Rahm builds a 2-shot lead halfway through
Jon Rahm accomplished so much so quickly that he began to wonder what else was left for him to achieve in his first full year on the PGA Tour.
He now has 10 million reasons to play his best golf.
Already very much in the hunt for the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus, Rahm took another step Saturday when he made an eagle and five birdies over his last 10 holes for a 5under-par 66 and a two-shot lead at the halfway point of the Dell Technologies Championship in Norton, Mass.
One day after he birdied four of his last five holes, Rahm made a 12-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th and then shot 31 on the front nine to reach 9-under 133.
No one could catch him in the afternoon, least of all Dustin Johnson.
Johnson, the world’s No. 1 player who had a one-shot lead going into the second round, had two double bogeys after a quick start and needed a birdie on the 18th hole to keep from falling further behind. Johnson shot a 72 and was five shots back.
It’s already been an amazing year for Rahm. The 22-year-old Spaniard was No. 137 at the start of the year. Now he’s at No. 5. But after a runner-up at Colonial, he has missed the cut twice and finished out of the top 25 in three other PGA Tour starts.
“It’s probably because I got to the point where I had accomplished so much more than I had set myself to in the beginning of the year that I felt like there was nothing else to do,” he said. “It made me complacent of what I had accomplished all year. I didn’t play with the same intensity. I really didn’t have a goal.
“It’s taken me two months to realize what I’ve done, and hopefully I can keep surprising myself.”
Paul Casey, who played in the final group last year until Rory McIlroy ran him down, had a 65 and was two shots off the lead along with Adam Hadwin (65), Kevin Streelman (65) and Kyle Stanley (68). Streelman is at No. 90 in the FedEx Cup, and only the top 70 after the Labor Day finish advance to the third playoff event in two weeks outside Chicago.
Lucas Glover (No. 16) and Grayson Murray (No. 8) each made a hole-in-one that the PGA Tour estimated were 65 seconds apart. Phil Mickelson dropped only one shot on his way to a 67. He was just three shots off the lead at 6-under 136, his best 36-hole score since the FedEx St. Jude Classic in June. Jordan Spieth also turned around his fortunes. Despite missing two birdies inside 7 feet, Spieth still shot a 65 and was in the group four shots behind.
McIlroy, meanwhile, was headed home after missing the cut as the defending champion for only the second time in his career. McIlroy also missed the cut as defending champion in the 2012 U.S. Open. LPGA: Stacy Lewis took a three-stroke lead in the Cambia Portland Classic in her bid to win for the first time since June 2014.
Tied for the second-round lead with two-time defending champion Brooke Henderson and In Gee Chun, Lewis had eight birdies in a 7-under 65 to reach 17 under after opening with rounds of 70 and 64.
Moriya Jutanugarn was second after a 66. Chun was another stroke back after a 69. Henderson had a 74 to drop into a tie for 13th at 8 under. Champions Tour: Scott McCarron eagled the par-5 18th for a 6-under 64 and a twostroke lead after the second round in the Shaw Charity Classic in Calgary, Alberta.
First-round leader Kevin Sutherland (67) was tied for second with Miguel Angel Jimenez (65). Nick Faldo had a 64 to join Jerry Kelly and Bob Estes at 9 under. European Tour: Lee Slattery produced a flawless 5-under 67 at the Czech Masters near Prague for a two-shot lead over Haydn Porteous of South Africa at 12-under 204 overall.