Matthew Wolff chased an opening-round 61 with a second-day 68 and will take a two-shot lead into the weekend at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba.
The 22-year-old Californian finished his second day at the El Camaleon course with six birdies against three bogeys, including two late dropped shots on Nos. 16 and 18, en route to a two-day score of 13-under 129.
Afterwards, Wolff was pleased with his round despite the tough finish.
“Yeah, just a lot of good, like you said,” said Wolff. “I had a couple bad breaks coming in.
“No. 16 just doesn’t really set up well for me, not going to take driver there, and 3-wood kind of works away from the fairway.
“You know, like I said, it was a hard finish, but I was really happy with how I played today. Felt like it was pretty difficult this afternoon, honestly. Wind started to swirl a little bit and pick up.”
Two off the pace was Scottie Scheffler, who carded a second-round 64 to sit solo second on 11 under.
“I just kept the ball in play. I gave myself a lot of looks today,” said Scheffler, who hit 16 of 18 greens on Friday.
“I don’t think I missed very many greens, so that’s really important around this place, just keep it in position.
“I did a good job of that today.”
Defending champion Viktor Hovland (65) and Mexico’s own Carlos Ortiz (65) shared the third spot on 10-under par.
Justin Thomas (65), Billy Horschel (69), and Sergio Garcia (69) were among a logjam of 10 players tied for fifth on 9-under par.
2021 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba
Leaderboard: Top 10
Pos-Player-To Par-(Score)
1. Matthew Wolff -13 (-3)
2. Scottie Scheffler -11 (-7)
3. Viktor Hovland -10 (-6)
3. Carlos Ortiz -10 (-6)
5. Ryan Palmer -9 (-7)
5. Justin Thomas -9 (-6)
5. Michael Thompson -9 (-6)
5. Anirban Lahiri -9 (-5)
5. Bill Haas -9 (-3)
5. J.J. Spaun -9 (-3)
5. Sergio Garcia -9 (-2)
5. Billy Horschel -9 (-2)
5. Talor Gooch -9 (-2)
5. Aaron Wise -9 (-1)
Notables
22. Joaquin Niemann -7 (-5)
28. Tyrrell Hatton -6 (-5)
28. Abraham Ancer -6 (-3)
28. Tony Finau -6 (-2)
41. Matt Fitzpatrick -5 (-2)
41. Justin Rose -5 (-1)
58. Patrick Reed -4 (-6)
58. Rickie Fowler -4 (+1)
Notables Missing Cut
MC. Ian Poulter -5 (66)
MC. Gary Woodland -4 (67)
MC. Shane Lowry -2 (-2)
MC. Will Zalatoris -2 (-2)
MC. Brooks Koepka E (E)
Tee Times, Pairings
11:36 am – Thomas (-9), Spaun (-9), Henley (-8)
11:47 am – Horschel (-9), Wise (-9), Palmer (-9)
11:58 am – Thompson (-9), Garcia (-9), Gooch (-9)
12:09 pm – Hovland (-10), Lahiri (-9), Haas (-9)
12:20 pm – Wolff (-13), Scheffler (-11), Ortiz (-10)
