Russell Henley carded a second round 66 to hold on to his one-shot lead at 12-under in the Wyndham Championship.
“I think off the tee I was a little bit sharper,” said the American in comparison with his first round on Thursday, “meaning I could attack the course a little bit more. And then the back nine I thought played this morning a little bit more difficult. The wind was opposite and it was drizzling, so it made 14 and 15 play a lot different. I would say just off the tee didn’t quite get it in the fairway quite as much.
“I think my putting’s been really solid. I haven’t looked at the stats. My putting’s been good and I feel like my approach game when I’m in the fairway has been pretty good. I’ve made a lot of good par saves and made a decent amount of 10-, 15-footers, too.
Billy Horschel of the United States carded a career-low 62 featuring an eagle at the par-4 8th in his 1,058th round on the PGA Tour to move into second place at 11-under.
“We’ve talked about this enough and it’s been well documented, this year’s been a real struggle for me. But since that 84 at Memorial, since that media session afterwards, the game’s actually been heading in the right direction. The results haven’t shown that until the last week and so far this week, but there’s been a lot of positive stuff coming, a lot more confidence in my ability to strike the golf ball, which has been the biggest issue all year.
“I mean, I’m excited where my game’s going. We’ve still got a long ways to go to get back to where I would like to be in this game of golf, but at least we’ve got momentum behind us pushing us forward now.”
Canadian Adam Svensson closed with a 67 for a share of third place at 10-under alongside Americans Lucas Glover (64) and Brendon Todd (63) as well as South Korean Byeong Hun An (67) who made two eagles at the par-5 15th and the par-4 9th as well as a double bogey at the par-4 17th.
FedExCup Playoffs notes
The Wyndham Championship is the final event of the FedExCup Regular Season, with the top 70 in the FedExCup standings qualifying for next week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship (the first Playoffs event).
Billy Horschel needs a two-way T2 to have a chance to move into the top 70 of the FedExCup standings and qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs. He has qualified for the Playoffs in each of the last 10 seasons and is currently projected to move to No. 65 in the standings, bumping rookie Austin Eckroat out of the top 70 (only projected players moving in/out).
“I know I have to win or finish solo second, I realized that I think Sunday night when I got here. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t,” said Hoschel.
“Like I said, I’ve just, I realized a couple months ago there’s a really good chance I may not make the Playoffs based off the way my game is going, so I was just more or less trying to focus on getting the game back in the right shape and getting some momentum going into the fall which would hopefully carry over into ’24.”
Adam Scott (No. 81/projected No. 82) is one of two players who have qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs in each season since the inception of the FedExCup in 2007; the other is Matt Kuchar (T31/-4; projected No. 58 in the FedExCup).
All players who entered the week No. 71-74 in the FedExCup standings missed the cut and have been eliminated from FedExCup Playoffs contention (Ben Taylor, Garrick Higgo, K.H. Lee, David Lingmerth).
Other notables making the cut that entered the week outside the top 70 include Shane Lowry (entered No. 76, projected No. 77), Justin Thomas (No. 79, No. 75) and Matt Wallace (No. 80, No. 76)
