Robert MacIntyre was happy ‘Walking in Memphis’ after his birdied four of his closing six holes in a fighting 67 on day two of the WGC – FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
MacIntyre was struggling with the shortest club in bag to just one-over through 12 holes but started seeing the hole like a bucket in holing a 10-footer for birdie at the 13th.
Scotland’s top-ranked then holed a four-and-a-half footer for birdie on 15 and then followed that up draining a birdie of 17 feet at 16 and then sending a 20-footer to the bottom of the cup at the par-4 17th,
The effort moved the Oban lefty to four-under and just outside the top-20 in the £stg 7.6m event.
Robert MacIntyre ‘Walking in Memphis’ to birdie four of his closing six holes on day two of the WGC – FedEx St. Jude Invitational
MacIntyre said: “It was a good round of golf today and it was good to play well. I felt like I have not been getting the scores of late I have been deserving and today finally I kicked on there at the end to get a score I felt like I deserved.
“It is just about building momentum for the next couple of weeks.
“Compared to the early part of today’s round, I just holed a few more putts that I needed to hole as early on I missed a whole lot of putts.
“That’s golf and you don’t hole them all. I have not been driving it great. Well, I have not been driving it bad. It’s just that I’ve not hit a lot of fairways and I finally started to hit some fairways in the middle of the round which gave me the opportunity to build momentum with my iron play and I managed to hole a few putts there at the end.”
Fellow Scot Martin Laird signed for a 69 to be just one shot behind MacIntre on three-under par.
American Harris English added a 65 to his opening 62 to continue to lead and was in the clubhouse on 13-under par and with Ian Poulter (66) in form and just three shots back on 10-under par.
Meantime –
Calum Hill’s drive to a maiden Tour victory remains on track after posting a three-under-par 69 to be in second place at 12-under in the weather-affected Hero Open near St. Andrews.
Dane Lucas Bjerregaard smashed Hill’s just one day old new Torrance course record by a shot with nine birdies, including six in succession from his 12th in a round of 62 to lead at 13-under par.
Hill produced a second bogey-free display with four birdies, including three over his last six holes.
He said: “I’m pretty happy. I’ve been solid, saved myself nicely and made a lot of good five to seven footers when I had to. It’s been good.
“All day I didn’t hit a handful of great shots in a row but I was very patient, made the saves I needed to and took advantage of the ones where I hit it close. Pretty happy with the ‘B’ game today”.
Aberdonian David Law, with a pair of 67s, was three back of Hill at 10-under par.
A severe weather warning meant a three-hour and 20-minute delay to the start of play and with Hill not out to 3.30pm.
