Pierceson Coody used a late trio of birdies Friday to ensure he entered the weekend with the lead at the ISCO Championship at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Ky.
Coody, the 18-hole leader after opening with a red-hot 61, began his second round on the back nine. He was one off the pace as he played the front nine, but birdies at the par-5 fifth, par-4 seventh and par-5 eighth holes gave him a 5-under-par 67 for the day and pushed him to 16-under 128.
The PGA Tour rookie will carry a two-shot edge over Chez Reavie, Matthis Besard of Belgium and Rico Hoey of the Philippines into the weekend.
“It wasn’t quite 61, but 67’s still a really nice score,” Coody said. “I definitely could have made a couple more six- to eight-foot putts, left a couple out there, but bounced back in a lot of really good ways and kept my round going.”
Coody, who’s seeking his maiden PGA Tour title, sank birdies from 18 1/2 and 21 1/2 feet away at Nos. 16 and 17. He hit his drive at No. 18 way to the left and lost the ball, forcing him to play a provisional. From there, he went fairway, green, cup to save bogey.
“To make bogey the way I did, it almost was a good positive to execute the next drive, hit a perfect wedge and remind myself that I’m playing good golf and to keep that going through the back nine,” the 24-year-old said.
Reavie and Cooper Musselman (who stands at 11 under) had the rounds of the day with 10-under 62s. Reavie piled up eight birdies before eagling his penultimate hole, the par-5 eighth, after his second shot nestled within 5 feet of the pin.
“Kind of got off to a slow start,” the three-time PGA Tour winner said. “When you look up at the leaderboard like, oh, jeez, what’s going on. Then I started hitting some good shots, made a few putts and kind of got in a flow and rattled four off in a row to finish the front and had good momentum going into the back.”
Besard posted a 63 and Hoey had a 66. Tied for fifth at 13 under are Alex Smalley (64), Johannes Veerman (65), Hayden Springer (67), Garrick Higgo of South Africa (64), Angel Hidalgo Portillo of Spain (66) and Andy Sullivan of England (66).
According to the tour, the cut line of 8 under par was the lowest 36-hole cut relative to par on record since 1970. Notable names to miss the cut included Rafa Cabrera Bello of Spain (7 under), Joel Dahmen (6 under) and Daniel Berger (4 under).
–Field Level Media
