Kevin Streelman made one birdie and two bogeys to finish at 1-over par 72 on Friday and hold on to a share of the lead at 6-under at the Valspar Championship.
“Definitely a grinding round. Those up-and-downs on 15 and 16 were pretty crazy. I was fortunate to get those two up-and-down.
“17 was just a brain fart, but 18 to come back and birdie it was pretty nice. So I’m very happy with it. I knew it was going to be very difficult today. The wind was supposed to be even worse, I think, than it is, but we’re fortunate to not get the rain, and just wanted to get myself in the last group or two tomorrow and was able to do that, I think.
“On courses like this and days like this you don’t necessarily, you’re not like pumping it as hard as you can down sides of fairways,” he continued. “It’s more kind of like missing it in the right spots a lot of times. It’s all about angles. It’s about, a lot of times, not getting yourself into certain positions that are so difficult to be in. This course has some spots you can attack and has some spots you just got to be defensive on.
“11’s a good example. It’s long par-5, but I hit 3-wood off it today because I knew that chute that you shoot down to the left on your play is much wider where my 3-wood would be. I hit driver and it gets into the wind and gets into the trees then all of a sudden you got to chip out sideways. So, did the right thing there. Hit a nice 4-iron punch shot down there and was rewarded with a good look at birdie. But there’s some thinking to do on this golf course, for sure.”
Chandler Phillips eagled the par-5 14th and closed with a 68 to join the lead. Phillips made his debut in September 2019 and is playing in his twelfth start on the PGA Tour. He has made four cuts in his six starts this season with a T24 best finish at the Mexico Open at Vidanta.
Stewart Cink made an eagle at the par-5 1st hole as well as four birdies and three bogeys for a 67 and a share of the lead. He will make his 500th cut on the PGA Tour in his 677th start. With a win he would become the ninth player in Tour history to win after turning 50, he will be 50 years, 10 months, 3 days on Sunday, and would be the seventh-oldest winner in Tour history. He last won at the 2021 RBC Heritage.
“Today’s round was a lot like the last half of yesterday’s round where I started off pretty scrappy and trying to find my footing and then I did. I finished very strong. Just carried over to today. Hit the ball solidly, a few more fairways today, which was nice. This golf course kind of requires it all. You have to be long and accurate off the tee and smart with your decisions coming into the greens and hit really solid approaches, and then the short game you have to do that everywhere.
“But there’s a reason that so many players rave about this course. It requires everything, and so far this week I’ve done everything fairly well.
“I’m just thrilled to be right back at the top of the leaderboard to test myself out again this week because that’s really what you want at the start of the year. You want to get in contention as much as possible and let the chips fall. You start trying to control too many things out there, it doesn’t work out in your favor. So I get another chance to learn some really great lessons and maybe some hard lessons this week again.”
Brendon Todd shot a 69 to join the tie at the top of the leaderboard. He has had one top-10 this season, T6 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, his third and last win was at the 2019 World Wide Technology Championship.
Last player to share the lead and only non-American, Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes made a double bogey at the par-5 1st hole and closed with a 68. He seeks his third win in his 203rd Tour start (2016 RSM Classic; 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship).
The second round was suspended due to darkness at 7:25 p.m. ET on Friday with 15 players left to complete the round.
