Ryan Palmer is currently the 36-hole leader at 11-under par. Palmer, who had surgery on his left shoulder to clean out bone spurs, fired off a 66-67 to head up the pack and said afterward that he was, “playing a little more free and clear.”
Just behind palmer is the hottest golfer on the planet right now, Jon Rahm. Rahm won last week at the CareerBuilder Challenge and finished second at the Tournament of Champions earlier this month. The 23-year-old Spaniard sits one off the lead at a course he won on last year and is poised to take the number one world ranking should he win again this week.
“I was able to get up-and-down for par, and not making mistakes and taking advantage of the birdie putts,” he said. “I probably shot the lowest I could shoot today.”
Rahm trailed by five shots in 2017 at this event when he hit his stride and closed with a 65 that included a 50-foot eagle putt on the 72nd hole. He’s on a blistering pace and playing ridiculously good golf right now. It’s hard to see anyone else walking away with this tournament after a start like this.
Meanwhile, Tiger Woods finished the first two rounds with 72-71 and made the cut in dramatic fashion. Woods was -1 going into the par-3 8th hole, his 17th, when he made a bogey to drop to even and one off of the cut line. He then mishit his drive into the right rough on the par-5 9th hole but recovered with a beautiful shot to 70-feet from the hole leaving himself with an eagle putt to get to -2. Woods lagged the putt up to about 1 foot and walked away with a birdie and on the cut line at -1.
This is the first cut that Woods has made in 888 days.