Andrew Putnam shot a 62 on Friday and shares the lead with Rickie Fowler through 36 holes of the Zozo Championship in Japan, but neither had the best round of the day.
In his Zozo Championship debut, John Huh set a course record by two strokes after posting a 9-under-par 61. He is alone in fourth place behind Keegan Bradley (65).
Huh said he didn’t allow his mind to wander to shooting 59. He finished with pars on 17 and 18.
“I never really thought about a 59 in my head. Nine (under) is good enough, I think, for me,” Huh said.
Putnam’s eagle putt on 18 rolled around the edge of the cup and out. He and Fowler sit at 10-under-par for the tournament, one better than Bradley.
Putnam said he liked “pretty much everything” about his round on Friday. He rode eight birdies to a 62, and held the course record for less than 60 minutes on Friday before Huh turned in his scorecard.
Like Fowler, Putnam is fighting through an extended winless streak. Putnam has one PGA Tour victory (2018 Barracuda Championship) while Fowler, ranked 160th in the world rankings, is in Japan on a sponsor’s exemption trying to end a three-year winless drought.
“The last two days I wasn’t exactly swinging it great — I just did a good job of managing my way around,” he said. “I just did a good job of accepting what I had and moving forward with that.”
Huh had nine birdies in the second round, which was the second day of sporadic rain at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club outside of Tokyo.
Fowler made a 20-foot birdie on 17 and leads the field with 14 birdies through 36 holes and only a first-round bogey prevents him from solo possession of the top spot in the tournament.
Defending champion Hideki Matsuyama, who led last year’s event in the second round, is even par and T49 going into the third round on Saturday.
–Field Level Media