Beau Hossler posted a 5-under 65 in the second round to capture a one-shot lead over fellow American Justin Suh in the Zozo Championship at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba, Japan, on Friday.
Hossler, chasing his first PGA Tour win and 7-under in the tournament, stood out on a day bigger names were whipped by wind at the no-cut event.
Fifty of the 78 golfers in the field completed 36 holes over par, including Rickie Fowler (+4) and Hideki Matsuyama (+5). Ben Taylor carded an 84 in the second round with wind gusts touching 37 mph and consistently clocking in the 20-30 mph range.
“I’d say anything under par was a really quality score, so to shoot 5 under par was incredible,” Hossler said on Friday.
Hossler was the first-round leader in Las Vegas at the Shriners Children’s Open and wound up seventh. He kept his score low Friday by carding birdies on three par-3s with a run of four birdies in five holes.
Japan’s Satoshi Kodaira, alone in third place, shot 68 with three birdies and one bogey. He’s one clear of four players tied for fourth: Emiliano Grillo (Argentina), Yuki Inamori (Japan) and Americans Xander Schauffele and Eric Cole.
First-round leader Collin Morikawa was 3-over (73) and defending champion Keegan Bradley shot even-par Friday. They enter the third round in a group of seven players tied for eighth and four shots off the lead at 3-under for the tournament.
Suh is also in pursuit of his first PGA win and credited precise iron play as the reason he was on the right side of the jumbled leaderboard through 36 holes.
“Didn’t have any big misses, made some putts, so that kind of sums up my round,” Suh said.
PGA officials decided not to mow the greens before the second round in an effort to slow the landing surface to compensate for the high winds. It didn’t save everyone strokes.
Matsuyama had back-to-back double bogeys for a round of 76. Cam Davis of Australia shot 70 on Friday but found himself short of the green hitting his third shot on his final hole, a par-4, despite a unique power approach that wasn’t enough.
“That was tough,” Davis said. “I can’t remember the last time I hit driver, driver on a par-4 and still came up short of the green,”
–Field Level Media