Louis Oosthuizen will have one hole to play on Saturday to complete his second round as he looks to make up the seven-shot deficit to leader Collin Morikawa.
Two storm delays did little to dampen Morikawa’s Friday as he ran off four straight birdies after making the turn. He finished with another birdie after the first of the delays and shot six under 66.
Remarkably, he was six shots ahead when he finished. He was four shots ahead of Sam Burns when his side of the field finished. But the lead was down to three after some remarkable play by Justin Thomas (66) and Kevin Streelman (64) in surprisingly strong gusts that followed the storm.
Morikawa’s 13-under halfway tally was one shot off the 36-hole course record set by Jason Dufner in 2017 at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide.
Oosthuizen is currently in a share for tenth. He struggled to find the fairways and greens in regulation but did gain nearly two shots on the field on the greens.
He had work to do early after finding the water on his second hole. Birdies at his 6th, 7th and 9th holes – all totalling just 25 feet worth of putts – helped pull him back towards the top of the pile.
From there he rattled off six straight pars before an up and down from the greenside bunker propelled him further up the board. A miss from 12 feet after finding the sand on his round’s penultimate hole dropped him back once again.
Monday qualifier MJ Daffue is hovering just inside the weekend number. And that is despite a double early on. Three straight birdies to complete his outward nine helped spark the fightback.
He has four holes to play to ensure his heroics earlier in the week pay off.
Charl Schwartzel won’t be around this weekend after rounds of 73 and 71. Likewise Dylan Frittelli, who is +3 for the day and +4 for the championship with four holes to play.
