Honda Classic 2022 scores: Daniel Berger’s six birdies open the scoring three shots after Round 2

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) – Daniel Berger no longer needs to answer questions about how his back feels. Scorecards are telling the story.

Berger – playing the equivalent of a home tournament for him, with his residence a 15-minute drive away in Jupiter – took a three-shot lead through two rounds of the Honda Classic, after a second consecutive round. continue with a score of 5 under 65 on Friday.

“You get to cook by your mother, you sleep in your own bed,” says Berger. “It’s quite comfortable.”

First-round leader, Kurt Kitayama, made it past his 18th par-5 as darkness set in, finishing the 69th round and ending the day in second at 7th place with Chris Kirk (68). Mark Hubbard (64) was another beaten in sixth, as was Adam Svensson – who hit all 18 greens on his way to 65 and finished par at 6:41pm, 22 minutes later when sunset.

“This course is crazy,” Hubbard said. “There’s too much trouble. Anything can happen at any given hole, so you can’t really get ahead of yourself.”

Berger’s 10 under 130 has the third lowest score across 36 holes since Honda moved to the PGA National in 2007; Aaron Wise was 12 in two rounds last year, Rory McIlroy was 11 in mid-2014 and Brendon De Jonge was 10 that same year.

None of them won. McIlroy lost the playoffs to Russell Henley, Wise shot 75-73 at the weekend to draw 13 and De Jonge won 76-78 at the weekend to free his way up to lead to a 63rd draw.

But Honda looks like a good fit for Berger; he’s had a pair of freshman finishes here in six previous starts, including a defeat to Padraig Harrington in the playoffs on Monday 2015.

“Every tournament I’m in, I want to win,” Berger said. “But it’s nice to win to have so many friends and family here with me this week.”

Berger had an opening round of five birdies, no bogey on Thursday and a near perfect Friday, with six birdies and one bogey. The only shot he returned was on par-3 15, the sixth hole of the day, when his tee shot landed in a bunker and he missed his par 15 foot shot.

This is Berger’s first 36-hole lead in a PGA Tour event since the Visitors Championship in August 2016. He’s a four-time winner on the tour, most recently at Pebble Beach in 2021.

But back problems flared up in recent weeks that kept him from playing Pebble this year and defending that title. He played the Phoenix Open two weeks ago, tested his back, and declared afterward that he would do well at the PGA National – where he played a lot of junior golf – and get a week at home. at Honda.

As far as possible.

“It actually took longer than I thought it would to feel better,” says Berger. “Six, seven years ago, I felt like I could break my ankle and 10 days later I’ll be fine. But now I’m older and even at 28, I don’t feel the same way anymore, really. incredible, but that’s thousands upon thousands of golf swings later, so it’s just part of the job.”

Chase Seiffert (66 years old) is in a group tied in sixth place with 5 under. Seiffert finished third at Honda last year, having missed his chance to make it to this year’s tournament by coming ahead in a wild 16v1 playoff on Tuesday, then entering as the winner anyway. first substitute when Tyler Duncan withdrew from the tournament.

Seiffert did not compete last week, nor for the first time – on the Korn Ferry Tour.

“It’s really a relief, a relief that I didn’t make it through the knockout stages but was still able to participate in the event,” Seiffert said.

Among the notables, Brooks Koepka (72) even tied through two rounds. Joaquin Niemann, last week’s winner at Genesis who was 4 points behind on Thursday, hit the water on his finishing hole and missed a cut, his 73 leaving him 3.

The cut will end 2 and 72 or 73 players will advance.

Andrew Kozan’s fate remains undecided.

He was the only player who didn’t finish the second half. Kozan is over 2, just above the cut line, and is on the fairway on par-5 number 18 about 250 yards from the green. He decided not to play the second round because it was dark and will continue on Saturday at 6:50 am,

RESULTS: Governor Ron DeSantis awarded Barbara Nicklaus the Florida Medal of Freedom, in recognition of the charitable work she and her husband Jack Nicklaus have done over the decades. … Patrick Reed took more than 10 of his last 10 holes. He shot 79 and finished 9. … John Huh’s 65th round – which took him from 86th to the top 10 – was fueled by five consecutive birdies, matching the second-longest record ever at Honda. Fred Couples made six in a row in 1985, when the event took place at Eagle Trace and Curtis Strange’s first check was $90,000. This year’s Honda winner received $1.44 million. … Louis Oosthuizen, the highest ranked player in the world at number 13, played 65 – 10 shots better than the opening half – and scored an even 140.

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