Bubba Watson plays his shot from the 14th tee during the second round of the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut. (AFP)
By Tom Yantz/The Hartford Courant
Bubba Watson said different wind conditions and more difficult pin positions made TPC River Highlands a different course Friday.
What remained the same was Watson’s name atop the Travelers Championship leaderboard.
He made three birdies and 15 pars for a 3-under 67 in the second round for a total of 11-under 129. He held a two-stroke advantage over Brian Harman (65 — 131), Brian Stuard (67 —131) and Carl Pettersson (66 — 131).
“It was windier, gustier coming from a different direction, so it made the golf course tougher, hard to get the ball close,” Watson said. “Tougher pins and more wind, so it makes it tougher to get the ball close.”
Neither these conditions nor the rest of the field could dislodge Watson from his No. 1 position. He has been the outright leader for both rounds. Only two players held the outright lead after each round and won the championship: Gene Litler in 1959 and Tim Norris in 1982.
Seventy one professionals and amateur Jon Rahm (69 — 137) made the cut of 2-under 138 Friday.
Fifteen players are within four shots of Watson. Jason Gore (68), Chris Stroud (67) and Scott Brown (67) are tied for fifth at 132, three shots away from Watson.
Last year’s champ, Kevin Streelman, missed the cut by a stroke.
Brown’s round included a 29 on the back nine, one shy of the tournament record. Watson followed his Travelers Championship-low round of 62 Thursday with a solid round against a wind from the northwest. It blew from the south in the first round.
Whether he was unleashing his drive from the first tee or standing on the fourth tee - the farthest point from the clubhouse - he had the largest fan contingent of the round.
They enjoyed the day, as Watson birdied the 14th (his fifth) with a 9-foot, 3-inch putt. His other birdies were at the third (5-8) and seventh (12-2).
Watson played in the morning session. Stroud, playing in the afternoon, got the closest to tying Watson. Stuard birdied Nos. 10, 12, 13, 15 and 16 to reach 10 under.
But Stuard sent his second shot over the green at 17 and could not get up and down to save par. The bogey 5 cost him a spot in the final twosome Saturday with Watson.
Harman, a left-hander from the University of Georgia like Watson, is in the final pairing that tees off at 2pm EDT.
Harman has this position because he had four birdies on the back nine and missed a 13-foot, 8-inch birdie try on the low side at 18 in the second round.
After bogeying the fifth, he birdied six, nine, 11, 13, 16 and 17. “I hit it really well,” said Harman, winner of the John Deere Classic last year. “I got it in there close a bunch. Hit a par 5 in two [No. 13] and then made a really good up and down on the other par 5 [No. 6].”
Harman hit 15 of 18 greens and needed 29 putts. Evidence of the quality of his round, compared to his 66 in round one, was he had a distance total of 92 feet, 9 inches of made putts Friday. He had 67-7 Thursday. Pettersson moved up the leaderboard with birdies at Nos. 4, 5, 6 and 8 (his final nine). “I don’t look where I stand. I just keep on trucking along,” he said. “That sort of thing with nine holes to go maybe on Sunday, if you’re up there you might check the leaderboards out. Other than that, you just kind of keep your head down and go.”
Brown’s perseverance, in contrast, was tested early. He blocked his second shot at the par-4 first into a bank in the right rough. From an even lie he sent his next shot over the green. He finished with a 6.
Brown, a winner of the 2013 Puerto Rico Open, struggled and shot a 3-over 38 on the front nine. He was disappointed, but still confident. “When my caddie [Nick Hughey] said, ‘Let’s go get them on the back nine,’ that’s what we did,” he said.
Brown birdied holes 11-16. The sizzling back-nine stretch followed only Streelman’s seven consecutive birdies to close out the final round last year to win the Travelers Championship.
“Sure, I definitely was thinking about it,” Brown said. “I was thinking it would be nice to make eight in a row.”
He didn’t tie Streelman’s record nor the tournament back-nine record 28 held by Vijay Singh, Charley Hoffman and Streelman. “I had about a 60-footer [PGA Tour statistics said the birdie putt try was 35 feet, 10 inches],” Brown said of No. 17. “It was a nice two-putt, though, to end the streak.”
Brown and company will try to chase down Watson this weekend
Watson often smiled when talking about his round Friday. His 12 birdies in the first 36 holes gave him 158 in his tournament career here - his most of any event on the PGA Tour.
“Bubba hits it so far,” Harman said. “He’s playing from different places, and he makes lots of birdies. I want to be paired with a guy making a lot of birdies.”
Leading scores
129-Bubba Watson 62-67
131-Carl Pettersson (SWE) 65-66, Brian Harman 66-65, Brian Stuard 64-67
132-Jason Gore 64-68, Chris Stroud 65-67, Scott Brown 65-67
133-Francesco Molinari (ITA) 67-66, Nick Watney 69-64, Graham DeLaet (CAN) 67-66, Nicholas Thompson 66-67, Danny Lee (AUS) 66-67, Seung-Yul Noh (KOR) 64-69, Keegan Bradley 64-69, Scott Langley 65-68
