In his PGA Tour debut, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen holds the lead halfway through the Puerto Rico Open.
The native of Denmark is at 15-under-par 129 through two rounds at Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande.
Neergaard-Petersen, 25, followed an opening-round 64 with a 65 Friday and has a one-shot advantage over Davis Riley (66).
He is ranked No. 88 in the Official World Golf Ranking but has played most of his golf on the Challenge Tour, the second-tier tour in Europe.
Neergaard-Petersen is bogey-free through two rounds. He started his second round on the back nine, where he made five of his seven birdies for an early charge. He added a sixth birdie at No. 1 and his last birdie at the par-5 ninth.
“Once I get into the round and kind of get a couple holes in, it just kind of feels like any other day on the golf course, really,” Neergaard-Petersen said. “I’m just trying to stay in the present and take one shot at a time. That’s what I said, I know with my game if I can just get the ball in play off the tee in a good spot, I’m certainly hitting my irons well enough now to never really get myself in trouble.”
Riley went a run of four birdies at Nos. 14-17 to charge into second place. He credited his flatstick.
“I hit a couple shots really close and just converted the 8- to 12-footers, but to see a couple of 15- to 25-foot putts drop in coming in was certainly nice,” Riley said. “Yeah, to like snag one on 17, that might be one of the most difficult holes today. Hit a 4-iron up there to 25, 30 feet to the hole. That was a little icing on top.”
Austin Cook (65) is alone in third at 13 under. Noah Goodwin (66), William Mouw (67) and Australia’s Karl Vilips (67) are tied at 12 under.
The tournament is an alternate event for players who did not qualify for the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Notables who missed the cut of 5 under par included Colombia’s Camilo Villegas (4 under), 17-year-old Blades Brown (4 under) and South Korea’s K.H. Lee (3 under).
–Field Level Media
