Mayakoba Golf Classic: 3 things to know after Friday

Emiliano Grillo

Emiliano Grillo hits a shot on the 16th hole at El Camaleon Golf Club on Friday.

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The leader tapped in his par putt on the 18th hole in near darkness. The start of the second round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic had been delayed due to inclement weather on Friday, and a handful of players will finish on Saturday morning. The leader didn’t need much light for his round. He was finding fairways, greens and cups all day long. Here are three things you need to know after play at El Camaleon Golf Club in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.      

Emiliano Grillo leads 

Emiliano Grillo birdied the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th and 9th holes. He bogeyed the 10th. He couldn’t recover after missing the green on his tee shot on the par-3. He did recover his round. He birdied the 12th, 13th, 14th and 17th holes. 

Grillo shot an eight-under 63 for a 13-under total and a four-stroke lead over Tony Finau and Tom Hoge, and a five-shot lead over first-round leader Russell Knox.     

“Everything worked today,” Grillo said. “Played from the fairway, hit it close and when it wasn’t too close, I made putts. It was one of those days.”

Tony Finau is in second 

Finau, who’s finished in the top 10 40 times in his career but has just one win, shot a five-under 66, while Hoge, who has not won on the PGA Tour, shot a four-under 67. Knox followed his first-round 65 with a 69. 

Six strokes behind Grillo were Joel Dahmen, Aaron Wise, Kyle Stanley and Andy Ogletree, who still had three holes to play. Defending champion Brendon Todd, Carlos Ortiz, Nate Lashley, Camilo Villegas, Lucas Glover, Akshay Bhatia, Patrick Rodgers, Viktor Hovland and Joaquin Niemann were seven shots back. 

Brooks Koepka expected to miss cut 

Brooks Koepka shot even-par 71 in each of his two rounds and was expected to miss the cut by a stroke, as was Rickie Fowler

Among other players, Justin Thomas is 10 strokes behind Grillo.

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Nick Piastowski

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.