Amid a bevy of worldwide flags on the Genesis Scottish Open leaderboard, a pair of People sit in direction of the highest.
Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala are 9-under par by 36 holes, three pictures again of chief Ludvig Åberg, who carded a 6-under 64 for the second straight day on Friday.
Morikawa signed for a 4-under 66, whereas Theegala posted a 5-under 65.
“It was scrambling at this time,” Morikawa stated of his second spherical.
“I felt like driver, which has been my power all 12 months. I misplaced it somewhat bit at this time. It was just a bit bit out of sync, however it occurs, and I used to be capable of make some putts, make the birdies, and provides myself sufficient probabilities.”
Morikawa nonetheless hit 8-of-13 fairways on Friday, however just one misfire led to a bogey. He pulled his opening tee shot effectively left of the golf green on the par-5 tenth, which led to a gap six. He then bounced again with three birdies over his subsequent six holes.
In the meantime, Theegala had a barely higher time off the tee, discovering the brief grass on 10 events. However a kind of three misses price him dearly. He pushed his drive proper of the golf green on the 479-yard par-4 18th—probably the most difficult holes PGA Tour professionals will face all 12 months. Theegala then hit his method left of the inexperienced, hit his third into the bunker, and wound up making a double-bogey six. He didn’t make a bogey exterior of that and as an alternative made seven birdies.
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“I actually take pleasure in hyperlinks golf,” Theegala stated.
“Simply need to plot your means round, and I really feel like that’s type of the power of my recreation. I don’t actually essentially sack a whole lot of pictures or hit the loopy shot. I simply put it in the correct locations, however yeah, it was a very nice spherical at this time.”
Fortunately, Morikawa and Theegala—and the remainder of the sector—haven’t needed to cope with the damaging winds and blinding rain that the Scottish local weather usually brings.
“It was actually eerie the final two days; it has not blown greater than ten miles per hour, and it’s 65 levels,” Theegala added.
“I’ve taken my jacket off within the first 5 holes of the spherical, which, on a full seven-day journey out right here, and I can’t take it off as soon as. So been actually fortunate with the climate, and , with out a little little bit of climate, the golf course doesn’t present an excessive amount of tooth.”
The benign situations assist clarify why scores have been low to date, however that can change over the weekend. Climate in North Berwick, Scotland, requires rain and wind on Saturday and Sunday, doubtless resulting in increased scores and frustration whereas entertaining followers world wide.
However the climate additionally serves as an excellent equalizer, particularly with a bunched leaderboard similar to this.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in Via. You should definitely take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You’ll be able to observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.