Rookie Austin Hitt grabs first career lead after Round 1 at Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper

Things to know

• Korn Ferry Tour rookie Austin Hitt cards his career-low round with a bogey-free, 10-under 62 to claim the first 18-hole lead/co-lead of his career.
• Daniel Miernicki, Cooper Dossey and Richy Werenski post 9-under 63s to trail by one stroke – a career-best round for Miernicki.
• Fifteen players sit T8 or better and within three strokes of the lead, including 2024 Korn Ferry Tour winners Isaiah Salinda and Cristobal Del Solar.
• This is the 35th playing of the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper at Highland Springs Country Club in Springfield, Missouri.
• Preferred lies were in effect for the first round.

First-round lead notes

• 10: First-round leaders/co-leaders to win the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper
• 0: First-round leaders/co-leaders to win on Tour in 2024

Charting the leader

Austin Hitt (leader/10-under)

• Cards the lowest round of his Korn Ferry Tour career with a bogey-free, 10-under 62 (previous best: 2024 LECOM Suncoast Classic/65/R1)
• Made 10 birdies, on Nos. 1, 3, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18
• Second lead/co-lead of any kind in what is his 19th career start on the Korn Ferry Tour
• Held the co-lead after 36 holes at the 2024 Panama Championship
• Owns three top-25 finishes in 17 starts this season (best finish: T11/The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay/The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club/The Panama Championship)
• Begins the week No. 57 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List
• Finished No. 4 in the 2023 Totalplay Cup standings to earn Korn Ferry Tour membership for the first time
• Finished T97 at Final Stage of 2023 PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry, leaving him with conditional status for the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season
• Posted runner-up finishes in back-to-back events last season on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica en route to his No. 4 finish in the 2022-23 Totalplay Cup standings
• Played the 2021 and 2022 seasons on PGA TOUR Canada, finishing No. 68 and No. 33, respectively, in the Totalplay Cup standings
• Turned professional in 2021 after five seasons at University of North Carolina (2016-21), where he finished with the fourth-lowest career scoring average in program history (72.20)
• Resident and native of Longwood, Florida

Quotables

Austin Hitt on his career-low bogey-free 10-under 62: "I feel like everything was pretty solid. I feel like I was rolling the ball really nice. Kind of freaked me out with the irons, kind of started out with a real squirrelly tee shot off the first, but chipped in on the first hole, which kind of settled things in. Yeah, was rolling the ball nice today.”

Hitt on his first season on the Korn Ferry Tour: "I feel like I had a really nice start to the year which kind of secured my status for the season. I feel like with the breaks in the middle and not getting to play a lot back home, I feel like it took me a while to kind of find my game. Even about four, five weeks ago I feel like I turned a corner, even though I wasn't seeing results. It kind of feels like a second half of the season for me. Yeah, feeling a lot better.”

Cooper Dossey on his first round 9-under 63:“Yeah, I hit a lot of greens today. The two greens I missed I made bogeys, but I putted it great. I've dealt with some problems all year on the greens, and I found a putter that works for me and I'm super comfortable out there now. It's a weight off my shoulders and my mind. So I was hooping a lot, so it was a good day. I had a couple loose tee shots, but other than that everything was right in front of me and I felt super in control.”

Dossey on his up and down finishes this season:“Just been playing good all year. Just because I missed cuts doesn't mean I'm not playing well. I missed a lot of cuts by one, I missed a lot of cuts by two. It's frustrating, but this game forces you to be patient, even though patience is really hard in golf. I'm doing good things and I'm hopeful that what I'm doing is going to keep paying off.”

Notes

• The last player in the field, Daniel Miernicki (T2/9-under) posts a bogey-free 9-under 63 – highlighted by a hole out for eagle from 165 yards on the par-4 12th – for the best round of his career.
• The former Oregon Duck made seven birdies along with his eagle, including a stretch of five straight from Nos. 7-11, holing two more on Nos. 15 and 17.
• Cooper Dossey (T2/9-under), who is making his first career start at the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper, records the lowest opening round of his career with a 9-under 63.
  • The Austin, Texas, native made nine birdies (Nos. 1, 3, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18) and an eagle (No. 8) against two bogeys (Nos. 16, 17).
• PGA TOUR winner Richy Werenski (T2/9-under) dropped a 17-foot eagle putt on the par-5 11th along with seven birdies (Nos. 1, 2, 6, 7, 13, 17, 18) en route to a bogey-free 9-under 63.
  • Werenski has made the cut in his two previous starts at this tournament, including a runner-up finish in 2016.
• John Augenstein (T5/8-under) made eight birdies (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 8, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18) against one bogey (No. 6) to post an 8-under 64 in Thursday’s opening round.
  • Made one cut in two previous starts at the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper; finished T37.
• Bejing, China native Yi Cao (T5/8-under) matches the low round of his career with an 8-under 64, making birdies on Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 14, 15, 16, 18 with one bogey on No. 2.
  • Earned Korn Ferry Tour membership for the first time this season with a No. 5 finish on the 2023 Fortinet Cup points list on PGA TOUR Canada (now PGA TOUR Americas).
• Shad Tuten (T8/7-under), making his seventh start of the 2024 campaign, carded a 7-under 29 on the front nine and an even-par 36 on the back – making one birdie (No. 15) and one bogey (No. 18) – to finish with a 7-under 65.
  • Tuten owns two top-25 finishes in three previous starts at the Price Cutter Charity. Championship presented by Dr Pepper (best finish: T20/2022).
• Joey Garber (T8/7-under), who finished No. 72 on the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, plays the first round bogey-free with an 8-under 64; made birdies on Nos. 1, 2, 7, 8, 12, 14, 16.
• Nick Gabrelcik (T16/6-under), making his sixth career start on Tour, cards a bogey-free 6-under and holds the best 18-hole position of his young professional career (previous: T21/Compliance Solutions Championship).
  • Finished No. 5 in the 2024 PGA TOUR University Ranking after four seasons at University of North Florida, earning Korn Ferry Tour membership for the remainder of the 2024 season and an exemption for Final Stage of 2024 PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry.
• Past champion Max McGreevy (T16/6-under), who earned his first career Korn Ferry Tour victory at this event in 2020, posts a 6-under 66 with five birdies (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 11, 16) and an eagle on the par-5 18th against one bogey (No. 10).
  • McGreevy secured his return to the PGA TOUR next season with his second career victory at the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS earlier this season.
• Sponsor exemption Carr Vernon (T16/6-under) and Gregory Odom Jr. (T26/5-under) posted rounds of 6-under 66 and 5-under 67, respectively, in Thursday’s opening round.
  • Vernon, a Poplar Bluff, Missouri, native, has made three cuts in six starts this season on PGA TOUR Americas.
  • Odom helped lead the Howard Bison men's golf program to its first-ever NCAA Regional appearance and Northeast Conference title this past season.