Matthew Fitzpatrick carded the lowest World Golf Championships round of his career to take a two-shot lead into the weekend at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
The Englishman made seven birdies and a single bogey to sign for a brilliant 64 and get to nine under, leading the way from Spaniard Jon Rahm, Americans Billy Horschel and Patrick Cantlay, and Australian Cameron Smith.
Japan’s Shugo Imahira was then at six under, a shot clear of Swede Alex Noren, English pair Ian Poulter and Justin Rose, world No 1 Brooks Koepka and his fellow Americans Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson.
Fitzpatrick is a five-time European Tour winner and has now moved himself right into the mix for a first World Golf Championships title, with his best finish so far a tie for seventh at the 2015 WGC-HSBC Champions.
A victory at TPC Southwind would also extend his remarkable record of having won at least once in every season since claiming his playing privileges at the 2014 Qualifying School.
‘I’m not on anyone’s radar every week, it’s great,’ he said.
‘Obviously you want to get to that stage where you are on the radar and you’re doing press conferences every week but, at the same time, being where I am is not an issue. It’s a nice place to be. I think the golf course probably suits me a little bit more than most. If you miss a fairway, you don’t know how it’s going to come out of the rough, so that makes it tougher.
‘If I can just keep hitting fairways and greens then you give yourself a lot of chances. Hopefully from there, just keep doing what I’m doing really.
‘I just made my putts. It’s something I’ve struggled to do this year. Previous years I’ve been playing great and end of last year and majority of this year I’ve struggled a little bit.’
Louis Oosthuizen carded a 69 to move alongside countryman Justin Harding, albeit down in 47th place and some 11 strokes off the lead.
SA’s No 1 failed to capatilise on hitting 15 greens in regulation on Friday. He started brightly with a short birdie on the par-five third but handed that right back after a three-putt bogey on the next.
A missed fairway on seven had him move over par before he lasered in an iron into the ninth to turn level. He moved back into red numbers rolling in a short-range putt on the par-three 11th but once again handed the gain right back after taking on the approach on the 12th but coming up short in the water.
Oosthuizen missed from 11 feet on the par-five 16th to remain level for the day but that wasn’t the case for long as another precision iron – this time from 160 yards – left him able to convert from inside six feet.
Harding was level for his Friday with a mixed bag that included a bogey from the middle of the fairway on his first hole, holing out from 170+ for eagle on the 13th and in the end, not taking advantage of a round that yielded three birdies.
