Ben Crane has been basically missing in action on the PGA Tour.
He missed his last two cuts and wasn’t even in the field for the Players Championship last week.
He’s ranked 405 in the world and who would have figured he’d shoot 63 on Friday at the TPC Four Seasons to take the Bryon Nelson lead at the halfway mark?
He is 12-under par after putting up eight birdies for his day’s work and holing a birdie putt from just inside 12 feet at his final hole of the day, the ninth for his go-ahead birdie.
He has a pack on his heels, including the local hero and crowd favorite — Jordan Spieth — the world’s No. 2 who says his game is getting better. “It was nice to make some putts,” said Spieth, who has hit 33 of 36 greens the first two days. His 65 put him at 11-under par with Ryder Cup hopeful Brooks Koepka, first round leader Sergio Garcia and Bud Cauley, who is playing on a major medical exemption for now.
Wes Roach made it an even half-dozen players to get to double-digits under par. He’s at 10-under.
The scoring has been low due to wet conditions that made the greens receptive the past two days. Add the lift-clean-and-place rule and when you let PGA Tour players get their hands on the ball and play from perfect lies, you get low scores. And yes, add to that the fact that there has been little to no wind the first two rounds.
Large crowds turned out Friday to watch and root for Spieth. “I’m excited thinking about the weekend,” Spieth said. He finished in the top 20 in this event as a 16-year-old and now will have a chance to win if he can get better over the next two days.
