Seamus Power followed his opening 66 with a two-under 69 on day two of the John Deere Classic at Illinois’ TPC Deere Run, but Cameron Young stole the headlines as he moved to the top, eyeing his first PGA Tour win.
After covering his opening eight holes in six-under in Thursday’s opening round, Power will be a little disappointed that he hasn’t built on that, and in a tournament where birdies are plentiful, he’d make just two in his second round, though he would make an eagle-three at the second after a sublime approach from the fairway bunker set up a 24-foot putt for the big bird.
All in all, Power enters the weekend tied for 18th and six strokes off the lead, but will need a big moving day push if he’s to give himself a realistic chance heading into Sunday’s final round.
Young, who opened with a six-under 65, went one better on day two, birdieing eight holes with just the one bogey, to open up a two-stroke advantage over the chasing trio of Adam Schenk, Garrick Higgo and Brendon Todd.
“I definitely drove it better yesterday,” said Young. “I don’t know what the stats, but yesterday I think I only really — I might have missed three fairways, but two of them were first cuts, and they were both really good shots right down the middle of 9 and right down the middle of 4.
“So I think I definitely drove it better yesterday. I think I hit a few really good iron shots today, which probably helped the stats quite a bit. Then obviously I putted really nicely, especially early today. They felt similar. I felt like I was a little bit more in control of the driver yesterday.
“But all in all, very similar. I was pretty comfortable each day.
“I feel like thinking about winning is not, like — I feel like you can be thinking about it without it being a bad thing. I think everybody came here this week to win a golf tournament, and in that way you’re all thinking about it right off the bat.
“Obviously I’m in a better position than you find yourself most weeks to do that, but that just really means I’m kind of accomplishing my goals thus far this week and doing my job well. So that’s all I can try to keep doing.”
Ludvig Aberg continues to impress since joining the professional ranks, and he matched Young’s 64 to move to -10 and tied for fifth as part of a four-man group that includes Denny McCarthy. Aberg’s transition to professional golf has seen him catch the eye of Luke Donald and must be odds on to secure a captain’s pick for Rome.
“It’s been a change, to say the least,” said Aberg who six weeks ago was playing in the NCAA finals. “It’s not exactly the same as a college event, but I try to embrace it. I try to have fun with it. It’s been a busy couple of weeks, and I expect it to be busy the next couple of weeks as well. All I can do is have fun with it and try to play as good of golf as I can.”
Leave a comment