BOMBSHELL ANNOUNCEMENT: PENRITH JUMPS AHEAD AS BUCKLEY MISSES ………..
Canada’s Taylor Pendrith carded a brilliant second-round 64 to jump into a two-shot lead at the halfway stage of the PGA Tour’s 3M Open in Minnesota.
Pendrith carded seven birdies in windy conditions at TPC Twin Cities to move to 12 under, continuing his bogey-free start to the week and lifting him ahead of closest challenger Matt NeSmith.
The world No 59 holed a 55-footer at the par-three fourth and picked up a shot at the seventh to reach the turn in 33, with Pendrith adding further birdies at the tenth, 12th and 15th.
Pendrith made a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-fourth 16th and tapped in for another on the par-five last, lifting him top of the leaderboard as he chases as a second PGA Tour win of the season.
“Today was pretty tricky with the wind,” Pendrith said. “I didn’t really have many good looks through the first hour I would say of golf and was able to stay patient and make a couple, made a couple longer ones, which was nice.”
NeSmith, searching for his maiden PGA Tour title after losing in a play-off at the ISCO Championship earlier in the month, matched Pendrith’s 64 to hold solo second ahead of Andrew Putnam and first-round leader Jacob Bridgeman.
The 3M Open is the penultimate tournament of the regular season, with only the top 70 in the FedExCup standings after next week’s Wyndham Championship progressing to the FedExCup Playoffs.
Doug Ghim, Lanto Grifin, Jhonattan Vegas and Alex Smalley head into the weekend tied-fifth and a long way outside the current top 70 in the season-long standings, while Matt Kuchar and former US Open Champion Gary Woodland are in a share of ninth and five off the lead.
World No 11 Sahith Theegala – the highest-ranked player in the field – is also in the logjam on seven under that contains Sam Burns and former Open champion Stewart Cink, with 2022 champion Tony Finau a further shot adrift in tied-18th.
Nick Dunlap (64th in the FedExCup standings), Luke List (71st) and defending champion Lee Hodges (73rd) all missed the cut, with Haydn Buckley also making an early exit despite a hole-in-one at the par-three 17th.
