Korn Ferry Tour Rookie Noah Goodwin takes solo 18-hole lead at Veritex Bank Championship

Things to Know

Korn Ferry Tour rookie and Dallas resident Noah Goodwin cards 9-under 62 and holds his first lead of any kind in sixth start on Tour

Goodwin holds a one-stroke lead over Argetinians Alan Wagner and Alejandro Tosti, who card 8-under 63s to stand T2

Michael Gligic rolls in 10 birdies, the most of any player in the field Thursday, to sit T4 after a 7-under 64

Wilson Furr cards eagles his first and last hole Thursday (par-5 10th and ninth) and is the only player in the field with multiple eagles

Eighteen players are within three strokes of the lead

Second-round tee times will run from 7:15 a.m. through 2:41 p.m. off the first and 10th tees

First-Round Lead Notes

0: First-round leaders/co-leaders to win Veritex Bank Championship

0: First-round leaders/co-leaders to win on Tour in 2023 (last: David Lingmerth/2022 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship)

Noah Goodwin (1st/-9)

In his rookie season on the Korn Ferry Tour, holds his first lead of any kind in sixth start on Tour; his previous career-high 18-hole position was T16/Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard (finished T28)

Carded 9-under 62 Thursday, including one eagle (par-4 first) and nine birdies against two bogeys

Birdies his final five holes (Nos. 5-9) to mark the lowest round on Tour in his young career, topping his previous best of 66 from the first and third round of the Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard

Making sixth career Korn Ferry Tour start (all in 2023); his season-high finish is T28/Astara Golf Championship

Earned conditional Korn Ferry Tour membership for 2023 season with No. 3 finish on the 2022 PGA TOUR Canada Fortinet Cup Standings off the strength of two victories in 10 starts

Played five seasons at Southern Methodist University (2018-22) prior to turning professional last summer

Decorated amateur career included a win at the 2017 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship (defeated Matthew Wolff in the title match) and back-to-back AJGA Rolex Junior Player of the Year awards in 2016 and 2017 (joined four other players who won the award in consecutive years: Tracy Phillips, 1979-80; Phil Mickelson, 1986-88; Tiger Woods, 1991-92; Brian Harman, 2003-04)

Quotables

Noah Goodwin on Thursday’s first round… “I got off to a little bit of a rough start. I bogeyed my third hole to go 1-over and putts weren't really looking good to me. Told my caddie, Sunshine, to just give me reads for the rest of the day and it worked out pretty good in my favor, so I think he's going to keep reading everything for me for the rest of the week. I just hit some good golf shots. I made a few mistakes, but I didn't let them get to me and I just bounced back really well all day.”

Goodwin on having to miss Final Stage of the Qualifying Tournament due to sickness… “It 100 percent stung. You get to go to Final Stage and I had already got decent status with finishing up third up in Canada, so I knew I pretty much had like four starts. Yeah, it definitely hurt. I felt great about my golf game at the time and you're watching everybody else go out and play and you're just like, ‘That could be me. I could be out there competing alongside with them.’ Then from there it's like, ‘Man, I only have four starts, I could have gotten some more out of it.’ I had to buckle down, realize that I still had good opportunities with those four, and I could just only focus on what I could control at that point.”

Goodwin on playing PGA TOUR Canada… “Canada was an awesome experience. It taught me how to go low, it taught me how to put it all on the line, and with points up there and everything, it's such a short season, wins, top-twos, threes are so important. It just taught you how to reach for the stars every single time. Then if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out and you go on to the next week. I think that time in Canada definitely helped me just kind of… you keep the pedal down, you keep focusing on what you can kind of control and eventually it will all turn out okay.”

Alejandro Tosti on his bogey-free first round… “I came from a good tournament in Chile, I went home, had a good time and I was really looking forward to start again to play. Now we have a nice stretch of tournaments, so my goal coming in today was try to hit good shots and try to roll the ball good, which I've been doing. And today the ball went in the hole a lot of times, so it was great.”

Notes

Alan Wagner (T2/-8) matches his career-high 18-hole position following a bogey-free 8-under 63 (T2 at 2023 The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club/finished T17)

Coming off a career-high finish of T7 at the Astara Chile Classic, Alejandro Tosti (T2/-8) opens with a career-low bogey-free 8-under 63 (previous career-low round: 7-under 64/2018 Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank, Round 4)

Tosti sits T2 after 18 holes for the second time this season (Club Car Championship at The Landings Golf & Althetic Club/finished T7)

Both Wagner and Tosti earned Korn Ferry Tour membership via the 2021-22 PGA TOUR Latinoamérica Totalplay Cup standings (Wagner finished No. 6 and Tosti finished No. 5), and both earned guaranteed starts in the first eight events with top-40 finishes at Final Stage of the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament

In his fourth career Korn Ferry Tour start and first of the season, rookie Hurly Long (T7/-6) cards 6-under 65; he holds fully exempt status for 2023 via the “Floor of Five” category from the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Finals

Riding a streak of three consecutive top-10s, Brett Drewitt (T4/-7) opens with a bogey-free 7-under 64 with an eagle on his final hole, the par-5 ninth

Sponsor exemption and Veritex Bank ambassador Parker Coody (T7/-6) cards a 6-under 65 as he seeks first made cut in fourth start of the season

University of Texas-Arlington alum and Texarkana, Texas native (now playing out of Benton, Arkansas) Zack Fischer (T19/-5) cards six birdies against one bogey for 5-under 66; he finished T39 at the 2022 Veritex Bank Championship