Matsuyama putts his way to BMW lead, course record

MEDINAH, ILL. Hideki Matsuyama had one of the best putting days of his career to take the halfway lead with a course-record nine-under 63 in the second round at the BMW Championship in suburban Chicago on Friday.

The putter, so often the weak link in the Japanese player’s game, did not let Matsuyama down as he cranked out nine birdies at Medinah, five times holing out from outside 15 feet.

Canadians Corey Conners and Adam Hadwin are each just three strokes back of the lead.

Matsuyama capped off his day by sinking a 25-footer at the 17th and then a 30-footer at the last for a 12-under 132 total, one stroke better than Americans Tony Finau (66) and Patrick Cantlay (67) in the penultimate event of the PGA Tour season.

Tiger Woods sits 48th in the 69man field, 10 strokes off the pace after firing a second consecutive round of 71.

Matsuyama, ranked as high as second in the world two years ago, was delighted for a change with his form on the greens.

“I made a lot of long putts today and that was the difference,” he told PGATour.com.

“It started yesterday during my round. Halfway through I was able to see what I was doing (wrong) on the greens and I fixed it and it carried over to today.

“Honestly, I thought I pushed that putt (at the 18th), but somehow it found the bottom of the cup.”

Matsuyama is 33rd in the FedEx Cup standings and needs a strong finish on Sunday to advance as part of the 30-man field for next week’s Tour Championship.

It would be his fifth successive appearance in the exclusive event.

He has nine rivals within three strokes starting the weekend, including former world No. 1 Justin Thomas (69), who is two strokes behind.