WASHINGTON (AFP) — Harry Higgs fired a seven-under-par 63 to complete his best 36-hole PGA start and grab a share of the lead after Friday’s second round of the RSM Classic.
Higgs and fellow Americans Andrew Putnam and Cole Hammer shared the lead on 12-under 130 at Sea Island Golf Club on St. Simons Island, Georgia.
“I did a very good job of being patient,” Higgs said. “That would be the goal for the next two days, stay patient, which always gets harder. The better you do, the harder it is.”
Players competed for the first two rounds on the par-72 Plantation Course and par-70 Seaside course, with the last 36 holes to be played on the Seaside layout.
Higgs delivered his bogey-free round on the Seaside course while Hammer shot 66 there and Putnam fired a 7-under 65 on the Plantation course, his lone bogey of the first two rounds coming on the final hole.
“I pretty much played flawless golf,” Putnam said. “It was extremely easy. I was hitting most fairways and most greens. Just kind of a weird bogey that came on the last from the middle of the fairway.”
“But it has been a very simple week for me so far.”
Eight players were sharing the lead at one stage early in the second round at 8-under.
Putnam, 33, won his only PGA crown at the 2018 Barracuda Championship. Hammer, a 23-year-old rookie, and Higgs, 30, seek their first PGA title.
A back-nine starter, Putnam reeled off four birdies in a row from the fifth through eighth holes before missing a six-foot par putt at the ninth.
Higgs sank a 23-foot birdie putt at the second hole, a 27-footer at the par-3 sixth, and a six-foot birdie putt at the par-5 seventh, then closed the front nine with a 16-foot birdie putt.
