Three shots behind him at Silverado Resort’s North Course is Jackson Koivun and Russell Henley, who makes his Ryder Cup debut in two weeks. Henley dropped a few shots on his back nine and shot 68.<\/p>\n
Koivun, the No.1 player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, is in contention after a 66 that included six birdies, an eagle and two bogeys.<\/p>\n
Next was J.J. Spaun (68), the US Open champion who also will be at Bethpage Black, five shots behind.<\/p>\n
Canadian, and round one leader, Mackenzie Hughes shot a 74 to be tied for seventh at seven under, with six others.<\/p>\n
Griffin enjoyed two birdies on the front nine but finished strongly with birdies on 12, 15, 17 and 18.<\/p>\n
“I wouldn’t even say my mindset’s been Ryder Cup. I’ve been pretty focused on this golf tournament,” Griffin said.<\/p>\n
“Without a doubt off the golf course hanging out with the guys and stuff there’s been some Ryder Cup presence, but once I get on the first tee I’m thinking I’m trying to play well here.”<\/p>\n
Griffin, one of four Ryder Cup rookies along with Henley, Spaun and Cameron Young, was at 14-under 130.<\/p>\n
Scottie Scheffler had a few more birdies than his opening round but his ho-hum 68 left him eight shots behind. The world No.1 hasn’t finished worse than eighth since March.<\/p>\n
Some two hours after his round, Griffin was a lone figure on the practice green on a gorgeous late summer day in Napa as he worked on his putting.<\/p>\n
“This week I’m trying to literally do the same stuff I’m doing,” Griffin said.<\/p>\n
“I’m trying to stay confident, stay motivated and keep the pedal down.”<\/p>\n
Karl Vilips (70) is the only Australian left in the field, in a tie for 61st at one under, after compatriot Harrison Endycott (75) finished three over and missed the cut.<\/p>\n
With AAP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three shots behind him at Silverado Resort’s North Course is Jackson Koivun and Russell Henley, who makes his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-139329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}