PGA Tour rookie Ben Griffin shot his low 18-hole score on Tour, a 9-under 63 featuring an eagle at the par-5 14th, to take a two shot lead at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
“It’s a golf course I really like,” said Griffin. “I feel really comfortable out on it. Bermudagrass is one of my favorites to putt on and even chip on. It gets kind of grainy and I feel like I’m able to take advantage of the sharpness of my short game, and it can expose some guys this week. I haven’t had to use my short game really a ton. Hit a lot of greens the first two rounds, gave myself a lot of putts, and today everything was pretty much solid.
“I maybe had like one kind of hiccup and was able to get up-and-down. Other than that, I kept the ball in front of me. Missed it in the right spots. That’s crucial in this game, manage misses and play angle golf a lot of times to some of these pins. It was just really solid. Made a good amount of putts, and just trying to keep doing the same stuff. I know it’s repetitive”
The American holds his first 36-hole lead/co-lead on the PGA Tour in his 111th round. His best finish so far is T3 at the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship in his eighth Tour start where he shot a career-best 129 in the opening 36 holes.
Fellow rookie Harrison Endycott birdied his final three holes to post his sixth round of 65 or better in his 29th start on Tour and matched his best opening 36-hole score of 132 at the 2022 Bermuda Championship where he also notched his lone top-10 (10th).
“I’ve been putting in some really hard work over the last couple weeks,” said the Australian. “I think I was dead last in putting in Napa after Friday and wasn’t like I was putting bad. It felt a lot closer than what it was. They just weren’t going in.
“When the coach rang me and said, what’s going on, I don’t know. Like they’re just not going in. So did some really good work over the last couple weeks. Swing feels great.
“Game has just been trending in the right spot, and it was nice to play well the last couple days.”
Joining Endycott in second place at 12-under are American Luke List (66), China’s Carl Yuan (66) and Sweden’s Henrik Norlander (67).
| Pos. | Player | To Par | R1 | R2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Griffin | -14 | 67 | 63 | 130 |
| T2 | Harrison Endycott | -12 | 67 | 65 | 132 |
| T2 | Luke List | -12 | 66 | 66 | 132 |
| T2 | Carl Yuan | -12 | 66 | 66 | 132 |
| T2 | Henrik Norlander | -12 | 65 | 67 | 132 |
| T6 | Chesson Hadley | -11 | 64 | 69 | 133 |
| T6 | Zecheng Dou | -11 | 67 | 66 | 133 |
| T6 | Troy Merritt | -11 | 68 | 65 | 133 |
| T6 | Harry Higgs | -11 | 69 | 64 | 133 |
| T10 | Erik van Rooyen | -9 | 67 | 68 | 135 |
| T10 | Beau Hossler | -9 | 68 | 67 | 135 |
| T10 | Peter Kuest | -9 | 68 | 67 | 135 |
| T10 | Scott Stallings | -9 | 68 | 67 | 135 |
