Three share lead at Colonial with brutal forecast on tap
This has been a good week in North Texas for Scott Stallings, first qualifying for the U.S. Open that will be played less than an hour from where he was born and now sharing the lead at Colonial in Forth Worth, Texas, with topranked Scottie Scheffler and Beau Hossler.
Stallings shot a 6-under 64 without a bogey on a relatively calm Friday at Hogan’s Alley. That put the Massachusetts-born and 206th-ranked player in the world at 9-under 131 along with with Dallas-area resident Scheffler and former University of Texas player Hossler, who both had bogey-free 65s.
Scheffler, in one of the last groups of the day after Stallings and Hossler played in the morning wave, tied them with a 14-foot birdie putt at the par-4 17th and saved par at No. 18 after his final drive went left into the rough.
“I think I needed to put up a good score with the wind being real low and the greens being not crazy firm,” said Scheffler, without a bogey so far this week. “Yeah, I love that stat. It’s a lot of fun. ... I kept the stress off myself for the most part.”
It was calm pretty much throughout the day Friday. But hot and breezy conditions are expected for the weekend rounds at the Charles Schwab Classic, with gusts around 30 mph and temperatures in the mid- to upper-90s in the forecast.
Scheffler and Hossler were among the Colonial-record eight players to share the 18-hole lead
at 66. Stallings began the second round as one of the seven others within a stroke of that.
Patrick Reed matched his opening 66 with another and was alone in fourth place at 8-under 132. Pat Perez (66) and Chris Kirk (67), the 2015 Colonial champion who hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since, were 7 under. Jordan Spieth, another local favorite and No. 9 in the world, shot 66.
Dutch Open
Portuguese star Ricardo Gouveia shot 6-under 66 to take a onestroke lead after the second round of the Dutch Open in Cromvoirt, Netherlands.
Li Haotong of China was alone in second place after shooting a back nine of 29 — containing five birdies and an eagle — for a 63, the lowest round of the day.