What at first seemed a bit like a Brooks Koepka loss turned into an eclectic qualification on Friday morning at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Koepka is still involved, but is now chasing instead of leading from the front.
Koepka is not alone among the hunters. He is joined by Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, Webb Simpson and Justin Thomas. They are all trying to defeat Brendon Todd, who is the only double figure player under par so far this week with 11 under. Let’s take a look at your round and what the rest of the board looks like as you enter Round 3 on Saturday.
1. Brendon Todd (-11) – I care about non-elite golfers who exist at the top of the leaderboards depending on the situation. Todd is hitting the ball well, but most of his 36-hole shots have been earned on the greens in this event. This is not sustainable in a mediocre field, much less in is field where the best players on the planet are on the lookout.
2. Rickie Fowler (-9) – Two really clean days from Fowler, who has only two bogeys in the first 36 holes and is second on the field in proximity to the hole. I keep going back to something he said Thursday about not thinking about the swing anymore, but thinking about trying to hit the shots. He has been working through some swing adjustments, and it seems like it has taken them so far to really hit.
“[I] “I really focused a little bit more on things I could think about or keep things simple when it comes to thoughts,” Fowler said this week. “What I can do on the golf course is thoughtful versus working on the swing on the field and how to separate that … just trying not to worry too much about the swing and rethinking some fundamentals and how the body moves and the weight on the right side, and when the weight turns to the left, I just allowed myself to go play and take golf shots. “
You can’t exist for long on the PGA Tour worrying about all those different nuances, and Fowler’s stats and score reflect that he’s less concerned about that and more about what the letter actually says.
T3 Ben, An, Chez Reavie Brooks Koepka (-7) and 6. Sung Kang (-6) – Koepka made three 3-foot putts on his 11th hole of the day and finished last on the field by putting on Friday. Not well. The best news is that this is the best thing you have accomplished in the entire year. He is the first from the tee to the green and the first in approach shots. The swing looked tremendous again on Friday despite the 1 over 71. If this is possible, I’m actually plus I cheered up after Friday the 71st after Thursday the 62nd because now I’ve seen a trend of multiple events of him hitting the ball very, very well. You should stay all weekend.
T7 Sungjae Im, Louis Oosthuizen, Webb Simpson, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Jason Day (-5) – The encouraging thing about Day is that he has been doing it more from the tee to the green than with his putter (which is often how he used to do it). The day, despite a back that looks like it could go away at any moment, has been really good in silence for the past month. It was my choice to sleep this week at 40-1. I’m not really interested in whether he actually wins given the quality of this board, but at least it looks like he might make it interesting in the past two days.
S12 Kevin Na, Justin Thomas (-4) – I may or may not say this simply because it was my choice this week, but Thomas’ statistical profile is absolutely perfect if you are looking for someone who makes a great weekend effort. Thomas is in the top five from tee to green and bottom 10 to put. The putter will recover from how abysmal it has been for the first two days, and will probably fire a couple of rounds in the mid-1960s. Or at least that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself.
CBS Sports was with you the entire time updating this story with the latest scores, updates and highlights below. Check out live scores at the top of this story or a more detailed leaderboard.
