Dustin Johnson still looks like the man to beat after 36 holes of the Tour Championship, he’s separated himself from just about all the field except for one man.
Kevin Chappell hasn’t won on the PGA Tour but he’s played well enough for two days at East Lake to get within a shot of seemingly untouchable D.J.
Johnson’s 67 on Friday got him to seven-under par, a shot in front of Chappell, who shot 68.
Johnson, the No. 1 player in the FedEx Cup standings, looked like he might pull three shots ahead but a pair of errant drives at the 17th and 18th gave him a bogey-par finish.
“I played better than I scored,” was how Johnson assessed his second day of action. “I played really solid, I just didn’t get anything out of it. Still, three-under is a good score out here. I missed a short par putt at 17 and didn’t birdie 18. I’m very comfortable with my golf swing.”
Johnson’s bogey at 17 came when his tee shot missed the fairway right in the thick rough and he came up short left of the green. He hit a great pitch that stopped just five feet from the hole but he missed the putt. At 18, his three-wood tee shot missed left and his second found gnarly rough short right of the green. The best he could do was get it about 12 feet from the hole and that birdie putt ran six-feet by. He made the comeback however.
Chappell had a good chance to tie Johnson at the 18th. He was just short of the green in two but hit a mediocre pitch that stopped eight feet short of the hole. He missed the tying birdie.
Four shots back are Kevin Kisner and Hideki Matsuyama at three-under par.
Of the top five, Johnson is in great shape. Patrick Reed, second coming in, is three-over and tied for 19th, Adam Scott (No. 3) is even par and tied for 11th. Paul Casey (5th) is the closest at two-under and in a tie for fifth.
Jason Day’s season ended when his ailing back acted up again. It was the same problem that caused him to withdraw from the BMW two weeks ago. Day finished seven holes. At the eighth, he pulled his tee shot into the water, took a drop, his driver again then pulled out when his back started hurting.
