American Ben Griffin and Germany’s Matti Schmid shared the lead at 11 under par after Friday’s second round of the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas.
Griffin and Schmid hold a two-stroke lead over American John Pak but world No 1 Scottie Scheffler, chasing a third straight win on Tour, was 10 strokes off the leaders after shooting one over-par.
South Africa’s Aldrich Potgieter shared 18th position on four under after a second successive 68, with countryman Christiaan Bezuidenhout’s second successive 69 leaving him a further two strokes behind.
The leading pair both shot seven-under rounds of 63.
Griffin started on fire, making birdies on his first two holes, the 10th and 11th.
The only blemish in an otherwise perfect round for the 29-year-old came with a bogey on the par-four 5th hole where he had to pay up after driving left into the rough.
After two runners-up spots on the PGA Tour, Griffin finally earned his first win at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event where he played with Andrew Novak.
He finished tied for eighth at the PGA Championship last week, his best performance in a Major, and said he felt the victory had liberated his game.
“I feel like I’ve kind of made good steps the last couple of years just kind of building to get to that first win. Now that I’ve got that first win, I feel like it’s really freeing me up,” he said.
“I feel like I’m trying to win more. Not that I wasn’t trying to win in the past, but just the monkey off the back where I’ve got nothing to lose mentality. We’re trying to attack pins and get up there with the boys at the top of the leaderboard.
“It’s definitely been a breakthrough year, but I think there’s more to come.”
Schmid made an identical start with birdies on the 10th and 11th and was bogey-free on the tight fairways of Colonial Country Club.
“I would say it was just a very solid round of golf. Started off hot. Had a couple of good breaks on the rough. I gauged the distance right and I just played quality golf from there on,” he said.
Rickie Fowler, with just one win in the last six years, put himself in the chasing pack, moving to within five strokes after a six-under-par 64.
Fowler had promised an even better round after making six birdies by the turn, after starting on the back nine, but he managed only a birdie and bogey on the front nine.
“It’s definitely coming around,” he said. “It’s a fine line out here. Nice to see things starting to come together a bit.
“It would have been nice to continue on from our front nine, but a solid day on a Friday. We’ll see if we can get after it this weekend,” he added.
Scheffler made the even-par cut at 140 by a single shot while another three-time Major winner, Jordan Spieth, made it on the number.
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Photo: Sam Hodde/Getty Images
