x

Here’s what you missed from Round 2 of the Zozo Championship

October 26, 2019

It was a strange day in Japan, where Tiger Woods fired a second consecutive round of 64 to take the tournament lead by two shots — but no spectators were around to see it.

Here’s everything you missed from the Saturday’s second-round action at the Zozo Championship.

Tiger Woods leads by two

The Big Cat was impressive yet again on Saturday. He began his round with a birdie on the first hole, a 405-yard par-4, then gave the shot back right away with a bogey on the 363-yard par-4 2nd. But that turned out to be his only hiccup. Four pars followed, and then another birdie on the par-3 7th, bringing him to one under par on the day and seven under par overall.

Woods closed out the front side with two more pars to make the turn at one under, and then kicked into high gear on the back, with birdies on Nos. 10, 11, 13, 17 and 18 to finish at five under par on the back, six under par for the round, and 12 under par for the tournament.

Woods’ round was the second best of the day, behind Keegan Bradley, who shot seven under par. Collin Morikawa and Sungjae Im also shot rounds of six under.

Woods is chasing an historic number this week, as a win would get him to the coveted No. 82, and  tie him with Sam Snead on the all-time list.

Who else is in the hunt?

U.S. Open champ Gary Woodland, local favorite Hideki Matsuyama and former PGA champion Keegan Bradley are all within striking distance.

Woodland, who led at the halfway point in his round, is in solo second, two shots behind, after firing a second round of 66, while Matsuyama and Bradley are four shots back after a 67 and 63, respectively.

What's the deal with that super-short par 4?

A typhoon unleashed nearly 10 inches of rain on Narashina Country Club on Friday, and while the course maintenance staff managed to get things into playable shape on Saturday, there was one hole in particular that retained an enormous amount of standing water: the 376-yard par-4 10th. So a decision was made to move the tees up and cut the hole down to 140 yards for Saturday’s play.

The hole is expected to be played to its original length by the third round.

C.T. Pan tees off on the shortened par-4 10th hole at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club.
C.T. Pan tees off on the shortened par-4 10th hole at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club.
Getty Images

So ... what now?

The plan is to play as much golf as possible on Sunday, with the anticipation that there will not be enough daylight available for the final round to be completed. The third round will begin at 6:30 a.m. local time on Sunday (which is 5:30 p.m. ET) with players teeing off in threesomes off of both sets of tees.

Once the third-round is complete, the players will stay in their third-round groupings and return to the course for the start of Round 4 and will play until darkness. The final round will be completed on Monday with an anticipated start of 7:30 a.m. local time.

To receive GOLF’s all-new newsletters, subscribe for free here.