Pendrith, Conners head into weekend at The Players
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Canadian Taylor Pendrith put himself in position heading into the weekend at The Players Championship, firing a two-under 69 Friday.
The round put Pendrith six shots off leaders Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia in a tie for 15th after Friday's round.
The 33-year-old from Richmond Hill, Ont., made four birdies and two bogeys, both coming on the front-nine, in his second round, highlighted by a dart on the iconic No. 17 island green.
“Yeah, that was really nice. I feel like it was playing a little easier today, the wind was kind of just down off the right a little bit and you have that big backstop so you can fly it two yards past it or 10 yards past it and it comes down to the similar spot,” he told TSN’s Bob Weeks after the round.
“But yeah, I hit a really nice gap wedge and it was able to come back to three feet. It was kind of a greasy little three-footer, kind of had to play it just outside the hole. It was a good shot.”
Pendrith bogeyed the Par 5 second hole and erased the momentum of making birdie on No. 7 by giving a shot back one hole later. But he buckled down and played the back-nine 3-under to get him in the red for the round and keep him in a good spot on the leaderboard.
“I hung in there nicely. I didn’t really get off to a good start. I thought it was playing very getable this morning. The greens were soft and there was no wind and I kind of got off to a slow start. Didn’t see any putts go in until I made a nice birdie on seven. Kind of got me going to see that one go in. Nice putt on 10 and played the back-nine really solidly.
“Drove the ball a lot better today I thought and made some nice putts, I hit a lot of good putts that didn’t go in. So, still feeling good. On the greens, just didn’t see any go in on the front,” he said.
Corey Conners began Round 2 on the 10th hole sitting at 1-under after firing a 71 on Thursday. He started hot, firing two birdies on the opening three holes and after picking up a third stroke on the 16th, he gave one back on 18 to finish his opening nine at 2-under 34.
On the front nine, it was a par, two birdies and a bogey to open and after two more pars, that cutline was looking secure before back-to-back bogeys at the 7th and 8th cast a little doubt. A par on the final hole 9th secured Conners place on Saturday with a 2-under scoreline through the opening two rounds.
"Did I lot of things pretty good, made a handful of birdies which was nice, just a little bit sloppy on some holes," Conners said after the round. "My scrambling wasn't quite there today, gave myself pretty good looks and wasn't able to convert them. A little disappointing, game feels better than the score I posted, but I'll have a couple more days to battle it out."
Canadians Nick Taylor, Adam Hadwin, Adam Svensson, Ben Silverman and Mackenzie Hughes were all eliminated on Friday.
Track each Canadian during their second round at The Players here or watch the tournament LIVE on TSN+.