Rookie Mac Meissner posted eight birdies to tally 16 points and take a one-point lead at the Barracuda Championship on Friday in search of his first PGA Tour victory.
The 25-year-old American, ranked 154th in the world, produced a bogey-free round on the par-71 Tahoe Mountain Club course, where he opened with a one-foot birdie at his first hole, the 10th.
He added birdies at 11, 13, 14 and 16 and then made three more coming in, including a 35-foot birdie putt at the 4th and a 17-footer at his final hole, the 9th.
Meissner had a two-round total of 26 points under the Modified Stableford scoring system that awards points for birdies and eagles and subtracts them for bogeys and worse.
JJ Spaun was a point back in second after a second round that featured seven birdies and a bogey for 13 points.
“I’ve driven it well,” Meissner said. “Taken advantage of a lot of good iron shots.
“It was nice to see a couple of putts fall today,” added Meissner, who said recent work with his putting coach is “starting to click”.
Meissner said that after struggling to get comfortable in his first season on Tour, he finally feels he is “at a point where I know I belong out here, and I know that my good golf is good enough to win”.
This week’s tournament, played opposite The Open at Royal Troon, could be a perfect opportunity, and Meissner welcomed the unusual scoring system as a chance to play attacking golf.
“I think it allows you to be a little bit more aggressive just because birdies are worth more than a bogey hurts you,” he said. “I definitely have been a little bit more aggressive to tucked pins than I probably would normally be on a Friday or coming into the weekend.”
Spaun, who won his only PGA Tour title to date at the 2022 Texas Open, agreed.
“It’s fun,” he said. “Your good results outweigh your mistakes. It’s a little bit freeing out there.”
Canadian Taylor Pendrith and Americans Sean O’Hair and Chan Kim shared third on 24 points.
Pendrith had an eagle and six birdies with one bogey in his 16-point round. Kim tallied 15 points with nine birdies and a double-bogey, and Pendrith had an eagle and four birdies with one bogey to amass 12 points.
South Africans Jayden Schaper (T8) and MJ Daffue (T11) have a total of 22 and 21 points, respectively.
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