| T10 | Wesley Bryan | -9 | 67 | 68 | 135 |
| T10 | Christiaan Bezuidenhout | -9 | 66 | 69 | 135 |
| T16 | Sam Ryder | -8 | 67 | 69 | 136 |
| T16 | Joel Dahmen | -8 | 69 | 67 | 136 |
| T16 | Brandt Snedeker | -8 | 68 | 68 | 136 |
| T16 | Adam Svensson | -8 | 67 | 69 | 136 |
| T16 | Ludvig Åberg | -8 | 67 | 69 | 136 |
| T16 | Matt NeSmith | -8 | 66 | 70 | 136 |
| T16 | Tom Hoge | -8 | 71 | 65 | 136 |
| T16 | Martin Laird | -8 | 68 | 68 | 136 |
| T16 | Cameron Champ | -8 | 67 | 69 | 136 |
| T16 | Garrick Higgo | -8 | 70 | 66 | 136 |
| T16 | Russell Knox | -8 | 66 | 70 | 136 |
| T27 | C.T. Pan | -7 | 68 | 69 | 137 |
| T27 | Andrew Landry | -7 | 70 | 67 | 137 |
| T27 | Peter Malnati | -7 | 66 | 71 | 137 |
| T27 | Cody Gribble | -7 | 68 | 69 | 137 |
| T27 | Ryan Palmer | -7 | 69 | 68 | 137 |
| T27 | Austin Cook | -7 | 68 | 69 | 137 |
| T27 | David Lipsky | -7 | 70 | 67 | 137 |
| T27 | Doc Redman | -7 | 67 | 70 | 137 |
| T27 | Davis Thompson | -7 | 67 | 70 | 137 |
| T27 | Tyler Duncan | -7 | 69 | 68 | 137 |
| T27 | Kevin Kisner | -7 | 67 | 70 | 137 |
| T27 | Lanto Griffin | -7 | 67 | 70 | 137 |
| T27 | Mark Hubbard | -7 | 69 | 68 | 137 |
| T27 | Ford Clegg | -7 | 72 | 65 | 137 |
| T41 | Hank Lebioda | -6 | 67 | 71 | 138 |
| T41 | Ben Martin | -6 | 70 | 68 | 138 |
| T41 | Chad Ramey | -6 | 70 | 68 | 138 |
| T41 | Akshay Bhatia | -6 | 66 | 72 | 138 |
| T41 | Tommy Gainey | -6 | 71 | 67 | 138 |
| T41 | Alex Noren | -6 | 69 | 69 | 138 |
| T41 | Ross Steelman | -6 | 70 | 68 | 138 |
| T41 | Cameron Percy | -6 | 70 | 68 | 138 |
| T41 | Nick Hardy | -6 | 68 | 70 | 138 |
| T41 | Robert Streb | -6 | 70 | 68 | 138 |
| T41 | Ben Taylor | -6 | 69 | 69 | 138 |
| T41 | Kevin Chappell | -6 | 71 | 67 | 138 |
| T41 | Vince Whaley | -6 | 68 | 70 | 138 |
| T41 | Ted Potter, Jr. | -6 | 69 | 69 | 138 |
| T41 | Adam Long | -6 | 69 | 69 | 138 |
| T41 | Nicholas Lindheim | -6 | 67 | 71 | 138 |
| T41 | Brett White | -6 | 68 | 70 | 138 |
| T58 | Jimmy Walker | -5 | 67 | 72 | 139 |
| T58 | Chris Stroud | -5 | 69 | 70 | 139 |
| T58 | Alex Smalley | -5 | 70 | 69 | 139 |
| T58 | Lucas Herbert | -5 | 70 | 69 | 139 |
| T58 | Jim Herman | -5 | 69 | 70 | 139 |
| T58 | Lee Hodges | -5 | 69 | 70 | 139 |
| T58 | Jonas Blixt | -5 | 71 | 68 | 139 |
| T58 | Eric Cole | -5 | 71 | 68 | 139 |
| T58 | Brandon Wu | -5 | 65 | 74 | 139 |
| T58 | Stephan Jaeger | -5 | 71 | 68 | 139 |
| T58 | Trevor Cone | -5 | 70 | 69 | 139 |
| T58 | Kramer Hickok | -5 | 70 | 69 | 139 |
| T58 | William McGirt | -5 | 70 | 69 | 139 |
| T58 | Kelly Kraft | -5 | 69 | 70 | 139 |
| T58 | Richy Werenski | -5 | 70 | 69 | 139 |
| T58 | Dylan Frittelli | -5 | 72 | 67 | 139 |
| T58 | Callum Tarren | -5 | 71 | 68 | 139 |
| T58 | Kyle Westmoreland | -5 | 70 | 69 | 139 |
| T58 | Michael Gligic | -5 | 72 | 67 | 139 |
| T58 | Scott Harrington | -5 | 71 | 68 | 139 |
| T58 | Chris Baker | -5 | 71 | 68 | 139 |
| CUT | Dylan Wu | -4 | 68 | 72 | 140 |
