It’s now a matter of weekend pursuit at the Tour Championship.
Henrik Stenson separated himself from the rest of the field at East Lake on Thursday and on a rainy Friday, Jordan Spieth did his best to close the gap.
Stenson added a 68 to his opening 63 and he’s at nine-under and perfectly positioned to win the FedEx Cup on Sunday but perhaps Spieth may have something to say about it.
Spieth used only 23 putts in the second round and his 66 was the day’s best effort on a drizzly day at East Lake. Stenson is alone at the top at nine-under par but Spieth hit a nice six-iron into the 18th hole and drained a 20-foot birdie putt that got him within three of the leader at six-under.
Spieth and Stenson will be paired on Saturday. Spieth admitted that his iron game wasn’t all that sharp. “My wedge made up for a lot of stuff today.” He got the ball up-and-down from everywhere and did a pretty good job of avoiding the penal rough. “You have to hit the fairway, the bermuda rough is ridiculous,” he pointed out after his round.
Paul Casey will go into moving day four back while Zach Johnson is five off Stenson’s lead.
Points leader Jason Day has a lot of ground to make up over the next 36 holes. He shot 71 and is in at even par.
The formula is simple for Stenson. If he wins on Sunday, he’s the FedEx Cup overall winner. He’s trying to do what he did in 2013 — lead the Tour Championship from wire-to-wire.
