After finishing up his first round on a sour note early Friday morning, PGA Tour rookie Sahith Theegala made up for it with a seven under par 64 to jump out to a two-shot lead after two rounds of the Waste Management Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Arizona.
There was frustration for both of the Irish involved as Graeme McDowell and Seamus Power failed to make the cut. Power finished on one under, one stroke ahead of McDowell but ultimately both fell below the cut line of two under.
Theegala stood at seven under through 16 holes Thursday when play was suspended due to darkness. He returned to TPC Scottsdale on Friday and closed his promising first round with back-to-back bogeys.
However, his second round of eight birdies and just one bogey propelled him to 12 under 130, two strokes ahead of Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele. Patrick Cantlay is alone in fourth at nine under.
“I wasn’t too upset about the way (the day) started,” Theegala said. “Like I had a 15-footer to start the day, so I was like, ‘OK, I just put a good roll on it and see what happens.’ I put a good roll, just missed.
“And the next tee shot I put it under the lip of the fairway bunker and I’m like, ‘OK, I can’t do much about that, right?’ And I knew if I kept putting the ball in the fairway I’m going to have scoring opportunities, so it was nice to reset for the 30 or 40 minutes that I had in between the rounds there.”
Theegala, a three-time All-American at Pepperdine University, is playing the event on a sponsor’s exemption arranged by his agent. His only career top ten finish on tour came last October at the Sanderson Farms Championship, where he tied for eighth.
He is aiming to become the fifth player since the start of the 2014-15 season to win an event after entering on a sponsor’s exemption. The list currently includes Martin Laird (2020 Shriners Children’s Open), Matthew Wolff (2019 3M Open), Billy Hurley III (2016 Quicken Loans National) and Padraig Harrington (2015 Honda Classic).
Koepka carded his second straight 66. He leads the field in greens in regulation through two rounds, hitting 32 of 36.
Schauffele made four birdies on the front nine en route to a bogey-free 65 to move into a tie with Koepka. Cantlay also kept bogeys off his card and shot a 66.
“I drove the ball and putted really well today,” Cantlay said. “I didn’t hit a lot of great iron shots, but I hit a couple close coming down the stretch. ... When the greens are this good and you can get in a nice rhythm, you can make a bunch of putts out there, and today I did.”
Theegala’s 64 was tied for the low round of the day with Talor Gooch and Sam Ryder. Gooch is tied for fifth with Max Homa (65 on Friday) and Canada’s Adam Hadwin (68) at eight under. Ryder is tied for 13th at six under.
Gooch rolled in four birdies on the front nine and three on the back nine while remaining bogey-free. One of his birdies came at the par-three 16th, famous for its enclosed stadium seating.
“Oh, there’s nothing like it in golf, we all know it,” Gooch said. “It’s such a cliche, but it’s so true, there’s nothing like it and it’s the only time you feel like you’re at Lambeau Field or somewhere that’s not golf. So it’s a fun energy and it gets you hyped up.”
Notables who missed the cut included Harold Varner III (2 over), who won the Saudi International last week, and Norway’s Viktor Hovland (2 over), who has risen to number three in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Scottsdale Collated Collated second round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour Waste Management Phoenix Open TPC Scottsdale, Arizona, United States of America
(USA unless stated, Par 71):
130 Sahith Theegala 66 64
132 Brooks Koepka 66 66, Xander Schauffele 67 65
133 Patrick Cantlay 67 66
134 Talor Gooch 70 64, Adam Hadwin (Can) 66 68, Max Homa 69 65
135 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 68 67, Tom Hoge 69 66, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) 65 70, Alexander Noren (Swe) 67 68, J. T. Poston 69 66
136 Keegan Bradley 68 68, Brian Harman 68 68, Billy Horschel 67 69, Chris Kirk 70 66, Kevin Kisner 67 69, Patton Kizzire 71 65, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 68 68, Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 69 67, Sam Ryder 72 64, Bubba Watson 67 69
137 Branden Grace (Rsa) 68 69, Kramer Hickok 70 67, Martin Laird (Sco) 70 67, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 70 67, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 67 70, Jon Rahm (Spa) 67 70, Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 69 68, Scott Stallings 67 70, Justin Thomas 67 70, Brendon Todd 68 69, Cameron Young 68 69
138 Stewart Cink 67 71, Corey Conners (Can) 72 66, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 70 68, Brice Garnett 69 69, Lucas Glover 73 65, Harry Higgs 66 72, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 70 68, Keith Mitchell 69 69, Adam Scott (Aus) 68 70, Kevin Tway 68 70
139 Joseph Bramlett 73 66, Kevin Chappell 70 69, Austin Eckroat 70 69, Garrick Higgo (Rsa) 70 69, Charley Hoffman 67 72, Zach Johnson 69 70, Luke List 73 66, Troy Merritt 72 67, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 70 69, Scottie Scheffler 68 71, Jordan Spieth 70 69
140 Joel Dahmen 71 69, Doug Ghim 69 71, Russell Henley 71 69, Stephan Jaeger (Ger) 73 67, Matt Jones (Aus) 72 68, Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor) 70 70, Russell Knox (Sco) 72 68, Peter Malnati 69 71, Ryan Moore 69 71, Sepp Straka (Aut) 72 68, Brian Stuard 71 69, Hudson Swafford 71 69, Martin Trainer 71 69
The Following Players below missed the cut
141 Sam Burns 68 73, Tyler Duncan 70 71, Rickie Fowler 71 70, Matt Kuchar 68 73, Adam Long 71 70, Guillermo Mito Pereira (Chi) 70 71, Seamus Power (Irl) 71 70, Andrew Putnam 70 71, Patrick Rodgers 70 71, Gary Woodland 68 73, Benjamin Silverman (Can) 72 69
142 Wyndham Clark 74 68, Luke Donald (Eng) 71 71, Tony Finau 74 68, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 70 72, Denny McCarthy 70 72, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 68 74, Scott Piercy 71 71, Chez Reavie 69 73, Roger Sloan (Can) 72 70, Robert Streb 71 71
143 Daniel Berger 73 70, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 73 70, Lucas Herbert (Aus) 70 73, Kelly Kraft 70 73, Pat Perez 73 70, Brandt Snedeker 72 71, Brendan Steele 75 68, Michael Thompson 70 73, Jimmy Walker 70 73, Beau Hossler 72 71, Jonathan Byrd 71 72
144 Cameron Davis (Aus) 75 69, Brian Gay 73 71, Bill Haas 70 74, James Hahn 73 71, Viktor Hovland (Nor) 72 72, Charles Howell III 75 69, Nate Lashley 71 73, Matthew NeSmith 74 70, Chengtsung Pan (Tai) 74 70, Harold Varner III 75 69
145 Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 70 75, Danny Lee (Nzl) 76 69, Kevin Streelman 72 73
146 Brandon Hagy 73 73, Hank Lebioda 74 72, William McGirt 73 73, Etienne Papineau (Can) 73 73
147 Seung-Yul Noh (Kor) 72 75, Henrik Norlander (Swe) 75 72, Kyle Stanley 73 74, Nick Taylor (Can) 72 75, Matt Wallace (Eng) 71 76, Aaron Wise 72 75, Jeffrey Kang 72 75
148 Craig Hocknull (Aus) 74 74, Preston Summerhays 75 73, Hayden Buckley 73 75
149 Tyler McCumber 76 73
151 Wesley Bryan 77 74, Nick Watney 78 73
152 Jason Dufner 75 77
155 Chesson Hadley 77 78
156 Adam Schenk 81 75
