The Harris English “strategy” for the TPC Southwind is working quite well and the former University of Georgia golfer added a 65 to his opening 62 on Friday and built a three-shot lead at the midway point of the WGC-St. Jude.
English is 13-under par, two clear of Cameron Smith (67-62) and Abraham Ancer (67-62) and it was the long-haired Smith who was getting most of the attention during the second round action.
Smith used only 18 putts on his way to an eight-under round. He became the 12th player to match the PGA Tour record for fewest putts in a round and was the first to putt just 18 times since Xinjun Zhang at the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Television cameras caught Smith counting up his putts as he walked up to the 17th hole. “I had no idea,” he said of the record. “I thought for sure someone would have had 17 for some reason.”
His round included four hole-outs from off the green, including three from the fringe and another from a greenside bunker. Not counting those putts made from the fringe, he holed 110 feet worth of putts on Friday. “I felt like I was hitting lots of nice shots that were just going off the green, and I made a couple of them,” he said. “That’s just how it went, but still a pretty cool record.”
As for English, he is a quiet man and simply said he’ll just continue to work his strategy on a course where he’s had success.
Ian Poulter (66), Scottie Scheffler (65) and Sam Burns (64) were all tied at 10-under.
Grillo Sets The Pace At Barracuda:
Emiliano Grillo put up a ridiculous 19 points on Friday and seized the halfway lead at the Barracuda Championship.
Grillo shot 63 at the Tahoe Mountain Club and leads with a total of 29 points using the tournament’s Modified Stableford scoring system.
Adam Schenk actually shot a lower score on Friday (62) and his nine-under par round earned him 19 points and he’s two back of Grillo.
First round leader Joel Dahmen mustered 10 points and sits alone in third with 26 points.
2 Comments
baxter cepeda
With the Olympics going strong these pga tour events feel kinda small but Cams record tying 18 putts definitely deserves big time attention.
It’s an obvious golf dream to do something like 18 putts;
Same as hitting 18 greens. 18 putts is obvio more than just a putting accomplishment; it is a sublime short game accomplishment from one of the best short games in golf.
It’s not as big as a gold medal but it’s quite a feather in the cap for Cam.
Tom Edrington
I think he’d rather simply win the tournament