FLOURTOWN, Pa. — Keith Mitchell held the first-round lead at three PGA Tour events earlier this season before falling out of the top spot. With the Truist Championship halfway over, he has shown some staying power.
The 33-year-old Chattanooga native and Baylor School graduate followed a career-best round with a 3-under-par 67 on Friday and maintained a one-shot lead after two rounds on the Wissahickon Course at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.
Mitchell, who led the way with a 61 on Thursday, offset his two bogeys Friday with five birdies, including a three-hole run on Nos. 3-5, and was at 12-under 128 through 36 holes.
Ireland’s Shane Lowry was second after a 65. Austria’s Sepp Straka (67) — who was one of Mitchell’s college teammates at Georgia — was another stroke back and alone in third.
Mitchell said he’s feeling more comfortable in the top spot. And it showed.
“I guess just being a little more comfortable in that position,” said Mitchell, whose lone PGA Tour win was at the Honda Classic in March 2019. “Playing well the last couple Thursdays, it’s just I feel like I’ve been there now three or four times. So trying to just build off of that and build into Friday, then Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s a four-round tournament. They don’t give any points or money out on Thursday. So I’ve got to keep it going.”
Two other Baylor graduates are in the field. Stephan Jaeger was tied for 10th at 6 under after a 69, while Harris English was another stroke back and tied for 15th after a 70. English had an eagle for the second day in a row, this time on the par-4 fourth hole after Thursday’s two-shot pickup on the par-5 15th.
The six-way tie for fourth at 7 under included Masters champion Rory McIlroy, who at No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking is the highest-ranked player in the field of 72 for this $20 million signature event. Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler sat this one out after winning the CJ Cup Byron Nelson last Sunday.
McIlroy has won this tournament four times, including last year in its final edition as the Wells Fargo Championship. Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the regular host course, but the Philadelphia Cricket Club is playing substitute because next week’s PGA Championship is at Quail Hollow.
One day after 64 players in the no-cut field broke par in nearly perfect weather and scoring conditions, the course was softened by overnight rain and the field dealt with on-and-off showers and temperatures in the 50s Friday. The result was longer irons into the layout’s modest par-4 holes and a more difficult 7,100-yard, par-70 test.
“We’re picking different spots today just with different clubs, but it played completely different than it did yesterday,” Mitchell said. “So it didn’t necessarily change our strategy. It really just changed the clubs we were hitting into the greens.”
Lowry was undeterred by the weather and posted the lowest round of the day. McIlroy (67) was joined at 7 under by fellow multiple major winners Colin Morikawa (70) and Justin Thomas (67), as well as multiple-time PGA Tour tournament winners Akshay Bhatia (70) and Patrick Cantlay (68).
Denny McCarthy, who was one stroke off the lead going into the day, fell off the pace and was at 5 under after a second-round 73.
Mitchell was steady throughout, never wavering from his preplanned strategy on the A.W. Tillinghast design that opened in 1922. He followed bogeys at Nos. 2 and 11 with birdies and described the bounce-back holes as “huge.”
“If you get going in the wrong direction with momentum on a day like today, it can really catch you,” he said.
Lowry, who opened with a 64, birdied four of his first eight holes. After a bogey at the 10th, he bounced back by making a 53-foot birdie putt at No. 11 and had another birdie at the 15th.
He discounted the notion that he has an advantage over most players in chilly, damp conditions just because he hails from Ireland.
“Everyone says that to me every day when it rains,” he said. “I live in South Florida, and I plan to be there now. … I think I’m able to handle them probably better than a few people, but I don’t particularly like or enjoy going out and playing in these conditions.”
McIlroy had an uneven round of six birdies and three bogeys. The 36-year-old from Northern Ireland hasn’t wavered in his aggressive approach to playing the Wissahickon Course, but on Friday his long-distance success came on the greens. McIlroy drained putts from just shorter than 10 feet on No. 12, close to 29 feet at No. 14, 17 feet, 4 inches at No. 15 and nearly 28 feet at No. 18 — all on his first nine holes. He finished with 126 1/2 feet of putts made.
McIlroy has won three times this season — at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February and The Players Championship in March before getting his first green jacket in April — but he acknowledged his game needs some tuning up after taking most of the past two weeks off. Thursday was his first solo round of competition since winning the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, although he did team up with Lowry for a 12th-place finish at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans two weeks after his victory at Augusta National.
With the second major tournament of the year coming next week, the two-time PGA Championship winner has a few things he’d like to get in order.
“I felt like today was another sort of scrappy one,” McIlroy said. “I made what I feel are some uncharacteristic mistakes compared to how I’ve played the majority of the year.
“So just got to try to iron that out over the next couple of days, try to shoot a couple of scores without as many bogeys on the card. If I can do that and just tidy it up a little bit, I feel like I’ll be in a good spot heading into next week.”
Meanwhile in Myrtle Beach
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Mackenzie Hughes of Canada shot a 2-under 69 in windy conditions for a share of the second-round lead with Cristobal Del Solar of Chile in the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic.
A stroke ahead after an opening 63, Hughes had four birdies and two bogeys in his afternoon round at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club.
“I’m in a good spot going into the weekend.” Hughes said. “There’s a bunch of guys there with a chance. Nothing changes tomorrow. Just keep doing my thing and see where it puts me.”
Del Solar rebounded from a bogey on the par-4 eighth with a closing birdie on the par-3 ninth. He shot a 67 in the afternoon to join Hughes at 10-under 132 through 36 holes.
“I’ve been putting in the work, playing good golf, feeling more comfortable,” Del Solar said. “Happy to be where I am.”
The winner of this opposite-field tournament gets a spot in next week’s PGA Championship if not already eligible. That’s not the case for Hughes, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour who already is in the field at Quail Hollow.
Nick Watney, a 44-year-old player who hasn’t won in 13 years, was a stroke back after a 67, along with Will Chandler (69), Harry Higgs (66), Davis Shore (66) and Danny Walker (67).
Baylor School graduate Luke List was tied for 45th at 3 under after a 68. This is his fifth made cut in 12 solo starts this season, with Friday’s round ending a run of four missed cuts in a row during individual competition. List tied for fourth place two weeks ago at the Zurich Classic, where his teammate was Henrik Norlander.