World number two Jon Rahm is two shots ahead following the second round of the Mexico Open at the Vidanta Vallara.
The Spaniard birdied all four of the day’s par fives to lead at 12-under 130.
“I feel like I might be a little bit more satisfied with today’s score than yesterday,” Rahm said after his round.
“Yesterday I felt like I was really under control and relatively speaking stress free. Today was a bit more of a grind, but still a really good round of golf.”
He was trailed by American Alex Smalley at 10-under 132.
Four of Smalley’s compatriots — Adam Long, Andrew Novak, Cameron Champ and Patrick Reed — followed on nine-under 133.
Graeme McDowell notched his second consecutive round of 70 to make the cut by one stroke on two-under overall. The Northern Irishman’s round was a tale of two halves, with four birdies on the front nine offset by three dropped shots after the turn.
He sits ten shots off the lead in a tie for 58th heading into the weekend.
Meanwhile over in California, Stephanie Meadow recovered from a slow start on Thursday to make the cut at the Palos Verde Championship but Leona Maguire has not made it to the weekend.
Meadow’s effort of 68 on Friday saw her climb up the leaderboard into a tie for 30th. She sits eight shots behind the leader, Hannah Green of Australia.
Maguire carded back-to-back rounds of 74 to miss out on the weekend by four shots.
Collated second round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour Mexico Open, Vidanta Vallarta, Mexico
(USA unless stated, Par 71):
130 Jon Rahm (Spa) 64 66
132 Alex Smalley 66 66
133 Cameron Champ 67 66, Brandon Hagy 66 67, Adam Long 67 66, Trey Mullinax 64 69, Andrew Novak 66 67, Patrick Reed 67 66
134 Scott Brown 65 69, Jonathan Byrd 64 70, Kurt Kitayama 64 70, Hank Lebioda 67 67, Aaron Rai (Eng) 65 69, Davis Riley 69 65
135 Charles Howell III 66 69, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 66 69, Patrick Rodgers 66 69
136 Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 70 66, Ryan Blaum 66 70, Satoshi Kodaira (Jpn) 67 69, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 68 68, Peter Malnati 68 68, Chengtsung Pan (Tai) 66 70, Matt Wallace (Eng) 70 66
137 Wesley Bryan 68 69, Brice Garnett 70 67, Doug Ghim 72 65, Michael Gligic (Can) 67 70, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 72 65, John Huh 67 70, Kelly Kraft 68 69, Nate Lashley 69 68, David Lipsky 69 68, Kevin Na 70 67, Alvaro Ortiz (Mex) 68 69, Martin Trainer 72 65
138 Joshua Creel 68 70, Brett Drewitt (Aus) 68 70, Bryson Nimmer 64 74, Pat Perez 67 71, Scott Piercy 70 68, Chez Reavie 67 71, David Skinns (Eng) 69 69, Sahith Theegala 65 73, Brendon Todd 64 74, Cameron Tringale 70 68
139 Hayden Buckley 66 73, Tony Finau 71 68, Mark Hubbard 68 71, Ben Kohles 70 69, Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 70 69, Turk Pettit 72 67, Greyson Sigg 66 73, Kevin Streelman 71 68, Brian Stuard 71 68, Gary Woodland 67 72, Brandon Wu 69 70
140 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 71 69, Wyndham Clark 68 72, Tommy Gainey 69 71, Robert Garrigus 68 72, Lanto Griffin 71 69, Bill Haas 70 70, Lee Hodges 68 72, Stephan Jaeger (Ger) 69 71, Matt Jones (Aus) 71 69, Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor) 68 72, Justin Lower 70 70, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 70 70, Grayson Murray 73 67, D. A. Points 69 71, Austin Smotherman 74 66, Callum Tarren (Eng) 73 67, Aaron Wise 65 75
The following players missed the cut:
141 Sang-Moon Bae (Kor) 69 72, Paul Barjon (Fra) 70 71, Joseph Bramlett 71 70, Ben Griffin 67 74, Jeffrey Kang 70 71, Max McGreevy 72 69, J. T. Poston 70 71, Scott Stallings 72 69, Nick Taylor (Can) 70 71, D. J. Trahan 71 70, Peter Uihlein 69 72
142 Ryan Armour 72 70, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 69 73, Scott Gutschewski 67 75, Chris Kirk 75 67, Ben Martin 72 70, Taylor Moore 71 71, Andrew Putnam 71 71, Adam Schenk 69 73, Curtis Thompson 75 67, Michael Thompson 69 73, Kevin Tway 71 71, Dylan Wu 71 71
143 Ben Crane 71 72, Matthew Every 74 69, Patrick Flavin 72 71, Mark Hensby (Aus) 74 69, Bo Hoag 74 69, Chase Seiffert 67 76, Jared Wolfe 69 74
144 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 75 69, Roberto Diaz (Mex) 72 72, Armando Favela (Mex) 70 74, David Lingmerth (Swe) 72 72, Camilo Villegas (Col) 69 75, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 73 71
145 Rafael Cabrera (Spa) 75 70, Austin Cook 71 74, Jason Dufner 72 73, James Hahn 71 74, Kramer Hickok 72 73, Jim Knous 74 71, Seung-Yul Noh (Kor) 70 75, Adam Svensson (Can) 71 74
146 Ricky Barnes 74 72, Jonas Blixt (Swe) 75 71, Luke Donald (Eng) 75 71, Tyler Duncan 75 71, Russell Knox (Sco) 73 73, Chad Ramey 71 75, Robert Streb 75 71
147 Fabian Gomez (Arg) 72 75, Dawie van der Walt (Rsa) 73 74, Richy Werenski 71 76, Vincent Whaley 75 72
148 Roger Sloan (Can) 74 74
149 Seth Reeves 76 73, Jose Antonio Safa (Mex) 74 75
150 Jose Cristobal Islas (Mex) 76 74
151 Danny Lee (Nzl) 73 78, Bo Van Pelt 75 76, Richard S. Johnson (Swe) 74 77
153 David Hearn (Can) 75 78, Johnson Wagner 75 78
154 Isidro Benitez (Mex) 79 75, Ben Willman (Eng) 79 75
155 Santiago Ger Lao Fuente (Mex) 78 77
156 Derek Ernst 75 81
160 Manuel Inman (Mex) 77 83
