A day after Jon Rahm tied a career best to take control at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, another young professional used a career best to overtake him.
Matthew Fitzpatrick moved into first place (9 under) after carding a 6-under 64. He climbed 12 spots up the leaderboard and has a two-stroke lead over the rest of the field.
Fitzpatrick's round was highlighted by four consecutive birdies at the start, and he had just one hiccup with a bogey on the par-3 8th hole.
He finished with seven total birdies.
🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦@MattFitz94 was in a zone today @WGCFedEx. #LiveUnderPar pic.twitter.com/BNq4kR0c8e
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 26, 2019
Close behind Fitzpatrick in second place (7 under) is the 18-hole leader, Rahm. He's joined by Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Smith and Billy Horschel.
After a mistake-free first round, Rahm had four bogeys Friday. He did finish with back-to-back birdies on the 16th and 17th holes to stay close to the front.
Two birdies in a row.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 26, 2019
18-hole leader @JonRahmPGA is back within two strokes of the @WGCFedEx lead. pic.twitter.com/fUHMlgGvn9
Horschel had the best round of the bunch in contention and used an eagle on the par-5 3rd hole to jump up the standings. He carded 4-under 66 on the day.
Shugo Imahira sits in sixth place (6 under) all by himself and a sizable tie for seventh place (5 under) is highlighted by Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka and Bubba Watson.