Washington (AFP) – Pierceson Coody fired a five-under-par 67 to hang on to a two-shot lead in the US PGA Tour ISCO Championship on another low-scoring day in Nicholasville, Kentucky, on Friday.
Coody, who started the day with a three-shot cushion after a superb 61 on Thursday, had six birdies and a bogey in his five-under 67 at Keene Trace Golf Club.
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His 16-under total of 128 put him two strokes clear of Belgian Matthis Besard, US veteran Chez Reavie and Rico Hoey of the Philippines.
A raft of early starters were in the clubhouse on 13-under by the time Coody teed off.
He teed off on 10 and regained the solo lead when he rolled in a 21-footer from the fringe for his third birdie of the day at the 17th.
But he bogeyed the next after an errant tee shot led to a lost ball.
Coody, a three-time winner on the developmental Korn Ferry Tour who is seeking his first PGA Tour title, regained a share of the lead with a birdie at the fifth, and pulled away with an eight-foot birdie at the seventh and a five-foot birdie at the eighth.
“It wasn’t quite 61, but 67’s still a really nice score,” said Coody, who added that limiting the damage at 18 was crucial.
“It’s huge knowing that the scores are low, knowing that I needed to go get three, four, five birdies on the back nine to kind of get myself in the position I want to be — out in front in the golf tournament,” he said.
Besard, who played collegiate golf in America before earning his DP World Tour card for this season, had nine birdies in his nine-under 63.
He opened with back-to-back birdies, calling his unlikely 32-foot birdie at the second the highlight of the round.
Besard was joined on 14-under by Reavie, who teed off on 10 and rolled in an 18-foot birdie on the 13th to launch a run of six birdies in seven holes.
That included five in a row starting at the 15th.
And after birdies at the sixth and seventh he drilled a five-foot eagle putt at the 18th.
Hoey joined them on 130 with a bogey-free 66.
Reavie, a 42-year-old in his 17th season on tour, claimed the last of his three wins in 2022.
But he said he’s enjoying playing alongside the big-hitting newcomers to the tour ranks.
“I love it,” he said.
“I love playing with young guys.
It feels like it keeps me young a little bit.”
Half a dozen players were a further stroke back on 131, with another four tied on 132.
The halfway cutline of eight-under was a record relative to par in an individual stroke-play event on the PGA Tour, which has kept records since 1970.
The previous low cutline was seven-under at the 2020 Shriners Children’s Open.
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