England’s Matt Wallace closed the second round of the Corales Puntacana Championship with three birdies on Friday to take a one-shot lead in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Wallace recorded a 6-under-par 66 at the Corales Golf Course to move to 11-under 133 at the PGA Tour event’s midpoint.
Sam Stevens and Wyndham Clark each shot 65 on Friday to leave them one stroke behind Wallace.
Akshay Bhatia (second-round 63), Tyler Duncan (65), Brice Garnett (70) and Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard (65) are tied for fourth at 8 under. Brandon Matthews (67) and Puerto Rico’s Rafael Campos (65) share eighth place at 7 under.
Wallace had three birdies and 12 pars through 15 holes before adding another three birdies to move in front.
“Nice, nice day,” Wallace said. “I hit it probably a little bit better than yesterday, so didn’t think that was possible but it’s nice to have that in the bank now and confidence has grown.”
Wallace, 32, has four career European Tour wins but none on the U.S.-based PGA Tour.
Looking ahead to the weekend, he said, “I want to just keep playing the way I’m playing, doesn’t matter where I am on the leaderboard. … If we’re at the top of the leaderboard … I want to keep pushing and playing really good golf and see where that puts me because then I know what my levels are.”
Stevens carded eight birdies and a bogey, while Clark had five birdies and an eagle on the par-5 fourth hole.
Defending champion Chad Ramey of the United States withdrew from the tournament due to a back injury after shooting a 71 on Thursday.
–Field Level Media