Shane Lowry has set his sights on extending his PGA Tour season after moving into contention at the Wyndham Championship.
The Open Champion recovered from an early bogey to card an eagle and six birdies on his way to a round-of-the-day 63 at Sedgefield Country Club, lifting him to within a shot of the halfway lead.
Lowry came into the week 131st in the FedExCup standings and needed to move into the top-125 to be in the field for The Northern Trust, the first of three play-off events, with the Champion Golfer of the Year pleased with the state of his game heading into the weekend.
“It was nice to go out there and shoot a good score today,” Lowry said after returning his lowest career round on the PGA Tour to date, equaling his third round 63 posted on his way to claiming the Claret Jug at Royal Portrush last year. “It’s kind of the best score I’ve shot in a while and I’m looking forward to the weekend.
“Obviously I’m outside the FedExCup number and outside of Boston next week, so I need to keep playing some good golf and try and polish off a good week this week and hopefully make it into next week then.
“I feel like my golf has been all right over the last couple of months. Last week at the PGA on Sunday, I just feel like I didn’t get anything out of my game and ended up having a really bad finish. So hopefully I can get rewarded for some good golf this weekend and who knows what will happen but it’s nice to be in the mix.”
More birdies and eagles over the weekend please! @WyndhamChamp pic.twitter.com/qhuyH52S0c
— Shane Lowry (@ShaneLowryGolf) August 14, 2020
Also chasing a place at next week’s FedEx Cup playoffs is Seamus Power who made the cut on the mark at -3. The West Waterford man needs a big weekend as he sits in 161st position on the FedEx Cup standings with only the top 125 advancing to next week’s Northern Trust at TPC Boston. Meanwhile Graeme McDowell who started the week 108th on the standings added a 71 to his opening 73 and missed the cut.
One shot ahead of Lowry there is a four-way tie for the lead with Tom Hoge, Si Woo Kim, Talor Gooch and Bill Horschel all tied at -10
Hoge’s career best finish to date was solo-second at the Military Tribute at the Greenbriar in 2019 and he is coming off a T58 finish at last week’s PGA Championship. Hoge co-leads after opening with a round of 62 (-8) which he followed it up with a 68 (-2) in round two that included three bogeys and five birdies to stay at the head of proceedings.
Si Woo Kim closed with five birdies in his last six holes to join Hoge on -10 as he posted his second consecutive 65 (-5) while Talor Gooch is in rarefied air having never led or co-led a PGA Tour event after 36 holes with his career best result being T3 at the Farmers Insurance Open in 2019.
As for Horschel, the 2014 Fed-Ex Cup Champion posted his 21st consecutive round of par or better when he finished in style with a blistering back nine of 30 strokes (-5) to return a second round 64.
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