AFTER IMPRESSIVE PERFORMANCES yesterday, Irish players, Shane Lowry and Graeme McDowell saw their form slip today at the RBC Heritage in South Carolina.
Lowry is now placed in a tie for 14th; McDowell in a tie for 55th. They both shot rounds of 66 yesterday to flirt with the top of the leaderboard but now Lowry is five shots adrift of leader, Patrick Cantlay.
For McDowell the situation is much worse. He shot 76 today, five-over par, with the damage coming on the back nine, where he posted four bogeys.
Lowry’s day was somewhat better. He may have dropped 11 places on the leaderboard but five shots is a manageable gap to try and close.
The Offaly-man bogeyed 1,6,11 and the par-3 fourteenth; but also birdied the par 5s at 2 and 15 as well as a superb two at the par-3 seventh.
Leading the way is Cantlay who followed up his 66 with a round of 67 today.
Cantlay birdied his last four holes to break out of a crowd and take a two-shot lead over Robert Streb in the US PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage at Hilton Head, South Carolina, on Friday.
Cantlay defied winds gusting up to 30 miles per hour (48.28 Km/h) to finish strong at Harbour Town Golf Links, punctuating his round with a 20-foot birdie putt at the last.
The FedEx Cup champion’s seven birdies on the day also included a 30-footer at the fourth.
“Obviously that’s a dream finish,” Cantlay said. “I finally rolled in some putts, and that was really nice to see going into the weekend.
“It was a tough day out there, and I figured any round under par or around even par would be a win for today. So finishing how I did puts me in a great spot for the weekend.”
Cantlay was five-under for the tournament — trailing a big group on six-under — after his third bogey of the day at the 14th.
He rapped in a 13-foot birdie at 15, a 10-footer at 16 and an eight-footer at 17 before his final flourish.
He said the hardest part of dealing with the wind was the unpredictability.
“It wasn’t blowing a consistent direction at all,” he said. “So you have to kind of wait for your wind and really — sometimes you hit good shots and they don’t go to good places on days like today.
“You just have to accept that and realize you’re doing the best you can and kind of be easier on yourself than normal.
“I thought I kept in a good frame of mind and really stuck to my game plan and just tried to focus as hard as I could.”
Streb opened his round with a watery bogey at the 10th hole, but he drained a 38-footer for birdie at 14 and sank an 11-foot birdie at 15 to get things going, then birdied three more holes coming in despite finding the winds “pretty tough.”
“Getting it around in the wind was really good for me,” Streb said. “It’s kind of one of those things, you catch a bad gust here or there, you can end up in a pretty bad spot without hitting a bad ball. It felt like I kind of got lucky. I got most of the time the wind I was hoping for and made some putts.”
South African Erik van Rooyen and Americans Cameron Tringale, Cameron Young, Aaron Wise and Joel Dahmen shared third on six-under 136.
Tringale had four birdies without a bogey in his 67. Van Rooyen and Dahmen also posted 67s while Wise shot a 68 and overnight leader Young signed for a two-over 73.
Leading second-round scores on Friday in the US PGA Tour RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, South Carolina (USA unless noted, par-71):
133 – Patrick Cantlay 66-67
135 – Robert Streb 68-67
136 – Cameron Tringale 69-67, Aaron Wise 68-68, Erik van Rooyen (RSA) 69-67, Cameron Young 63-73, Joel Dahmen 69-67
137 – Chad Ramey 67-70, Joaquin Niemann (CHI) 65-72, Sepp Straka (AUG) 66-71, Matt Kuchar 68-69, Mito Pereira (CHI) 66-71, Jordan Spieth 69-68
138 – Camilo Villegas (COL) 71-67, Patton Kizzire 67-71, Matthew NeSmith 70-68, Adam Hadwin (CAN) 69-69, Jason Kokrak 70-68, Hudson Swafford 69-69, Corey Conners (CAN) 66-72, Billy Horschel 69-69, Shane Lowry (IRL) 66-72
* additional reporting from AFP
