Cameron Young holds closed with a 64 on Friday to take a two-shot lead in the John Deere Classic.
The American hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation for the second consecutive day en route to 65-64—129, one stroke shy of his best opening 36-hole total on Tour (66-62—128 at the 2022 Genesis Invitational/T2).
"I definitely drove it better yesterday. I don't know what the stats are, 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."
Young holds the 36-hole lead/co-lead for the first time on Tour. He was the 2022 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year and has recorded six runner-up results, including one this season at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play when he lost the final to Sam Burns. At No. 19 in the Official World Golf Ranking, he is the highest-ranked player in the field.
Adam Schenk carded a bogey-free 66 for a share of second place at 11-under alongside fellow American Brendon Todd (65) and South Africa's Garrick Higgo (66).
Sweden's Ludvig Aberg closed with a 64 for a share of fifth place at 10-under alongside Americans William Mouw (66), Denny McCarthy (64) and Kevin Roy (bogey-free 63).
Mouw, playing on a sponsor exemption, and Schenk are the only two players bogey-free through 36-holes.
Related: Nacho Elvira takes lead with flurry of birdies
Starting on the back nine, overnight leader Jonas Blixt posted nine straight pars on the same nine holes he carded the first sub-30 nine-hole score of his PGA Tourcareer on Thursday (29).
Of the players who made the cut, Blixt was the only player to shoot an over-par score in the second round and is currently tied in 18th place at 7-under.
