Aug 20, 2021
Rahm leads, Hughes stays in the hunt at Northern Trust
World No. 1 Jon Rahm completes his second spin around Liberty National without making a bogey to lead the Northern Trust heading into weekend play. Mackenzie Hughes leads the Canadian contingent with a 2-under 69 to tie for 17th spot, Bob Weeks writes.
By Bob Weeks
Is it better to be bogey free over the first two rounds or leading? If you’re Jon Rahm, you can have both.
On Friday, Rahm completed his second spin around Liberty National without making a bogey to shoot 67 and lead the Northern Trust by a single shot over Tony Finau.
“It's nice to be bogey free, but it's not like it's goal No. 1,” said Rahm. “Might be actually first time I go 36 holes bogey free. The goal is to win a tournament and put yourself in the best position. If I had to choose, I would rather be leading than bogey free.”
Starting on the back nine, Rahm reached the par-5 13th hole in two and two-putt from 28 feet for his first birdie of the day. On his second nine, he hit his tee shot on the par-3 to five feet and made that to go to 2-under par and closed his day with two more birdies on six and seven.
Despite two days of blemish-free golf, the world’s top-ranked golfer wasn’t overly happy with his play.
“Believe it or not,” said Rahm, “I hit my fair share of bad shots today.
“Coming into the weekend, I'm definitely going to have to clean a couple of those mistakes up.”
There were plenty of players going low on Friday. Finau was one of five players to shoot 64, his day only soured by an 18th-hole bogey when he failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker.
“I played really nicely,” he said. “I made some putts. Hit a lot of fairways. So I think if you do that on this golf course, you're going to have a lot of looks because of how receptive the greens are.”
Jordan Spieth and Xander Schauffele were testament to that. Both players posted rounds of 9-under 62. Schauffele is tied for third with Justin Thomas and Keith Mitchell. Spieth is tied for 10th at 8-under.
Mackenzie Hughes led the Canadian contingent with a 2-under 69 that left him tied for 17th spot. He opened his day with a birdie after hitting his approach on the par-4 first hole to six feet. Two holes later, another approach ended up three feet from the cup to give him another birdie.
The fast start was erased with bogeys on four and five but he rebounded with birdies on the two par-5 holes, six and eight.
By making the cut, Hughes is all but guaranteed of moving on to the second FedEx Cup event next week, the BMW Championship. However, the Dundas, Ont., product still wants to improve his position to vie for a spot in the Tour Championship for the second consecutive year.
Corey Conners also shot 69 and is in a tie for 46th spot. Coming into this week ranked 28th on the FedEx Cup standings, he is guaranteed a place in the BMW Championship.
Adam Hadwin and Roger Sloan both missed the cut bringing an end to their seasons as both will finish outside the top 70 on the FedEx Cup rankings. It marks the first time since 2015 that Hadwin hasn’t made it past the first round of the playoffs.