Canadian Svensson holds three-shot lead at Barbasol

Adam Svensson is halfway home to his first PGA Tour victory and a bounty of rewards.

The Surrey, B.C., native holds a three-shot lead after 36 holes of the Barbasol Championship after a second-round 67. It was a stop-and-start day due to weather which caused two delays and not all of the field finished their second round.

 “It was a good day,” said Svensson, who opened the tournament with a round of 10-under 62 at the Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Ky., and is at 15 under.

“I just tried to get through the day without having one more suspension there, but I hit it well again today. A couple loose shots here and there and a couple bogeys, but overall 5-under par was a great day.”

Svensson hit 10 of 14 fairways and found 13 of 18 greens on his day. He sits first in Strokes Gained: Total, an indication that all parts of his game are working well.

Still, it was a frustrating day, waiting for the inclement weather to pass. Due to heavy fog, tee times were delayed at the start of the day with the first time being pushed back from 6:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.

Later, storms rolled in and play was suspended from 12:20 to 3:40. During the afternoon delay, the 28-year-old Svensson said he passed the time sleeping in his car, in part due to his early start on Friday which included a 4 a.m. wake-up call.

“It's obviously a little bit annoying because you kind of get out of the routine and stuff like that, but yeah, you kind of do the same thing, same game plan. Obviously, I knew that shooting 10 under yesterday, I'm not going to do that again today, so I just tried to get it around in something close to that.

A win would give Svensson an exemption through the 2023-24 season and entries into the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the Players Championship, as well as a number of other top tournaments on the PGA Tour. As the tournament is co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour, he would also earn an exemption on that circuit for the next two seasons. It would also move him up on the Presidents Cup standings. He is currently 28th on that list.

Because it is an opposite field event played as the same time as the Scottish Open, the winner would not get in the Masters.

A number of other Canadians are near the top of the leaderboard. David Hearn fired his second consecutive round of 67 and sits tied for ninth spot. Aaron Cockerill, who posted a front-nine score of 29, ended up with a 6-under 66 to sit tied for 22nd. Taylor Pendrith was tied for 48th while Michael Gligic and Roger Sloan was outside the cut line.