Texas, May 25 Korea’s Sungjae Im mastered the winds and wielded a hot putter as a workman-like 6-under 64 propelled him into title contention at the Charles Schwab Challenge on Friday.
Chasing a third PGA TOUR victory, the 26-year-old Im rolled in monster putts of 44 feet and 25 feet for two of his seven birdies at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas as he ended the second round in tied fourth place and four back of leader, Davis Riley.
Indian American Akshay Bhatia (73-72) will miss the cut, while Aaron Rai of England squeezed in T-60 with 71-71.
Riley, a one-time winner, also shot a 64, which was the day’s joint low score, to lead by two strokes on 10-under from Hayden Buckley (65) and Pierceson Coody (65). Im’s countrymen Tom Kim and S.H. Kim will enter the weekend on 3-under in tied 15th place following cards of 68 and 71 respectively while Kevin Yu of Chinese Taipei shot a 69 for tied 25th.
Scottie Scheffler, who shot 2-over 72 in the first round, bounced back with a bogey free 5-under 65 and moved up to T-15.
Im has bounced back to form in recent weeks after a timely victory on the Korean PGA Tour last month, followed by a tied fourth finish at the Wells Fargo Championship which was only his second top-10 of the season. He suffered a minor blip with a missed cut at the PGA Championship last week but is back to his free-flowing best at Colonial despite some challenging conditions.
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