For the second day in a row, Taylor Pendrith kept his scorecard flawless. He fired off a 7-under 64 Friday to sit at 12-under overall and lead by two at the 3M Open.
In round 1, the Canadian golfer shot a bogey-free 5-under 66. He has not dropped a single shot in 36 holes. Pendrith was one of three players who shot 64s in Round 2 of the 3M Open.
The 33-year-old finished T5 last week in Lake Tahoe at the Barracuda Championship, and the strong play followed him to TPC Twin Cities.
“Today was pretty tricky with the wind, blowing pretty hard at times, so my speed was great all day, and I stayed patient,” Pendrith said after his round Friday. “I didn’t have many good looks through the first hour — Was able to stay patient and make a couple longer ones, which was nice.”
He thrived the first two days of play, while many players recorded high numbers. For the former Kent State golfer, it came down to a key thing he did right.
“I hit a lot of greens,” he said. “Today especially I feel like I had some in-between numbers and chose the smart club and hit it to 40 feet and took my two-putt, take my medicine. Then hit a lot of really quality shots and was able to make some birdies.
“Yeah, driving the ball in play here is key. Hitting the greens — they are fairly big, so you do have to have good speed on the greens, but I’ve been able to do all three of those.”
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25547909/2163847792.jpg)
Photo by David Berding/Getty Images
Pendrith hit 16-of-18 greens in regulation on Friday and made 145 feet of putts. He is No. 3 in strokes gained putting (+3.757), seventh off the tee (+1.510) and tied at the top in strokes gained total (+7.054).
The 33-year-old won the CJ CUP Byron Nelson in May and said it was a huge confidence boost. Since that victory, Pendrith has two top-10s and five top-25s.
“I felt like I had been playing some nice golf this year, so to finally get that done felt awesome,” Pendrith said. “Hopefully draw on those experiences the next two days and be in contention on Sunday, that would be great, and have a chance to win. Just focused on tomorrow’s round and keep doing what I’ve been doing.”
Pendrith currently sits in 29th place in the FedEx Cup standings, so a win here could be a massive jump for him.
A win here would give him 500 FedEx Cup points and move his total to 1,714. He could move up from 29th to 13th, securing his spot in Atlanta.
He will have a late tee time on Saturday as Pendrith looks to secure his second win of the season and become the sixth player to win at least twice in 2024.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @golf_girl_sl.
