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Teams battled the weather and the harder format on Friday at TPC Louisiana in Round 2 of the Zurich Classic. However, a familiar team emerged with the lead, and an even more familiar team easily shot the round of the day as it surged into contention after 36 holes of play.
Following a so-so start on Thursday, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele tried to burn the whole thing to the ground on Friday by shooting a record-setting 63 in alternate shot. A 63! In alternate shot! The second-best score on the day was 66, and the defending champs made 10 (ten!) 3s throughout their round.
We’ll take a closer look at their round, as well as another great round from leaders Wyndham Clark and Beau Hossler below.
The leaders
T1. Wyndham Clark/Beau Hossler (-16)
Clark and Hossler were steady on Friday following their 61 in the first round. They shot 67 in Round 2, didn’t make any bogeys and now lead the field by two strokes going into the final two days. If not for the ridiculous Cantlay-Schauffle numbers from Friday, Clark and Hossler would be at the the center of conversation going to Saturday.
Now the question is whether they can maintain the lead over the next 36 holes.
“I think when we play a format like this, if we can play a round the way we did every time, we’d be thrilled,” said Hossler. “It’s just a fairly low stress ball in play off the tee, ball on or around the green in a pretty good spot and either have a legitimate birdie look or a pretty easy par putt.
“I think we’re in a great spot. I like our mentality,” he continued. “After these few practice rounds and first two rounds starting to see and get comfortable with the way each other plays, and the more spots that I can put him in that’s a green light and vice versa, obviously the better off we’re going to be.”
Other contenders
T2. Doc Redman-Sam Ryder, Keith Mitchell-Sungjae Im (-15)
T4. Xander Schauffele-Patrick Cantlay, Martin Trainer-Chad Ramey, Sean O’Hair-Brandon Matthews, Matthew NeSmith-Taylor Moore, Nick Hardy-Davis Riley (-14)
The numbers laid out are staggering. Schauffele and Cantlay gained nearly eight strokes on the field when the scoring average at the time they finished was between 70 and 71. They beat John Daly and David Duval by 20. Nearly three touchdowns. Here’s a look at a few other numbers from the round:
“I think it’s just Xander is really good, and I can play well, too,” said Cantlay. “So when we get two guys together that are really good, and I think it helps that we’re friends, but when you get two world-class players playing together and we both have a day where we’re on like today, we can post a low one.”
The duo, which won last year’s event and set the scoring record in four ball (59) and overall for the week (-29), seemed frustrated with their 67 yesterday, which left them six strokes back of the leaders going into today. Last year, they opened 59-68 and were 17 under going into Round 3 before firing a 60 in four ball to put the tournament away. This year, they’re three shots worse (although they arrived at the number very differently) but still very much in contention.
When asked about what they were going to do for an encore tomorrow after today’s 63, they seemed pretty pumped to get back out there.
“We’d like to get that 59 again in best ball,” said Cantlay. “We’re going to try.”
Different Kind of Record
Daly and Duval unfortunately set a different kind of record on Friday when they fired a 11-over 83 in alternate shot to miss the cut. They went out in 45 with three doubles and three bogeys before coming home in a more respectable 38 for the 83. Still, it was the worst shot of the round by eight strokes at the time they finished up their second round, and they were 14 strokes back of the team in second-to-last place.