World number one Jon Rahm of Spain birdied three of his last four holes on Thursday to pull into a tie for first place at the halfway point of the Farmers Insurance Open in La Jolla, California.
Rahm (65) moved to 13 under and joined Justin Thomas and Adam Schenk, who went even lower than Rahm with a 63 and 62, respectively.
All three leaders played the North Course at Torrey Pines for their second round after opening the event at the South Course. The trio lead Cameron Tringale (65 Thursday) by a shot and Peter Malnati (66) by two.
After starting on the back nine of the Torrey Pines North Course with five birdies and a bogey, Rahm avoided bogey throughout the rest of the day while birdieing sixth through eighth en-route to a seven-under day.
Rahm won the tournament in 2017 and returned to Torrey Pines to lift his first major championship trophy at last year’s US Open. He said those experiences weren’t comparable to his situation this week because he won those events from behind.
“A US Open is very, very different. I believe I was three under through two rounds and I was thrilled with that score,” Rahm said. “At (13) under right now and I think how much better it could have been if I hit fairways, right? So it’s not comparable.”
Thomas, a major champion like Rahm, is in search of his first title since the 2021 Players Championship 10 months ago. He rattled off nine birdies without a bogey Thursday to shoot five strokes lower than his opening round.
Among his highlights was a chip-in birdie that swept right to left at the par-4 second hole. Thomas said it was his first chip of the day.
“These greens don’t quite grab as much on the chips and the pitches, so unfortunately I hit it well to the first 10 holes where I hadn’t hit a chip yet,” Thomas said. “So I tried to remember it’s the same as the chipping green, tried to kind of remember some of that and just felt like the 57-degree (wedge) was a little better option, and it was.”
Notable names who missed the 36-hole cut of three under included Bryson DeChambeau (two under), Rickie Fowler (two under), Brooks Koepka (even) and Phil Mickelson (three over). Jordan Spieth carded a 78 Thursday to finish four over and miss the cut, ending what was the longest active made-cut run on Tour at 20 in a row.
Collated second round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour Farmers Insurance Open,Torrey Pines (South), San Diego, California, United States of America
(USA unless stated, Par: North Course 72, South Course 72):
131 Jon Rahm (Spa) 66 65, Adam Schenk 69 62, Justin Thomas 68 63
132 Cameron Tringale 67 65
133 Peter Malnati 67 66
135 Jason Day (Aus) 70 65, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 71 64, Luke List 67 68, Aaron Rai (Eng) 67 68, Alex Smalley 73 62, Sahith Theegala 67 68
136 Bill Haas 67 69, Billy Horschel 63 73, Sung Jae Im (Kor) 70 66, Taylor Montgomery 72 64, Ryan Palmer 67 69
137 Dustin Johnson 68 69, Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 69 68, Doc Redman 74 63, Scottie Scheffler 70 67, Michael Thompson 64 73, Will Zalatoris 69 68
138 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 69 69, Marc Leishman (Aus) 71 67, Maverick McNealy 67 71, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 66 72, Taylor Pendrith (Can) 67 71, Guillermo Mito Pereira (Chi) 69 69, Scott Piercy 72 66, Chad Ramey 71 67, Patrick Reed 72 66, Justin Rose (Eng) 67 71, Austin Smotherman 67 71, Nick Taylor (Can) 73 65
139 Daniel Berger 67 72, Joseph Bramlett 73 66, Doug Ghim 66 73, Talor Gooch 73 66, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 72 67, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 74 65, Matthew NeSmith 68 71, Alexander Noren (Swe) 70 69, Chengtsung Pan (Tai) 67 72, Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 71 68, J. J. Spaun 73 66, Sepp Straka (Aut) 73 66, Kevin Tway 65 74, Camilo Villegas (Col) 70 69, Jimmy Walker 69 70
140 Keegan Bradley 70 70, Bronson Burgoon 70 70, Cameron Champ 75 65, Cameron Davis (Aus) 68 72, Pat Perez 72 68, Chez Reavie 70 70, Patrick Rodgers 71 69, Xander Schauffele 68 72, Greyson Sigg 72 68, Robert Streb 67 73, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 71 69, Gary Woodland 72 68
141 Kevin Chappell 73 68, Wyndham Clark 69 72, Michael Gligic (Can) 67 74, Lanto Griffin 73 68, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 71 70, Martin Laird (Sco) 67 74, Hank Lebioda 74 67, David Lipsky 68 73, Adam Long 72 69, Seung-Yul Noh (Kor) 73 68, Andrew Novak 71 70, Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 72 69, Scott Stallings 69 72, Kevin Streelman 70 71, Adam Svensson (Can) 72 69, Curtis Thompson 70 71, Matthew Wolff 71 70, Cameron Young 67 74
142 Austin Cook 72 70, Bryson DeChambeau 70 72, Rickie Fowler 66 76, Brandon Hagy 70 72, James Hahn 72 70, Jim Herman 71 71, Max Homa 68 74, Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 70 72, Stephan Jaeger (Ger) 65 77, Patton Kizzire 70 72, Taylor Moore 75 67, Aaron Wise 67 75, Jonathan Byrd 69 73, Beau Hossler 73 69, Mark Hubbard 69 73
143 Jonas Blixt (Swe) 70 73, Hayden Buckley 71 72, Sam Burns 67 76, Corey Conners (Can) 75 68, Jason Dufner 73 70, Brice Garnett 72 71, Scott Gutschewski 71 72, Tom Hoge 69 74, Kurt Kitayama 72 71, Danny Lee (Nzl) 76 67, Justin Lower 75 68, Henrik Norlander (Swe) 74 69, Peter Uihlein 71 72, Vincent Whaley 77 66, Austin Eckroat 71 72, Jim Knous 72 71
144 Brett Drewitt (Aus) 71 73, Tony Finau 67 77, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 71 73, Nick Hardy 67 77, Matt Jones (Aus) 71 73, Brooks Koepka 70 74, Ben Kohles 69 75, Brandt Snedeker 70 74, Jared Wolfe 73 71
145 Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor) 74 71, Keith Mitchell 74 71, Seth Reeves 69 76, Brian Stuard 69 76, Hudson Swafford 70 75, Martin Trainer 77 68, Dylan Wu 70 75
146 Joel Dahmen 74 72, Lee Hodges 76 70, Trey Mullinax 70 76, J. T. Poston 75 71, Brandon Wu 70 76, Brent Grant 71 75
147 Tyler McCumber 77 70, Phil Mickelson 76 71, Davis Riley 70 77, Sam Ryder 80 67, David Skinns (Eng) 72 75, Kyle Stanley 80 67, Dawie van der Walt (Rsa) 71 76, Chun-Ant Yu (Tai) 71 76, Callum Tarren (Eng) 80 67
148 Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 67 81, Chesson Hadley 69 79, Adam Hadwin (Can) 73 75, Jordan Spieth 70 78, Nick Watney 74 74
149 Richy Werenski 77 72, Maxwell Sear (Can) 79 70
150 Harry Higgs 74 76
151 Paul Barjon (Fra) 77 74, Max McGreevy 74 77, Jared du Toit (Can) 77 74
152 Ryan Alford 77 75
154 Joshua Creel 81 73
157 Michael Block 76 81, Kamaiu Johnson 72 85
Cut to take place at end of Round 2 for scores of no more than 141
