Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nAfter being named joint runner-up last week at Pebble Beach, the cult hero continued his fine form and finished with six-under-par 65 as he prepares for the weekend.<\/p>\n
Marco Penge and Jacob Bridgeman fired impressive seven-under par 64s on Friday to share the US PGA Tour Genesis Invitational halfway lead, one stroke in front of world number two Rory McIlroy.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s Penge posted seven birdies without a bogey on the way to a 12-under par total of 130 at Riviera Country Club, where Bridgeman birdied the last three holes to join him.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland star McIlroy, who completed his career Grand Slam with a Masters victory last year, was snapping at their heels after a six-under par 65 that featured an eagle and four birdies.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile world number one Scottie Scheffler made the cut by the skin of his teeth to push his streak of cuts made to 68 — the longest active streak on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think my driving has been kind of the way I normally drive the ball. It\u2019s definitely the best part of my game by far,\u201d said Penge, a 27-year-old from England who won three times on the DP World Tour last year to head the group of 10 players from the circuit who secured dual membership on the US tour this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the way I putted, you know, especially inside 10 feet, and my pace behind it has been really on point.\u201d Penge, Bridgeman and McIlroy were among the four players who emerged from the weather-hit first round sharing the lead on five-under. McIlroy and Bridgeman finished their rounds on Thursday, while Penge and Aaron Rai had to pull double-duty on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I just managed it really well today,\u201d said Penge, who birdied the first and sixth before five birdies on the back nine, starting with a 22-foot birdie putt at the 12th.<\/p>\n
Marco Penge fired seven-under par 64s on Friday.Source: AP<\/p>\n
He got up and down from a greenside bunker for birdie at 17, and even after the long day wasn\u2019t feeling tired.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you\u2019re playing well and kind of up at the top of the leaderboard, I think you can kind of keep going,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bridgeman, chasing his first tour title, opened with a 34-foot eagle putt at the first and added seven birdies the rest of the way. That included a three-birdie burst at nine, 10 and 11 and, after a bogey at 12, birdies at 16, 17 and 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d said Bridgeman, who finished tied for eighth at Pebble Beach last week. \u201cI\u2019m excited to be back in the hunt trying to get a win.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy, whose Pebble Beach bid was doomed by a raft of mistakes, was delighted to post a bogey-free round.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo bogeys is always nice,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cMaking one bogey through the first 36 holes compared to the big numbers I had last week … Tidied everything up, which is good.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cOverall really pleased with the day and excited for the weekend.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy was pleased with the day\u2019s play.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Scheffler was less pleased with his work so far but certainly pumped to be heading into the weekend after drilling a seven-foot par-saving putt on 18 to make the cut without a stroke to spare.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to make a mess of a pretty basic chip there on 18,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cSo it was nice to be able to hole a putt and get another two cracks at the course.\u201d Scheffler carded a three-under 68 for an even par total and now hasn\u2019t missed a cut since August 2022.<\/p>\n
However, since marching to a season-opening win at La Quinta last month the four-time major-winner has had to battle to keep his streak alive.<\/p>\n
His three-over par first round at Riviera marked the third straight event in which he was over par through 18 holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his 1500th PGA Tour round, Adam Scott has threatened to break the course record as he shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[6938,5487,2620,2095,64,63,689,249192,43486,485,644,249190,9232,1208,2057,249188,3738,755,9262,29991,481,2041,2067,3583,5492,677,51334,756,249189,85,249191,249187,2614,10911],"class_list":{"0":"post-494057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-aaron-rai","9":"tag-adam-scott","10":"tag-agence-france-presse","11":"tag-america","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","15":"tag-australian-min-woo-lee","16":"tag-birdie-putt","17":"tag-california","18":"tag-cult-hero","19":"tag-dual-membership","20":"tag-eagle-putt","21":"tag-england","22":"tag-europe","23":"tag-four-time-major-winner","24":"tag-fox-sports","25":"tag-golf","26":"tag-golf-course","27":"tag-golf-tournament","28":"tag-los-angeles","29":"tag-north-america","30":"tag-northern-america","31":"tag-northern-europe","32":"tag-northern-ireland","33":"tag-oceania","34":"tag-pebble-beach-company","35":"tag-rory-mcilroy","36":"tag-seven-foot-par-saving","37":"tag-sports","38":"tag-three-birdie-burst","39":"tag-tour-title","40":"tag-united-states-of-america","41":"tag-world-number"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494057","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=494057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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