SILVIS, Ill. — Doug Ghim holed out from the fairway for eagle for the second straight day, sending him to a 3-under 68 and a one-shot lead Friday in the John Deere Classic, his first 36-hole lead in his six years on the PGA Tour.
Defending champion Davis Thompson (63) and Max Homa (68) were among the five players within one shot of the lead going into the weekend. The starting times have been moved up Saturday because of rain in the forecast.
Ghim holed out on the short par-4 sixth in the opening round. This time it was from 179 yards away on the par-4 15th.
“I guess holing out two days in a row is always nice,” Ghim said. “It’s been a couple years since I holed out from the fairway. To get two back-to-back days is great.”
Ghim had a two-shot lead going into his final hole. He hit left into the trees and down a cart path, punched out through the green, chipped to 18 feet and missed the putt to make his second bogey of the round. He was at 12-under 130.
Mexico Open winner Brian Campbell (66), David Lipsky (67) and Emiliano Grillo (66) were tied for second.
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Ghim still believes he is a long way off from a chance to win for the first time at a tournament that has produced more first-time winners than any PGA Tour event since 1970.
“The person that’s going to win this tournament will be in the 20-under-par area, so last time I checked I’m not there yet,” Ghim said. “I don’t feel like I’m in the lead, and I’m just happy that I get to be teeing off late tomorrow in contention.”
Homa was tied with Ghim late in the afternoon, when the greens were getting dry and crusty. But on the 18th hole, Homa pulled his tee shot into a bunker, missed the green to the right and wound up missing a 12-foot par putt to fall one back.
He is still in good shape going into the weekend as he tries to get his game turned around. Putting four rounds together, or even three, has been the difficulty, and Homa did not sound like he was willing to get too far ahead of himself.
“I don’t think really much changes. I mean, just play the golf course,” Homa said. “You’re going to have to shoot really low. If you went out there and tried to do something specific, I’m not so sure that is going to work. Somebody can go out there and shoot 11 under out there and jump everybody. So just go do what we did today and play another round of golf.
“Just keep waiting until the back nine on Sunday, basically.”
Thompson played in the morning and was the first to reach 11-under 131 as he tries to become the first repeat winner of the John Deere Classic since Steve Stricker won three in a row from 2009 through 2011.
There was high drama late in the day that wound up setting the cut at 5-under 137.
Rikuya Hoshino and Jesper Svensson each made birdie on their last hole to move the cut line to 5 under, only for Paul Peterson to take bogey on his last hole to move it back to 4 under.
But in the final group, Brendan Valdes drilled his tee shot on the par-4 18th, hit his approach to about 8 feet and holed the birdie putt for a 66. That moved the cut back to 5 under, eliminating 14 players from the weekend.
Rickie Fowler and Jake Knapp wound up making the cut on the number.
Meanwhile, 12 players were separated by two shots going into the third round, a group that includes Camilo Villegas, Sam Stevens and Si Woo Kim. Stevens and Kim are trying to finish high enough to move up the world ranking that will be used next week to set the alternate list for The Open.
