Chile’s Joaquin Niemann carded his second straight round of 63 on Friday to post a 16-under-par 126, good for the 36-hole tournament record and a two-stroke lead at the Genesis Invitational at Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Niemann will play in the final group Saturday with PGA Tour rookie Cameron Young, who posted a career-low round of 9-under 62 to leap into second place at 14 under. Justin Thomas shot a second-round 64 to take third at 11 under.
Adam Scott of Australia (65 on Friday) and Jordan Spieth (67) are tied for fourth at 9 under, and Collin Morikawa (67) is alone in sixth at 8 under.
Each of the top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking entered the tournament, but no one has played better than the 23-year-old Niemann, who opened his second round with an eagle at the par-5 first hole and added seven birdies and one bogey the rest of the way.
Niemann drove the green in two at the straightaway first hole. His second shot settled inside 4 feet of the pin for an easy eagle putt.
“I hit a really nice 3-wood and I hit a 6-iron that I hit it a little thin,” Niemann said. “I didn’t want to land it there and it still got there, so I was lucky. Good shot.”
Niemann’s only win on tour came in 2019 at the Military Tribute at The Greenbrier. He admitted that it’s felt like “forever” since that title.
“Obviously you play this game to try to win every week and … you know how hard it is to win here and how competitive they are, how many good players there are here,” Niemann said. “You have to be patient and just wait for my week.”
The only golfer to shoot lower than Niemann on Friday was Young, who sank nine birdies — including four in a row to finish his round on the front nine — while staying bogey-free.
Young’s approach at the par-4 ninth hole, the last of his round, spun back to inside 2 feet of the pin.
“No. 9 was perfect,” Young said. “I hit a very similar one earlier in the day on 3 and it was just one I was really comfortable with. I already hit it today and we just said if I get it just left of the hole and just a little long, it’s going to funnel somewhere around there, and fortunate for it to be a few inches.”
The highlight of Thomas’ bogey-free card was an eagle putt of nearly 32 feet at the par-5 11th. He made his first cut at Riviera since 2019, when he faded in the final round and finished second.
“I mean, there’s no conditions that you see 16 under leading after two rounds here,” Thomas said. “Yeah, it was pretty soft in ’19 when I played well when J.B. (Holmes) won, but it definitely wasn’t this firm and fast. I think the reason you see the scores, such disparity in them is because of how firm it is or how firm it’s getting.
“Yeah, obviously I would have thought shooting 11 under, yeah, 11 under, I would have thought that I would probably be leading, not five back, but there’s still a lot of golf left.”
Norway’s Viktor Hovland had a bogey-free 64 to move to 7 under and a tie for seventh with Scotland’s Russell Knox (67) and Australia’s Cameron Smith (68).
Of the top 10 in the world, only one player missed the cut: Dustin Johnson, who was 2 over after a second-round, even-par 71. But several others made the cut on the number at even par: world No. 1 Jon Rahm of Spain (73 on Friday), world No. 3 Patrick Cantlay (72) and world No. 10 Hideki Matsuyama of Japan (70).
Other notables to miss the cut were three-time Genesis champion Bubba Watson (2 over through two rounds), Brooks Koepka (3 over) and Patrick Reed (6 over).
–Field Level Media