Academy graduate to earn a TOUR card
  • In the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour regular season, Westmoreland made 26 starts and finished No. 60 on the regular season points list to earn a place in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals
• In 37 career starts on the Korn Ferry Tour dating back to 2017, he has five top-10 finishes and nine top-25s
• While playing collegiately at Air Force from 2010-14, he tallied five individual victories
• Following graduation from the Academy in 2014, served a five-year term and attained the rank of captain in the United States Air Force
• Plays from Daniel Island, South Carolina

Quotables

Kyle Westmoreland on opening with a first-round 6-under:“I mean, it was great, great today. It played hard, everything you want, you know. You come to paradise and you expect for it to be windy here, so we got it today and I think we're going to get it the rest of the way in, too. Just one round down and three to go.”

Westmoreland on his game trending in the right direction:“I think we continue to work on it. Last year I learned a lot and at the end of the season, my game started to trend in a nice direction. Kind of working on the mental side as well as some technical things as well. It's been an awesome time for me. I loved (how) Q-School (played) and I feel like it prepared us well for windy conditions and so definitely been playing good for a while now.”

Chase Seiffert on his first-round 5-under 67: “I kind of didn't start out with my best stuff, but I played my way into a nice little front nine, then kept it going on the back. It was nice to post a really good score in the wind. I live on the coast of Florida, so I'm used to a little bit of wind, but it was pretty steady out here today. It seems like every time I've been here to Abaco it's been pretty windy, so I've played this course in a bunch of different conditions, which is nice for me.”

Notes

• Chase Seiffert (2nd/-5) posted a first-round 5-under 67 after carding an eagle at the par-4 seventh, along with five birdies (Nos. 3, 5, 14, 16, 18) and two bogeys at the par-3s sixth and 17th
  • Despite finishing T27 in this event last year, Seiffert sat inside the top 5 after each of the first three rounds – T2 after 18 holes, T2 after 36 holes, T5 after 54 holes
  • In 63 career Korn Ferry Tour starts, Seiffert has 10 top-10s, highlighted by runner-up finishes at the 2023 Visit Knoxville Open and 2019 Dormie Network Classic
• 23-year-old Ross Steelman (T3/-4) started his round with an eagle on the 572-yard par-5 first and rolled in five more birdies against three bogeys for a 4-under 68
  • Last week at The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay, Steelman finished solo third after a final-round 9-under 63 that tied the 18-hole tournament scoring record
• Brandon Harkins (T3/-4), winner of the 2022 The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club, sits two shots behind the lead after carding a first-round 4-under 68
  • Harkins is making his fifth start in this event and has made the cut each year, including a runner-up finish in 2020 as well as the aforementioned victory in 2022
• Braden Thornberry (T3/-4) tallied seven birdies against three bogeys en route to a 4-under 68
  • Appeared in this event two times previously and has posted finishes of T51 (2022) and T33 (2020)
  • Making his 81st career Korn Ferry Tour start this week; returned to the Korn Ferry Tour this season after placing T29 at Final Stage of 2023 PGA TOUR Q-School, guaranteeing starts in the first 12 events this season
• In his fourth-ever start at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club, Dawson Armstrong (T3/-4) opened with a 4-under 68 via seven birdies and three bogeys
  • A fourth-year Korn Ferry Tour member, Armstrong’s best finish in Abaco was a T7 in 2022
• Making just the second start of his Korn Ferry Tour career, 25-year-old Walker Lee (T9/-3) carded a first-round after logging seven birdies against two bogeys and one double bogey which came on his final hole of the day at the 425-yard par-4 ninth
  • Lee earned status for this season after placing third in the 2023 Totalplay Cup standings last year on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica (now PGA TOUR Americas after merging with PGA TOUR Canada)
• Kevin Roy (T9/-3) and Dan McCarthy (T9/-3) were the only players to record bogey-free rounds Sunday
  • Roy, who finished runner-up in last week’s event in Exuma, has finished inside the top 10 in each of his two appearances at this event (T4/2022, T9/2020)