Tommy Fleetwood is 5 photographs off the lead on the Valero Texas Open, the place Sam Ryder surged into the lead on day one.
Fleetwood is tied for sixth with 5 different gamers after hitting 5 birdies and one bogey on his option to carding a four-under 68.
Ryder birdied six of his closing seven holes in a bogey-free 63 as he leapfrogged Keith Mitchell on the prime of the leaderboard within the closing match earlier than The Masters.
The 35-year-old has by no means gained on the PGA Tour and holds the No 154 rating on the planet. If he wins the match, he’ll earn an invite to Augusta Nationwide.
Ryder, who has made the reduce in all 9 of his tournaments this 12 months, needed to withdraw from the pro-am on Wednesday when he felt a twinge on the base of his neck however returned properly rested as he stormed up the leaderboard.
“I used to be simply attempting to get a really feel for a way I may swing,” Ryder stated. “I feel it helped me keep inside myself immediately. I used to be simply pleased to be taking part in.
“I figured something underneath par is at all times often fairly good out right here. Did not go in with any intentions of attempting to be extra aggressive or something like that, was simply attempting to place one foot in entrance of the subsequent and have a strong spherical, hit fairways and as many greens as potential.”
Mitchell was additionally bogey-free, with an eagle on the par-5 eighth the spotlight of his eight-under 64 – his third opening spherical of 65 or underneath on the PGA this 12 months.
2023 Open champion Brian Harman sat in third place after a 66, and Carson Younger and Jordan Spieth have been tied for fourth at 5-under 67.
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Spieth, a Texas native, gained this occasion in 2021 and is in search of his first win on tour in virtually three years.
His spherical featured a shank on the seventeenth which noticed his ball land 4 inches in entrance of an embedded rock, however he recovered, hitting to inside 12 toes the place he made the putt for birdie.
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Max Homa, in the meantime, was in peril of lacking one other reduce to increase his droop. He introduced he has parted with caddie Joe Greiner, after leaving his swing coach final fall.
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