Justin Rose is going to take some catching at Torrey Pines after the world’s top-ranked player fired a second round 66.
Rose methodically picked apart Torrey Pines with his irons to grab a three-shot lead over Hideki Matsuyama. He is five clear of Jon Rahm (72), Ryan Palmer (67) and Bill Horschel (68), who share third.
The reigning FedExCup champion, a nine-time PGA TOUR winner, hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation en route to equalling the halfway mark at the Farmers Insurance Open at 15 under.
‘Listen, it’s the halfway point. If I had a three-shot lead going into Sunday, then it would be worth kind of thinking about game plan and strategy, but as of now I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing,’ said Rose.
‘If you can go out and make four, five birdies a day, you’re going to maybe drop the odd shot around here, it doesn’t take much to do that, so if you can stay positive and make your birdies, then it becomes harder to catch someone.
‘I’ll just pick my moments really and if I’m feeling good and I’ve got good numbers, go at it. If not, par’s never a bad score here.’
Rose has finished T4 and T8 at Torrey Pines the last two seasons.
All three South Africans – Charl Schwartzel (70, 73) , Dylan Frittelli (72, 71) and Brenden Grace (70, 77) failed to advance to the weekend.
Leaderboard:
129 – Justin Rose (ENG) 63-66
132 – Hideki Matsuyama (JPN) 66-66
134 – Ryan Palmer 67-67, Jon Rahm (ESP) 62-72, Billy Horschel 66-68
135 – Joel Dahmen 68-67, Kim Si-woo Kim (KOR) 67-68, Bae Sang-moon (KOR) 68-67
136 – Rory McIlroy (NIR) 71-65, Adam Scott (AUS) 70-66, Sepp Straka (SUI) 69-67, Sam Burns 70-66, Bud Cauley 66-70, John Huh 68-68, Charles Howell 66-70, Wyndham Clark 69-67, Doug Ghim 63-73
137 – Robert Streb 69-68, Adam Svensson (CAN) 70-67, Hank Lebioda 70-67, Talor Gooch 69-68, Michael Thompson 68-69, Brandon Hagy 66-71, Beau Hossler 67-70, Chris Stroud 66-71, Jonas Blixt (SWE) 68-69, Russell Knox (SCO) 67-70, Jordan Spieth 65-72, John Chin 66-71
