Canada’s Taylor Pendrith will take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas, but the second round is far from finished.
The start of the second round was delayed by four hours Friday morning due to high wind gusts at TPC Summerlin. Fans were also prohibited from entering the grounds in the interest of safety. When play was suspended due to darkness at 6:02 local time, just seven hours of golf had been played and some groups had completed only one hole.
Play is scheduled to resume at 7:15 a.m. Saturday.
Pendrith fired a 10-under-par 61 on Thursday and went out in the afternoon wave Friday. He opened with a bogey and got the stroke back right away with a birdie at the par-4 second hole. Four straight pars later, he was headed to the clubhouse.
“Just a lot of sitting around at our hotel this morning and took a small nap, which was new,” Pendrith said. “Yeah, I got out here and the conditions were really tricky. Couple of the holes were playing different. …
“Definitely played different and more challenging for sure. I think it’s going to be similar winds tomorrow; not quite as high. It will be tricky in the morning.”
Rico Hoey of the Philippines is alone in second at 9 under. He followed an opening 64 by going 2 under through his first seven holes Friday — a back-nine adventure that included a double bogey, two birdies and an eagle at the par-5 16th.
Four players have completed their first two rounds in 8-under 134: Doug Ghim (70 on Friday), J.J. Spaun (69), Davis Thompson (68) and Kurt Kitayama (68). J.T. Poston is tied with them for third, having played just five holes of his second round.
“I was thinking it was going to play really hard and I had to limit big numbers,” Kitayama said. “But luckily when I did miss I missed in the right spot; was able to just grind it out.”
The projected cut line is 2 under par but subject to move throughout the rest of the round when it resumes Saturday. Two-time defending champion Tom Kim of South Korea is in danger of missing that cut after shooting 69-72 for a total of 1 under.
–Field Level Media
