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BMW Championship 2020: Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay Tied for Lead After Round 2
August 29, 2020
How tough is Olympia Fields playing this weekend? Here's an idea: Only eight of the 68 players at the BMW Championship shot under par on Friday. The lowest score of the day was a two-under par 68.
The country club 45 minutes south of Chicago is serving as the second leg of this year's FedEx Cup Playoffs and it's going to take a championship-like performance to conquer it. After Round 2 it's impossibly close to determine who it'll come from.
Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay currently share the lead at one-under par heading into moving day while the top 10 on the leaderboard are separated by just three strokes. With Saturday's action looming, the tournament is still completely up for grabs.
Here's a look at where things stand after two rounds.
2020 BMW Championship Friday Leaderboard
T1. Patrick Cantlay (-1)
T1. Rory McIlroy (-1)
T3. Hideki Matsuyama (E)
T3. Dustin Johnson (E)
T5. Adam Scott (+1)
T5. Brendon Todd (+1)
T5. Louis Oosthuizen (+1)
T5. Tony Finau (+1)
T5. Billy Horschel (+1)
T10. Mackenzie Hughes (+2)
T10. Kevin Kisner (+2)
T10. Bubba Watson (+2)
Notables: T13. Matthew Wolff (+3), T13. Xander Schauffele (+3), T13. Bryson DeChambeau (+3), T30. Gary Woodland (+5), T39. Jon Rahm (+6), T55. Tiger Woods (+8), T61. Jason Day (+10)
Full leaderboard via PGATour.com
Highlights
In a season that's seen a new crop of younger players shine on some of the Tour's biggest stages, it's notable to see a top ten filled with experience after two rounds.
Matthew Wolff, Viktor Hovland, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Collin Morikawa are all on the outside looking in right now. Morikawa (nine over), Fitzpatrick (five over) and Hovland (four over) will all need to show resilience on Saturday to ensure they make the top 30 and earn a spot in next week's tour championship in Atlanta.
They need not look further than the play of McIlroy.
The Irishman hadn't finished in the top ten at any tournament since March only to come roaring back at the BMW. McIlroy sank five birdies on Friday with three on the back nine to keep himself atop the leaderboard. It helps that he hit 61.11 percent of his greens in regulation mostly due to the kind of drives he crushed early in the second round.
Not to be outdone, Cantlay's short game was equally impressive save for a double bogey on No. 16.
Cantlay sank four birdies and one eagle on one of the shots of the day.
It was the type of precision Tiger Woods could've used at any point on Saturday. Instead, Woods banked five bogeys and one double bogey on just two birdies as his driving accuracy fell to 50 percent and he lost 1.198 strokes on the green. After making par on each of his first four holes, the 44-year-old fell apart on No. 5, stumbled again on No. 7 and was unable to recover until No. 18.
Woods ended his round with a 36-foot putt to save par and walk off with a score of 75 for the day—dropping him 20 spots on in the standings.