FORT WORTH, Texas ( Associated Press) — It’s been a good week in North Texas for Scott Stallings, first qualifying for the US Open that will be played less than an hour before he was born and now shares the lead in the Colonial with top Doing – Scotty Scheffler and Beau Hoesler were replaced.
Stallings hits 6-under 64 without a bogey On a relatively quiet Friday in Hogan’s Alley. This put the Massachusetts-born and ranked 206th in the world at 9-under 131, along with Dallas-area resident Scheffler and former University of Texas player Hausler, who had a bogey-free 65.
In one of the final groups of the day after Scheffler, Stallings and Hösler played in a morning wave, they tied with a 14-foot birdie putt on par-4 17th. And after going into the rough of his last drive, he remained par at No. 18.
“I think I needed to get a good score with the wind getting real low and the greens going crazy,” Scheffler said, without a bogey so far this week. “Yeah, I love that statue. Lots of fun. … I kept the stress off myself for the most part.”
There was a lot of calmness throughout the day on Friday. But hot and humid conditions are expected for round the weekend at the Charles Schwab Classic, with about 30 mph in the forecast and temperatures in the mid to upper-90s.
Scheffler and Hausler were among the colonial-record eight players who shared an 18-hole lead at 66. Stallings started the second round as one of seven others.
Patrick Reed made his opening 66 . matched was second with and at 8-under 132 in fourth place alone. 2015 Colonial champions Pat Perez (66) and Chris Kirk (67), who have not won on the PGA Tour since, were 7 under.
After missing the cut at last week’s PGA Championship like Scheffler, 37-year-old Stallings came to the Dallas area to play in a 36-hole qualifier on Monday for the US Open in Brookline, Massachusetts, next month. He made 8 shots in the under and finished 11th and entered his third US Open and 12th Major overall.
“It was a huge goal, probably my biggest goal of the year to play the open up,” Stallings said on Friday. “Probably the only time in my career I’ll have the opportunity to play a major championship in New England where at least half my family lives, my sister lives down the street.”
Stallings had eight birdies and five bogeys in his first round at the Colonial. There were no bogeys on Friday, and there were no birdies in the middle of rounds until four – numbers 8, 9, 11 and 12. The three-time PGA Tour winner added another at No. 14, then finished by rolling in one. 28 foot birdie putt.
Given the pace of qualifying for the US Open, “it was nice to have the week ahead, and take advantage of the day that we certainly haven’t seen very often here,” said Stallings, who was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. , but now lives in Tennessee, where he went to school at Tennessee Tech.
Jordan Spieth, another local favorite and number 9 in the world, scored 66. He birdied his first two holes and put a 35-foot birdie putt when he finished on the ninth hole. Spieth finished 12th at 5 under.
The 2016 Colonial champ, Spieth, was runner-up at Hogan’s Alley for the third time last year, when he led each of the first three rounds before falling in a last-group performance with Jason Kokerk on the final day. Kokrak is also beyond This year through two rounds.
Fifth-ranked Justin Thomas missed the cut three times in a week after winning the PGA Championship for the second time. His 72 on Friday included hitting 6 overs on a four-hole stretch in the middle of the round – bogeys at No. 7, 8 and 10, and triple-bogies at No. 9 without going into the water.
It is the second year in a row that the PGA winner has missed the cut at the Colonial next week. Last year it was Phil Mickelson.
Hausler, in his 136th PGA Tour event and still looking for his first win, had a more stable second round. After a thrilling end on Thursday, he had two Eagle 2s on his last four holes, though both holes came shortly after bogey-out.
“Sure, yesterday was an up-and-down round. Today felt clear, never really stress-free, but as stress-free as it’s going to be,” Hosler said. “It felt like I was in the game. I was never out of that position.”
Nick Taylor, ranked 244th in the world, took a singles lead for the second day in a row. The Canadian fell for part of a first-round lead with a bogey on his final hole, and on Friday shot 6-over 41 on his final nine holes after five birdies and 9-unders to make his turn. For.
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