Rafael Campos, Fabrizio Zanotti and Justin Suh will enter the weekend at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship with a share of the lead on 7-under par.
Zanotti reached the marquee position with a 4-under 68, while Campos and Suh matched 69s en route to the halftime co-lead at the oceanside resort.
The only bogey-free round among the lead trio belonged Campos, who credited friend and caddie, Erik Morales, for Friday’s clean card.
“If it were any other person on the bag, after the way I hit my irons and wedges today, it definitely would have been a different story,” said Campos.
“Keeps me calm. He understands that, hey, we’re going to miss shots. He always really talks to me very positively just like, ‘hey, forget about that hook, at least we have a good angle now,’ and all that stuff.
“Yeah, I was the best man at his wedding, he was the best man at my wedding. He’s like a brother to me and he knows my game as much as anybody out here.
“I’m very fortunate to have him on the bag. It was really a nice week in Puerto Rico and hopefully so far we’re having a great week here in Puntacana.”
After back-to-back rounds of 69, Tyler Duncan was just a shot off the pace, alongside Joel Dahmen at 6 under par.
Duncan also cited the influence of his caddie, Andy Johnson – who’s primarily his coach but is multi tasking this week as the bag carrier too.
“My putting obviously hasn’t been great, that’s kind of where I’ve always struggled, and it’s starting to come around. I have my coach down here caddying this week,” said Duncan. “Andy Johnson. So that’s nice to have him around. I feel like everything’s trending, so we’ll see this weekend. Happy to be here.”
A group of six more players were one further back at T6 on 5-under par, including Michael Gligic, who fired the best round of the day – a bogey-free 66 – to move 66 spots up the leaderboard.
The Canadian’s low-round included six birdies, highlighted by five gains in a six-hole stretch (Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12).
“I think coming in there, the finishing stretch there. Once it turns and you get into the wind on I think 14 or 15 there, it gets pretty tough and you’re kind of holding on a little bit,” said Gligic, when asked about the challenges posed by the different sections of the Tom Fazio-designed Corales course.
“But that middle stretch is a bit gettable. You’ve got 7, the par 5 and then it kind of switches and you get 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 downwind.
“I was fortunate to make a few birdies in that stretch and yeah, hopefully we can do it again tomorrow.”
Overnight leader Stephan Jaeger (73), Thomas Pieters (70), and 2019 Corales winner Graeme McDowell (69) were among the prominent names in the T6 group.
Former Masters champion Danny Willett posted a second consecutive round of 70 and headlines a nine-player logjam at 4 under.
Defending champion Hudson Swafford remained in the hunt at 3 under par following opening rounds of 70 and 71.
Leaderboard: Top 10
Pos-Player-To Par (Rd 2)
1. Fabrizio Zanotti -7 (-4)
1. Rafael Campos -7 (-3)
1. Justin Suh -7 (-3)
4. Tyler Duncan -6 (-3)
4. Joel Dahmen -6 (-1)
6. Michael Gligic -5 (-6)
6. Graeme McDowell -5 (-3)
6. Roberto Castro -5 (-3)
6. Thomas Pieters -5 (-2)
6. Andrew Yun -5 (E)
6. Stephan Jaeger -5 (+1)
Round-2 Highlights
The best shots of the day from the second round of the 2021 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, featuring Graeme McDowell, Sam Ryder and Rafael Campos among others.
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