Rahm rose to fifth in a Tour Championship with Hovland and Morikawa in command

The second day of the Tour Championship it served Jon Rahm to find the good feelings that were hard to come by on the first day. The Spanish player is tied for fifth xander schauffelefour strokes of a Victor Hovland and of a collin morikawa who share leadership.

In -16Norwegian and American surpassed -14 of Scottie Scheffler. keegan bradley fourth march with -13 and after he got out Rahm and Xander Schauffele with a -12 keeping them fully engaged in the fight. He didn’t stray too far from her either. Rory McIlroy seventh with -10 to close the list of big-name candidates for the final victory.

Is it true? rahm He started the day three shots behind Hovland, Bradley and Morikawa and closed it four shots from the Norwegian, but the truth is, despite the shot distance from the lead, the sensations were different for the Spaniard player on the second day. . Although two bogeys, He didn’t experience that moment of collapse that he experienced the day before and this allowed him to launch into seven birdies heading to a card of 65 strokes, five under par for the field. In other words, a boost of confidence for the match at the weekend, where he is fully involved and with all the options intact.

It was a day where he was comfortable with the long game, hitting the driver with authority and hitting a good position on the green. Jon has yet to make his first mid-range birdie choice on the 2nd hole, but Yes, those left more comfortable on the par four of holes 3 and 5 and on the par five of 6, after a good approach after going over the green. The joy was not complete for him in the first holes because, apart from a long putt that was not converted on the 4th hole, a trip to the par four of the 7th condemned him to a bogey that stopped the great loss – act where he started. his turn.

In fact, Rahm forgave an obvious birdie option on the 8th hole, another par four, but he soon resumed his great run. He couldn’t make a mid-range putt on hole 9, but recovered on the next two with birdies that kept him in the top spots. Of course, a very clear choice of birdie on 12, where the putt failed, again took something from his roadmapwith no comfortable position over the next three holes to win shots on the course.

However, his excellent long game, which left himself surrendering the birdie at 16 and reaching the green in two shots on the par five at 18, earned him two more birdies. In between, a bogey on the 17th that tarnished his card a bit after a short approach after going to the right of the green, but that didn’t tarnish a remarkable -5 on the day to stay in the match.

The other contenders did not disappoint either

The rest of the favorites follow suit as they too have shown good cards. Hovland and Morikawa lead at -16, two shots ahead Scheffler and has three advantages bradley The match was compressed into a day where all the main contenders for the title took advantage of the good playing conditions to sign good cards.

Too much Hovland like Morikawa they won six hits in the field each to continue in first place with -16. The Norwegian signed off with seven birdies and one bogey and launched into first place with a great final sprint. From the 12th to the 15th hole, Hovland was impressive in his search for the green and left great birdie positions that he finished with a putt. This became the strong point of his return and served him to share the first place in a morikawa who achieved six birdies without a miss, bordering on a long game at times: three of them were given after excellent hits to the flag on holes 1, 12 and 17.

He doesn’t leave the fight either scottie scheffler, with five birdies without a miss. Four of them came with good blows from the street that left him almost given the advantage, but the American was not able to increase his numbers in the sense from the middle distance, where he was not comfortable. Despite this, he is third with -14, one stroke ahead of a keegan bradley that he changed late in his round to a route of one birdie and one bogey until the 13th hole. Three more birdies since then keep him in fourth and in the match.

Meanwhile, tied with Rahm for fifth place is a xander schauffele who signed six birdies without a miss in the second round to lower his score to -12. He will still try to position himself in the fight for the win this Saturday, as a Rory McIlroy that he did not lose face in the fight for the FedEx Cup: he is seventh at -10 after signing four birdies and a bogey on Friday.

Classification after the second round (par 70)

1. Viktor Hovland (Norway) -16 (68-64)
1. Collin Morikawa (United States (-16) (61-64)
3. Scottie Scheffler (USA) -14 (71-65)
4. Keegan Bradley (USA) -13 (63-67)
5. Jon Rahm (Spain) -12 (69-65)
5. Xander Schauffele (United States) -12 (67-64)
7. Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) -10 (70-67)
8. Wyndham Clark (United States) -9 (68-67)
8. Matthew Fitzpatrick (England) -9 (67-68)
8. Tyrrell Hatton (England) -9 (64-67)