MEXICO CITY – Par ran into turbulence in the thin air during Friday’s second round of the World Golf Championship-Mexico Championship.
A day after the field finished a combined 100-over par, the sun-drenched Club de Golf Chapultepec, which rests 7,800 feet above sea level, was there for the taking as the wind was down and the greens were smooth.
And players took as much as they could.
Bryson DeChambeau made six birdies in a seven-hole stretch en route to an 8-under-par 63 to grab the lead through 36 holes at 11 under. Erik van Rooyen celebrated his 30th birthday by tying the course record with a bogey-free 62 to get to 10 under. He was joined there by Patrick Reed, who tied his career-best with nine birdies in a round and signed for a 63.
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Hideki Matsuyama shot 64 and Justin Thomas, keyed by a birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle stretch, shot 66 as both wound up at 9 under.
First-round leader and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy got off to a slow start with no birdies through his first 11 holes but finished with four in his last seven holes for a 69 to stand at 8 under.
The field was 52-under par in the second round.
“Surely when you have days like that you can’t help but smile out there, and making those putts the way I did, striking the ball the way I did, it’s surely a joy out there,” said DeChambeau, who made 143 feet of putts. “The confidence (with the putter) is high, and it’s a lot of fun to see putts finally going in. I’m going to go out and do my work like I normally do, just a couple minutes, go putt a little bit, hit some balls, but overall everything is going pretty well, firing on all cylinders.”
Van Rooyen wasn’t firing on all cylinders when he woke up but by mid-afternoon everything was just fine.
“The first thing I told my wife this morning, man, I feel really old,” he said. “But I guess I’m still quite young, and what a way to kick off the 30th and shoot 9 under. A little bit of a gift to myself.
“I just hit it really well. Obviously a few really good chip-ins the last couple days, and then putted really well. I’ve been a little bit uncomfortable the last few weeks, but I’m working on that stuff, and you know how it goes, just stick to your process, just trust in the fact that you’re doing the right things, and 62s happen.”
Thomas, who lost in a playoff to Phil Mickelson here in 2018, wasn’t exactly beaming after his 66.
“I’m pretty ticked off, to be perfectly honest, with the last eight holes,” said Thomas, who was 1 over his final eight holes. “I feel I should have gotten two, three, four more (birdies), but I got two days left. It’s over with, and I have a lot more positives than I do not playing those last eight holes well.
“I feel like I’m playing well, seeing the lines well with my putter. My speed has been good. I feel like that’s why I’ve made some of those putts, but anything can happen out here. Low rounds are out there to be had, and we just hope that we can get one or two of them this weekend.”
Reed knocked in 150 feet of putts.
“I think the biggest thing for me was just get the ball on the green,” he said. “It seemed like the putter was working, especially early on. On a golf course like this, you get the ball in play off the tee, you’re able to kind of attack with irons, you’re going to have a lot of looks.
“Tomorrow is a new day. You don’t even think about what happened today going into tomorrow, and you just kind of move on and go out and continue making quality golf swings and continue making good putts because these are the type of greens when you get on Poa they get bumpy in the afternoon where you’re going to hit some good putts that are going to go in and you’re going to hit some good putts that are going to miss, and you’re going to hit some bad putts that are going to go in. You’ve just got to roll with the punches and keep on going and not let anything bother you.”
