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Collin Morikawa held his lead at the 2023 Tour Championship after shooting a 6-under 64 on Friday, August 25th. He and Viktor Hovland are tied at 16-under halfway through the event.
Earlier on the first day at the East Lake, Morikawa carded a bogey-free 61 on Thursday, his career-best round. Ahead of this week, he held the 24th spot in the FedEx Cup standings and teed off at 1-under under the stroke-adjusted format.
Morikawa broke Tiger Woods’ 16-year-old record for the lowest 36-hole total at the Tour Championship with two straight bogey-free rounds. While Woods shot a total score of 127 in the first two rounds in 2007, Morikawa was two better than him this year.
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The two great days at East Lake so far have put the two-time major champion in a strong position halfway through the event. He will tee off for the third round of the Tour Championship alongside Hovland. The duo will tee off from the first hole on Saturday, August 26 at East Lake at 3 pm ET.
Hovland, who claimed the BMW Championship last week, shot 6-under 64 in the second round and was unmoved from the top of the leaderboard. He sank seven birdies and one bogey in Friday's round.
FedEx Cup leader Scottie Scheffler did better than his opening round, as the golfer carded a bogey-free 5-under 65 in the second round. He had finished runner-up at East Lake in last year's edition.
Keegan Bradley had a rocket start at the Tour Championship with a 63 on Day 1, but a 3-under 67 on Friday resulted in him dropping three spots to fourth. He is paired with Scheffler for the third round, and the duo will tee off at 2:49 p.m. on Saturday.
Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm are tied for fifth place after completing 36 holes. Schauffele secured a bogey-free 64 to jump five spots on Friday. The Spaniard also recorded a 5-under 65, courtesy of seven birdies and two bogeys. The pair will resume their play on the East Lake at 2:38 pm ET.
Rory McIlroy sits at solo seventh after shooting a 3-under 67 in the second round. He is paired with Wyndham Clark, who carded a 67 on Day 2 to finish at T8 after two rounds of the Tour Championship.
"There's going to be low scores" - Collin Morikawa expects more low scores in the remaining two rounds of the 2023 Tour Championship
The 26-year-old golfer said that with no heavy wind at East Lake this week, players were able to score low, and one could expect more such scores in the upcoming two rounds of the Tour Championship.
He said:
"There's going to be low scores. There's going to continue to be low scores this weekend. Greens are starting to firm up. You're still going to see guys firing at pins. You have a few short holes that you have to take advantage of. The par-5s are very gettable."
He added that 16-under wasn't going to be a safe score here, and he had to be prepared for the next 36 holes.
