Chez Reavie posted the best score in the second round, a 6-under 64 that was punctuated by a rare hole-in-one.
Reavie tamed the difficult par-3 ninth hole at East Lake on Friday, knocking in a 3-hybrid for the first ace posted there since East Lake began hosting the Tour Championship. Reavie’s shot was tracking the hole from the time it left the tee, some 230 yards away. It hit softly and rolled into the cup for his fourth career ace on the PGA Tour and 21st since he began playing.
“It was just awesome,” Reavie said. “Honestly, I was hitting a 3-iron in the middle of the green. I kind of just overdrew it a little bit. Got a fortunate bounce, kicked a little right, and got lucky and it went in the hole.”
It was the 37th ace – and the longest - on the PGA Tour this season.
The only previous hole-in-one posted at East Lake during the Tour Championship came in 2002 – before the inception of the Tour Championship – by Jerry Kelly at No. 2.
The ninth hole traditionally is one of the more difficult holes on the course. Last year it ranked as the ninth-toughest and surrendered only 14 birdies.
Reavie began the week as the No. 25 seed. Coupled with his first-round 71, he moved all the way up into a tie for seventh.
Adam Scott and a pair of snakes
The greens at East Lake are immaculate. Just ask Adam Scott, who found them almost magically so Friday.
First, on the par-4 10th hole, he drained a putt measured at 66 feet, 2 inches for birdie. That was the longest putt Scott had made all year. That personal record stood for all of six holes.
For on par-4 17th, for another birdie from way downtown, Scott sank of putt of 71 feet, 10 inches.
A rare weather delay during second round
Until Friday, the Tour Championship had not suffered a rain delay since 2011. The first round was halted that year because of lightning in the area with only four players remaining on the course. They managed to finish play.
Since becoming the permanent host of the event in 2004, play has been delayed only two other times – the final round in 2010 and the first round in 2007.
This is the first year the tournament has been held in August, when late-afternoon showers are common.
Tour, Military Warriors provide home for family
The Military Warriors Support Foundation and the PGA Tour officially presented disabled veteran Terry Bass with the keys to a mortgage-free home before the start of Friday’s second round of the Tour Championship. It was a huge step for the family, which had been living in a motel in Florida.
“We were basically homeless,” Bass said. “Sometimes it can take up to a year, but for us it happened rather quickly, like two months.”
Bass and his wife, Stephanie, have three children - Angela, 13, Jaysin, 6, and Nathan, 4. Through the “Homes 4 Wounded Heroes” program, the family doesn’t pay the mortgage, but is responsible for taxes and normal upkeep.
“It means a lot,” said Bass, who served four tours of duty in Iraq as a medic and nurse for the U.S. Army. “I still get mood swings where I don’t want to do anything for a while, but I don’t get as deep as I used to.”
Koepka laid bare in the parking lot
With the release Thursday of the photo of Brooks Koepka in the raw – part of ESPN’s collection for its magazine’s “body issue” – some wondered if the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer might be in line for a little ribbing from his peers.
Well, yeah, of course.
Wouldn’t you give him the needle if you could?
On Friday morning, the teasing well and truly began. Greeting Koepka as he arrived for the second round of the Tour Championship was a copy of the photo plastered over his name marking his East Lake parking space.
Suddenly it was a spot reserved for some ancient Greek athlete who decided to play a little golf here this week.
According to one of the security guards working the lot, it was Koepka’s south Florida buddy Dustin Johnson who posted the photo.
By the time Koepka arrived at the course, he knew what was awaiting him, social media being what it is. He already had laughed it off by the time he actually saw the prank in person
“I had two hours to laugh about it, and it's not really that funny when you get here. And the cameras are there. Like I've already laughed and joked about it,” he said.
Asked Thursday, following a 67 that left him tied for the lead, if he had heard any snark from the locker room, Koepka said, “I don't know. I never spend too much time in the locker room. I mean, I got here probably an hour and ten minutes before the tee time. They've all known. They've all known for a while. It's all good. I mean, I've walked around naked in the locker room before.”
You have to figure Friday was the first salvo. Welcome to your next couple of weeks, Brooks Koepka.
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