Graeme McDowell’s second round of 69 leaves the Northern Irish golfer 10 shots off the lead set by Colombian Sebastian Muñoz at LIV Golf’s Chicago Invitational at Rich Harvest Farms.
Muñoz, who finished the day on -13, currently sits three shots clear of his nearest competitor, India’s Anirban Lahiri.
It was much of the same for McDowell on day two in the Prairie State, but the former US Open champ got off to a strong start with a birdie on his opening hole, putting him onto two-under-par for the competition.
A run of five birdies was interrupted by consecutive dropped shots on the 16th and 17th just before the man from Portrush finished the first half of his round.
Similar to his opening round at Rich Harvest Farms, McDowell battled back well on his back nine and would return to below-par courtesy of back-to-back birdies on the fourth and fifth.
A birdie on the final hole of his round gave GMac a score of -2 for the day, leaving him on -3 for the tournament and with a share of 26th.
McDowell’s LIV Golf team, Cleeks GC, were able to make moves from the bottom of the team standings thanks to the Northern Irishman’s exploits.
McDowell’s teammates Richard Bland and captain Martin Kaymer both contributed to their team’s combined total on day two, with scores of -5 and -2 respectively.
Sebastian Muñoz, who was tied for the lead after the first day played sublime golf which included two eagles and five birdies. The Colombian shot a round of 63 to help both him and his team, Torque GC, to the top of the standings heading into the final round.
Speaking after his impressive performance on day two, the clubhouse leader acknowledged his recent history of holding onto leads on the final day and how he felt about his second round.
“I want to take care of the lead because I don’t have good experiences with that in the past. I just want to pretty much set the tone hopefully early.
“I feel like there’s some tricky pins out there, some tricky shots. I made a bogey, so it wasn’t as clean as I would have wished, but it’s looking good and feeling good”
Muñoz’s score in his second round contributed massively to their standing after two days of play, with Torque GC tied for the lead in the team standings alongside Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC.
4Aces GC and Crushers GC sit four shots back of the leading teams on -18 with RangeGoats GC and Majesticks GC finishing the day on -17 and -16 respectively for the competition.
Behind Lahiri, there’s a three-way tie for third two on -8 with Thomas Pieters, Abraham Ancer and 4Aces GC captain Dustin Johnson all in with a shout as the competition enters its final day.
The final day of action starts on Sunday at 6:15 p.m. Irish time.
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