Australian golfers Adam Scott and Greg Chalmers stayed in touch as South Korean Sang-Moon Bae and Swede Fredrik Jacobson forged a one-shot lead after Friday’s second round of the US PGA tour event at Riviera Country Club.
Bae and Jacobson put together impressive six-under-par 65s to move to nine-under-par 133 for the tournament, one ahead of Americans John Merrick (66) and John Rollins (65).
World No.3 Englishman Luke Donald also pushed his way up the leaderboard with an impressive 66 to be just two back in fifth at seven-under, while Chalmers (69) and Scott (67) improved to four-under to be tied 13th.
“Today was probably one of those days where most of the things were working,” Jacobson said of his round that included seven birdies and just one bogey.
“I was consistent off the tee and I hit my iron shots well and I putted well. So that’s pretty much what you’ve got to do if you want to shoot a really low number around here.”
Scott opened his round on the back nine with back-to-back birdies before his only mistake of the day came with a bogey at the par-3 14th.
The Queenslander made his move near the turn with a nice 14-foot birdie putt on the 17th followed by a great chip-in birdie on the 18th and an impressive sand shot on the first allowed a third birdie in a row. But despite having a handful of chances, Scott parred home to sit five off the pace.
“I think four-under was a fair number,” Scott said of his round. “I made some good putts, had some great saves and missed some chances but the good thing is I’m getting a lot of looks so it’s not at all bad.”
Chalmers, who played with Bae and Merrick, notched up two birdies and a bogey on each side of the course for his second consecutive 69, giving him a chance to push for a maiden US tour win.
“No doubt playing with the leaders dragged me along today. I could see Sang-Moon Bae making a lot of putts, he was rolling the ball nicely and it made me conscious of the idea that I needed to move forward not backwards,” Chalmers said.
“I played average on the back nine – my front nine today – but then figured out a few feels from yesterday and played a lot better coming home.”
Stuart Appleby shot a 69 to move to even-par in a tie for 50th and Marc Leishman made the cut right on the number at two-over.
John Senden (+4), Geoff Ogilvy (+5) Aaron Baddeley (+6) and Robert Allenby (+8) all missed the cut.