| CUT | Austin Smotherman | -4 | 70 | 70 | 140 |
| CUT | Camilo Villegas | -4 | 71 | 69 | 140 |
| CUT | Sean O'Hair | -4 | 69 | 71 | 140 |
| CUT | Sam Bennett | -4 | 69 | 71 | 140 |
| CUT | Trevor Werbylo | -4 | 70 | 70 | 140 |
| CUT | Doug Ghim | -4 | 68 | 72 | 140 |
| CUT | Carson Young | -4 | 70 | 70 | 140 |
| CUT | S.H. Kim | -4 | 73 | 67 | 140 |
| CUT | Zac Blair | -4 | 73 | 67 | 140 |
| CUT | Trey Mullinax | -4 | 68 | 72 | 140 |
| CUT | Mackenzie Hughes | -4 | 70 | 70 | 140 |
| CUT | Patton Kizzire | -4 | 71 | 69 | 140 |
| CUT | Chase Parker | -4 | 70 | 70 | 140 |
| CUT | Tano Goya | -4 | 74 | 66 | 140 |
| CUT | Charley Hoffman | -3 | 68 | 73 | 141 |
| CUT | Brice Garnett | -3 | 69 | 72 | 141 |
| CUT | MJ Daffue | -3 | 70 | 71 | 141 |
| CUT | Brian Gay | -3 | 71 | 70 | 141 |
| CUT | Jason Dufner | -3 | 71 | 70 | 141 |
| CUT | Tyson Alexander | -3 | 69 | 72 | 141 |
| CUT | Ricky Barnes | -3 | 70 | 71 | 141 |
| CUT | Kevin Roy | -3 | 71 | 70 | 141 |
| CUT | Augusto Núñez | -3 | 69 | 72 | 141 |
| CUT | Ben Crane | -3 | 72 | 69 | 141 |
| CUT | Greyson Sigg | -3 | 73 | 68 | 141 |
| CUT | Martin Trainer | -2 | 72 | 70 | 142 |
| CUT | Scott Brown | -2 | 73 | 69 | 142 |
| CUT | S.Y. Noh | -2 | 70 | 72 | 142 |
| CUT | D.J. Trahan | -2 | 72 | 70 | 142 |
| CUT | Ryan Moore | -2 | 69 | 73 | 142 |
| CUT | Matti Schmid | -2 | 73 | 69 | 142 |
| CUT | Ryan Gerard | -2 | 72 | 70 | 142 |
| CUT | Kevin Tway | -2 | 70 | 72 | 142 |
| CUT | Justin Lower | -2 | 73 | 69 | 142 |
| CUT | Nate Lashley | -2 | 70 | 72 | 142 |
| CUT | Scott Piercy | -2 | 72 | 70 | 142 |
| CUT | Harry Hall | -1 | 71 | 72 | 143 |
| CUT | Hayden Buckley | -1 | 71 | 72 | 143 |
| CUT | Emiliano Grillo | -1 | 72 | 71 | 143 |
| CUT | Ryan Brehm | -1 | 71 | 72 | 143 |
| CUT | Robby Shelton | -1 | 72 | 71 | 143 |
| CUT | Greg Chalmers | -1 | 69 | 74 | 143 |
| CUT | Will Gordon | -1 | 72 | 71 | 143 |
| CUT | Max McGreevy | -1 | 71 | 72 | 143 |
| CUT | Davis Riley | Par | 71 | 73 | 144 |
| CUT | Satoshi Kodaira | Par | 71 | 73 | 144 |
| CUT | Sam Stevens | Par | 71 | 73 | 144 |
| CUT | Zack Fischer | Par | 74 | 70 | 144 |
| CUT | Paul Haley II | Par | 71 | 73 | 144 |
| CUT | Kevin Streelman | Par | 74 | 70 | 144 |
| CUT | Ryan Armour | +1 | 69 | 76 | 145 |
| CUT | Sung Kang | +1 | 73 | 72 | 145 |
| CUT | Kevin Yu | +1 | 69 | 76 | 145 |
| CUT | K.H. Lee | +1 | 75 | 70 | 145 |
| CUT | Brandon Matthews | +2 | 71 | 75 | 146 |
| CUT | Chez Reavie | +2 | 74 | 72 | 146 |
| CUT | Andrew Novak | +2 | 73 | 73 | 146 |
| CUT | Fred Biondi | +2 | 74 | 72 | 146 |
| CUT | Jonathan Byrd | +3 | 74 | 73 | 147 |
| CUT | Brian Stuard | +3 | 70 | 77 | 147 |
| CUT | Brent Grant | +3 | 79 | 68 | 147 |
| CUT | Matthias Schwab | +4 | 72 | 76 | 148 |
| CUT | Nick Watney | +4 | 73 | 75 | 148 |
| CUT | Keith Mitchell | +5 | 73 | 76 | 149 |
| CUT | Greg Sonnier | +9 | 80 | 73 | 153 |
