After two rounds of play at Albany, Henrik Stenson and Jon Rahm lead the Hero World Challenge at 10-under par.
Rahm shot a bogey-free 9 under par with nine birdies, while Stenson posted a 6 under 66 with one bogey offset by seven gains.
The Spaniard cited his accuracy off the tee for his low-round 63.
“I missed one fairway, I believe. That’s only because they put a patch of rough in the middle of the fairway on 4, so that was kind of how everything went, right?,” said Rahm.
“I hit it so solid off the tee, I was always in the fairway with a short club in. Besides that, followed with some good iron play. I think the best way to describe it, having five par 5s and two relatively short par 4s out of those seven holes, I got six birdies out of the nine, right?”
Stenson, who’s battled injuries throughout 2018, feels his game is coming into shape after a difficult year.
“I had an extra day, I guess, compared to most of the guys. End of the season, we’re just trying to do a little bit and warm up and play and conserve energy. But I’m feeling pretty good,” said Stenson.
“Putting’s been really solid these first couple of days. Short game as well.”
The European duo were one shot clear of Americans Dustin Johnson (67) and Patrick Cantlay (70), who sit T3 at 9-under par.
Tony Finau was one further back at 8 under following a second-day 64. Gary Woodland (66) and Alex Noren (69) were tied for sixth at 6-under par.
Defending champion Rickie Fowler shot a 67 and was 5 under, one shot in front of Keegan Bradley (69), Justin Thomas (70), and Justin Rose (70).
Tournament host Tiger Woods made a double bogey on the 18th hole to sign for a 69 and tumbled from the top 10 down to T14 at 2 under.
2018 HERO WORLD CHALLENGE
TOP 5 LEADERS
Pos-Name-To Par (Today)
1. Jon Rahm -10 (-9)
1. Henrik Stenson -10 (-6)
3. Dustin Johnson -9 (-5)
3. Patrick Cantlay -9 (-2)
5. Tony Finau -8 (-8)
STAT LEADERS
Through 36 holes
Fairways: Tony Finau 24/28, 88.5%
Greens: Henrik Stenson 30/36, 83.3%
Putts/GIR: Keegan Bradley 1.476
Birdies: Henrik Stenson 14
Pars: Justin Thomas 26
Bogeys: Jason Day 8
QUOTABLE
“You know, I didn’t feel like I made contact twice. It was such a short little shot, I was just trying to hit it sideways there. Under slow motion and high def, you can see that the ball hit the clubface twice, but there’s — I don’t know, there is no penalty. I’m sure that Mark will get in here and he’ll explain to you better than I can, but the committee, the rules committee went ahead and reviewed it for a while.”
– Tiger Woods
