Hovland weathers wild day at Torrey
Young Norwegian takes a one-shot lead with birdie on his final hole after restart.
LA JOLLA — Sunny and 72?
In this instance, it referred to the disposition of 20 players within four strokes of the lead at the Farmers Insurance Open and par for the course(s) at Torrey Pines.
It certainly didn’t refer to the weather for which San Diego is famous.
While the second round began with something forecasters never mentioned — blue skies peeking through clouds — and the rainfall total was less than predicted, Friday wound up being one of the more wild weather days in the tournament’s history.
By the time the last putt fell shortly before sunset, participants had seen sunshine and clouds. Breezy wind that later gusted to 30 mph. Intermittent rain. Hail (twice). Oh, and a rainbow.
Norway’s Viktor Hovland is halfway to the pot of gold — a $1.35-million check — awaiting the winner after a sevenunder-par 65 on the South Course that made him nine under for the tournament and gave him a one-stroke lead over six others.
“You felt like you had four seasons out there,” said firstround co-leader Patrick Reed, one of those tied for second after an even-par 72 on the South. “It was one of those days you expected it to be a grind, you knew coming in it was going to be a grind, and honestly, at the end of the day we probably lucked out because with what the forecast was saying last night, it almost seemed like today was going to be a wash.”
The final groups were interrupted by a late-afternoon, 49-minute weather delay that added to the intrigue.
When play resumed, Hovland and Reed had a crack at the lead by themselves, while Phil Mickelson needed a couple of birdies to make it to the weekend.
Hovland’s eight birdies on the South included a twofooter on his final hole that lifted him into the lead.
Tied with Reed one shot back were 2017 Farmers champion Jon Rahm and Adam Scott, who finished second two years ago in his only other Farmers appearance, along with Tony Finau, Ryan Palmer and Lanto Griffin.
Rahm and Finau improved their standing with 67s on the North, where the low score was a 64 by Robby Shelton.
That got Shelton to seven under for the tournament, two strokes behind the leaders along with Will Gordon and Peter Malnati.
Alex Noren, who shared the first-day lead with Reed, shot 74 on the South to drop three shots off the lead with two others.
A total of 76 players made the cut, including 26 who were right on the number at one under.
The most notable among them was Mickelson, a threetime winner here who is playing his 20th Farmers since his last victory.
Hovland, a 23-year-old from Oslo who played at Oklahoma State, is one of the tour’s promising young players. He has already won twice, including last month’s Mayakoba Golf Classic.
“Last couple weeks I’ve been in Oklahoma and it’s been really cold,” Hovland said, “so I’ve had probably three, four layers on practicing and I think that’s helped me for this week.
“It got really cold and, obviously, raining and hail, so being Norwegian, I think that also helps.”