Adam Hadwin, Ryan Armour grab co-lead at 3M Open



Adam Hadwin, Ryan Armour grab co-lead at 3M Open

Adam Hadwin of Canada and Ryan Armour each shot bogey-free, 6-under 65s Friday to move to 10-under 132 and share the 36-hole lead at the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minn.

The pair leads four players by a stroke entering the weekend: Bo Hoag (second-round 66), Chez Reavie (67), Venezuela's Jhonattan Vegas (69) and Canada's Roger Sloan (69).

Armour sank four straight birdies on Nos. 11-14 to make his move up the leaderboard. Thanks to stellar iron shots, two of those birdies came from 6-foot putts, while he drained another from 41 feet out.

"You can never count on those, but all of a sudden I hit another one in there close on 13 and made a great putt at 14," Armour said. "You don't know, you just try and hit every shot to the best of your ability and then all of a sudden you get on a roll and it's fun when that happens."

Armour entered the week 135th place in the FedEx Cup standings; only the top 125 qualify for the playoffs and automatically maintain their tour card when the regular season concludes in August.

Similarly, Hadwin, whose longest birdie putt Friday came from 23 feet, is on the bubble in 120th place.

"I think the biggest thing coming in this week, I've just been a little bit more committed to the process and less on the outcome," Hadwin said. "Certainly playoffs, maintaining status, all that stuff has probably been creeping in a bit in the last little bit and I probably got away from some of the little details that make this game happen for us. So I've gotten back to that these last three rounds and it's worked out a lot better for me

Vegas carded a 64 in the first round and had a chance to finish Friday as the sole leader. He stepped to the tee box of his last hole, No. 9, at 11 under for the tournament but made double-bogey to slip to 9 under.

His second shot on the par-4 ninth sailed well past the green and he had trouble rrecovering.

"Should have hit a cut to hold it into the wind and decided to hit it straight and kind of came across and hit it long left, and I was completely dead from there," Vegas said. "I was trying to make a 5, obviously it's a short one that I feel like I should have made. It's golf, sometimes you've got to put those behind and focus on what's coming."

Vegas has a pair of second-place finishes this season but, like the leaders, hasn't won on tour since 2017.

Rickie Fowler, one of the four first-round co-leaders at 7 under, dropped into a tie for 26th with a 2-over 73 Friday, making three bogeys to just one birdie.

"If it gets breezy like it was today, no one's going to necessarily run away with it, but if the breeze is down, then you've got to go make birdies. So we'll see," Fowler said. "Just need to go make a bunch of birdies tomorrow and go put myself in a position for Sunday."

The low round of the day belonged to Brian Stuard, whose bogey-free 64 moved him into a tie for seventh at 8 under.

Open Championship runner-up Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa is in a tie for 19th at 6 under following his second straight round of 68. World No. 2 Dustin Johnson, at even-par 142 after two rounds, missed the cut by two shots. He shot 72 on Friday.

--Field Level Media

Adam Hadwin, Ryan Armour grab co-lead at 3M Open

Adam Hadwin, Ryan Armour grab co-lead at 3M Open

Field Level Media
24th July 2021, 11:19 GMT+10

Adam Hadwin of Canada and Ryan Armour each shot bogey-free, 6-under 65s Friday to move to 10-under 132 and share the 36-hole lead at the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minn.

The pair leads four players by a stroke entering the weekend: Bo Hoag (second-round 66), Chez Reavie (67), Venezuela's Jhonattan Vegas (69) and Canada's Roger Sloan (69).

Armour sank four straight birdies on Nos. 11-14 to make his move up the leaderboard. Thanks to stellar iron shots, two of those birdies came from 6-foot putts, while he drained another from 41 feet out.

"You can never count on those, but all of a sudden I hit another one in there close on 13 and made a great putt at 14," Armour said. "You don't know, you just try and hit every shot to the best of your ability and then all of a sudden you get on a roll and it's fun when that happens."

Armour entered the week 135th place in the FedEx Cup standings; only the top 125 qualify for the playoffs and automatically maintain their tour card when the regular season concludes in August.

Similarly, Hadwin, whose longest birdie putt Friday came from 23 feet, is on the bubble in 120th place.

"I think the biggest thing coming in this week, I've just been a little bit more committed to the process and less on the outcome," Hadwin said. "Certainly playoffs, maintaining status, all that stuff has probably been creeping in a bit in the last little bit and I probably got away from some of the little details that make this game happen for us. So I've gotten back to that these last three rounds and it's worked out a lot better for me

Vegas carded a 64 in the first round and had a chance to finish Friday as the sole leader. He stepped to the tee box of his last hole, No. 9, at 11 under for the tournament but made double-bogey to slip to 9 under.

His second shot on the par-4 ninth sailed well past the green and he had trouble rrecovering.

"Should have hit a cut to hold it into the wind and decided to hit it straight and kind of came across and hit it long left, and I was completely dead from there," Vegas said. "I was trying to make a 5, obviously it's a short one that I feel like I should have made. It's golf, sometimes you've got to put those behind and focus on what's coming."

Vegas has a pair of second-place finishes this season but, like the leaders, hasn't won on tour since 2017.

Rickie Fowler, one of the four first-round co-leaders at 7 under, dropped into a tie for 26th with a 2-over 73 Friday, making three bogeys to just one birdie.

"If it gets breezy like it was today, no one's going to necessarily run away with it, but if the breeze is down, then you've got to go make birdies. So we'll see," Fowler said. "Just need to go make a bunch of birdies tomorrow and go put myself in a position for Sunday."

The low round of the day belonged to Brian Stuard, whose bogey-free 64 moved him into a tie for seventh at 8 under.

Open Championship runner-up Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa is in a tie for 19th at 6 under following his second straight round of 68. World No. 2 Dustin Johnson, at even-par 142 after two rounds, missed the cut by two shots. He shot 72 on Friday.

--Field Level Media