England’s Tyrrell Hatton made an eagle and two birdies in his last four holes to grab a share of the lead after Friday’s second round of the PGA Wells Fargo Championship.
Hatton matched his low round of the season with a six-under par 65 to stand on eight-under 134 after 36 holes at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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The 31-year-old Englishman shared the halfway lead in the $AUD30 million event with Americans Wyndham Clark and Nate Lashley.
Back-nine starter Hatton’s closing heroics included a 33-yard birdie putt at the par-3 sixth, a 26-foot eagle putt at the par-5 seventh and a 31-foot birdie putt at the ninth.
“They’re not the type of putts that you hole consistently, so to finish the round that way, I’m obviously very pleased,” Hatton said. “Nice to see some putts go in.”
Australia’s Adam Scott, reigning Olympic champion Xander Schauffele and 2022 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas were in a fourth-place pack on 135 with South Korean Im Sung-jae, American J.J. Spaun and Canada’s Adam Svensson.
South Korea’s Lee Kyoung-hoon, who next week seeks a third straight PGA Byron Nelson title, looked set to join the leaders but went way right off the ninth tee and closed with a double bogey to finish on 136 in a group with American Michael Kim and England’s Tommy Fleetwood.
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World number 18 Hatton, a six-time winner on the European Tour, captured his only PGA title at the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Back-nine starter Hatton opened with a birdie and sank birdie putts from inside 4 1/2 feet at 13, 14 and 15 before taking bogeys at 16 and the par-3 17th.
“Short game helped me out. That kept me in it,” Hatton said.
“Thankful to have a good finish, start hitting in the middle of the clubface again and hope that continues over the weekend.” World number 209 Lashley, 40, fired a bogey-free 66. His only PGA triumph came at 2019 in Detroit.
Lashley opened with a tap-in birdie and added birdie putts from 17 feet at the third hole, just inside five feet at par-5 seventh, 18 feet at the par-3 13th and seven feet at 14.
“I drove the ball in the fairway, hitting solid irons, getting up and down when I need to and making putts,” Lashley said.
“Anytime you get a round at Quail Hollow with no bogeys, it’s a great round.”
Clark, who shot 67, seeks his first PGA title.
Unhappy at squandered early birdie chances, 10th-hole starter Clark birdied the par-3 17th from just inside eight feet and sank a 13-foot birdie putt at nine.
“Kind of got the round going,” Clark said. “Felt like it rewarded my patience in not getting frustrated. Then I got into a nice groove on the back nine.”
Clark, ranked 80th, sank a 17-footer for birdie at the par-3 fourth and followed a bogey at the par-3 sixth with an eagle at the par-5 seventh from just inside 27 feet.
“I’m glad it hit the cup,” he said of the eagle putt.
“It might have been off the green it was hit so hard. The shot in there was very lucky and unbelievable.”
World number three Rory McIlroy, a four-time major winner and three-time champion at Quail Hollow, made three consecutive bogeys starting at the fifth hole on his way to a 73 but made the cut on the number at 141.
American Mark Hubbard aced the par-3 17th hole using a 6-iron from 198 yards to also finish on 141. It was his third career PGA hole-in-one and first since last year’s Rocket Mortgage Classic.