Panamus, New Jersey ….
Brooks Koepka brilliantly ignited his quest for back-to-back victories birding his closing three holes and storm to a share of the lead on day two of the Northern Trust.
Last fortnight’s PGA Championship winner recorded a six-under par 65 to join countryman Jamie Lovemark (66) atop of the leader board at 10-under par.
The 30-year old Lovemark, and coached by Tiger Woods’ former coach, Chris Como, set-up a hopeful maiden Tour victory thanks to five birdies in a six-hole stretch from his ninth to 14th holes on the Ridgewood Country Club course.
“The goal at the start of the week is to lead and to win it,” said Lovemark. “I’m in great shape. Going to take tomorrow one step at a time and go from there.”
Koepka commenced his round at four-under par and was still at four-under standing on the 12th tee from where he proceeded to superbly land a 63-foot greenside bunker shot to just three-feet for birdie.
The triple Major winner then capped his round first splitting the par-5 13trh fairway with a 322-yard drive and then have the crowd roaring in landing a remarkable 311-yard 3-wood second shot to 23-foot and holing-out for an eagle ‘3’.
“When I hit that 3-wood, it all clicked,” he said. “I felt like I was finally able to release the golf club. I just tried to hit it as hard as I could, big draw. I aimed at the tree on the right and tried to draw it back to the flag. When I did that, everything started to click, other than the fat wedge shot on the next hole.”
Koepka’s closing three birdies were from lengths of 11-foot, 10-feet and six-feet right of the flag at the last.
Australia’s Adam Scott, and bizarrely carrying two putters in his bag with one a standard-size putter and other a long-handled version, recorded the lowest round of the week in signing for a seven-under par 64 to be in third place at nine-under.
Scott has been practicing with the short putter since the recent WGC – Bridgestone Invitational, and while there is nothing in the Rules of Golf to say he cannot have two putters in his bag, he revealed he’s only used it twice in now 14 rounds.
“The presence of the small putter in my bag has clearly scared the longer one into action,” Scott joked after recording just 26 putts.
World and leading FedEx Cup No. 1 Dustin Johnson regrouped from a second shot of the week in starting his second round with a triple-bogey ‘7’ and then play his remaining 17 holes in four-under, to be sharing fourth place on eight-under with Bryson DeChambeau (66).
England’s and current European No. 1 Tommy Fleetwood (68) is well-place sharing sixth spot at seven-under par.
Tiger Woods faced a near hour anxious wait before confirmation his scores of a pair of 71s was good enough to make the cut right on the level par mark.
And American J T Poston was celebrating in recording an ace at the par-3 fifth hole that he was playing at his 16th but in an eventual round of 75 to miss the cut with an eight-under total.
Also missing the cut was the European Ryder Cup confirmed foursome of Open Champion, Francesco Molinari (72, 72), Sweden’s Alex Noren (72, 72), England’s Justin Rose (72, 74), and Spaniard Jon Rahm (75, 73).
