FLOURTOWN, Pa. – Keith Mitchell held the first-round lead at three tournaments earlier this season before falling out of the top spot. He’s showing staying power at the Truist Championship.
Mitchell followed a career-best round with a 3-under 67 on Friday and maintained a one-shot lead after two rounds at Philadelphia Cricket Club's Wissahickon Course.
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Mitchell, who led the way with a 61 on Thursday, offset two bogeys with five birdies, including a three-hole run on Nos. 3-5, for a 12 under total.
Shane Lowry was second at 11 under after a 5-under 65, and Sepp Straka (67) was another stroke back. Defending champion Rory McIlroy shot a 3-under 67 and was tied in a large group for fourth.
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,” Mitchell said. “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.”
One day after 64 of the 72 golfers in the no-cut field broke par in near-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: longer irons into Philly Cricket’s modest par 4s and a more difficult 7,100-yard, par-70 test for the sixth signature event of the PGA Tour season.
Lowry was undeterred by the weather and posted the lowest round of the day, while McIlroy was joined at 7 under by Justin Thomas (67), Colin Morikawa (70) and Patrick Cantlay (68), among others.
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-backs 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 closed out the round with 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 while playing in his first individual tournament since completing the career Grand Slam at the Masters last month.
McIlroy hasn’t wavered in his aggressive approach to playing the Wissahickon Course, but on Friday the Northern Irishman’s long-distance success came on the greens. He drained putts from just under 10 feet at 12, close to 29 feet at 14, 17 feet, 4 inches at 15 and nearly 28 feet at 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 Pebble Beach, the Players Championship and Augusta National — and is a four-time champion of this event. He acknowledged that his game needs some fine tuning after taking most of the last two weeks off. He is also preparing for next week’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, where he has won four times.
“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.”
Denny McCarthy, who was one stroke off the lead after the opening round, fell off the pace and is at 5 under after a second-round 73.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf