A poor second round from John Huh opened the door at the Wyndham Championship, with Brandon Wu, Kim Joo-hyung and Ryan Moore capitalising to claim a share of the lead at nine under heading into the weekend.
Huh was two strokes clear after his opening round nine-under 61, but he was 10 shots worse on his second trip around Sedgefield Country Club, shooting a one-over 71 to sit one off the lead.
Of the three leaders, Kim had the best round with his 64, posting seven birdies and one bogey, with Moore shooting a 66, and Wu getting around in 67. All three posted top-five putting days according to Data Golf's strokes gained stats, with Kim leading the field (4.61 strokes gained), Moore third (3.31) and Wu fifth (3.06).
One stroke off the lead along with Huh is American Russell Henley and South Korea's Im Sung-jae, with India's Anirban Lahiri part of the next group at seven under.
Japan's Satoshi Kodaira and Australia's Brett Drewitt are in the group tied for 10th at six under, England's Tyrrell Hatton is at five under, and Sweden's Henrik Norlander rode the second-best putting performance of the day to reach the weekend at four under.
Will Zalatoris responded to a poor opening round with a 66 to sneak one stroke inside the cut-line, Adam Scott and Michael Gligic are right on the cut-line at two under, and pre-tournament favourites Shane Lowry and Corey Conners missed out by one stroke.
Competitive three-day junior golf trials begin at Caymanas Golf Club
The first-round of the three-day Jamaica Golf Association national junior golf trials took place at the Caymanas Golf Club on Friday.
Ten players in the Girls 18 & under, Boys and Girls 15 & under and Boys and Girls 13 & under age- groups began their journey for a place on Jamaica’s team to the Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championship in the Cayman Islands from July 3-8. The Boys 18 & under completed their trials two weeks ago.
The scores from Friday's action showed some very competitive match-ups.
Emily Mayne and Mattea Issa both scored five over par 77 to be joint leaders in the Girls 18 and under category. They each posted two birdies and seven bogeys on the day.
Aaron Ghosh and Davin Hogan scored 83 and 98 respectively in the Boys 15 and under age-group while Anoushka Khatri shot 89 and Samantha Azan shot 94 in their respective first-rounds in the Girls 15 & under age-group.
The three players in the boys 13 & under category, Kemari Morris, Shasha Redfelsen and Cameron Coe, are closely tracking each other after round one with scores of 85, 89 and 91, respectively.
The lone representative in the girls 13 & under category is Alessandra Coe who scored 91 for her first round.
Second round action begins with all golfers teeing off at 9:00 am on Saturday.
Rahm knocked out by Horschel at WGC Match Play as Scheffler and McIlroy progress
Jon Rahm was the major casualty from the WGC Match Play on Friday as Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay all advanced with perfect records.
The Spanish second seed was dumped out after losing 5 and 4 to 2021 WGC Match Play winner Billy Horschel in their final Group 2 match at the Austin Country Club in Texas.
Horschel went 1-up with a par on the second hole and never relinquished the lead, with Rahm failing to register a birdie throughout the day's play.
The 36-year-old American pulled away with birdies on the 10th and 11th holes followed by a 21-foot birdie putt on the 14th to clinch a spot in the round of 16 against Cameron Young.
Horschel progressed in a tight group with a 2-0-1 record ahead of Rickie Fowler (2-1-0), Rahm (1-2-0) and Keith Mitchell (0-2-1).
Top seed and reigning champion Scheffler advanced after beating Tom Kim 3 and 2 to round out a 3-0-0 group stage record.
Kim came out strong with birdies on the first two holes to go 2-up, but Scheffler rallied back immediately winning three of the next four holes.
Third seed McIlroy topped Group 3 unblemished after beating Keegan Bradley 3 and 2, while fourth seed Cantlay beat Brian Harman 2 and 1 to top Group 4 with a 3-0-0 record.
Kurt Kitayama won a three-way sudden death playoff over Tony Finau and Adrian Meronk to progress atop Group 10.
Canadian Mackenzie Hughes produced an upset to advance via Group 12 from Taylor Montgomery who he beat 6 and 4. Jordan Spieth, who beat Hughes on Thursday, missed out after losing to Shane Lowry 2 and 1.
J.J. Spaun also pulled off a surprise by topping Group 11 with a 3-0-0 record, downing Min Woo Lee 2 and 1 to seal his progress.
Max Homa, Xander Schauffele, Andrew Putnam, Matt Kuchar, Sam Burns, Lucas Herbert, J.T. Poston, Jason Day and Young also all progressed into Saturday's last 16 knockout stage.
Wallace holds Corales Puntacana lead as he chases maiden PGA Tour triumph
Englishman Matt Wallace leads the Corales Puntacana Championship by one stroke at the halfway point ahead of American pair Sam Stevens and Wyndham Clark.
Wallace, who was third after the first day, carded a second-round six-under-par 66 on Friday to be 11-under overall at the picturesque Puntacana Resort's Corales Golf Course in the Dominican Republic.
The 32-year-old Englishman has never won a PGA Tour event but has a golden opportunity with most of the world's top-ranked players competing at the WGC Match Play.
Wallace's second round was bogey free, carding birdies in four of his final six holes to claim the lead, with early leaders Brice Garnett and Ben Martin scoring 70 and 72 to slip down the leaderboard.
Stevens and Clark are 10-under overall, with the former managing eight birdies with one bogey in his seven-under round.
Clark also carded a seven-under 65, including an eagle on the par-five fourth hole to help launch his surge up the leaderboard.
Tyler Duncan, Akshay Bhatia, Nicolaj Hojgaard and Garnett, who won the event in 2018, are all tied for fourth at eight-under overall. Bhatia carded the best round of the day, with a nine-under 63.
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