DeChambeau shoots career-best 64 to take Harbour Town lead

Smith takes two shot lead in European Open

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The PGA TOUR finishes its time in Asia with the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions at Sheshan International Golf Club (West) in Shanghai, China. The field will consist of 78 golfers from the PGA TOUR as well as six Chinese players teeing it up for the first of four World Golf Championships tournaments this season. Similar to the other two tournaments on the Asian Swing, this will be a no-cut event. RELATED: Power Rankings | Course, field preview: WGC-HSBC Champions Sheshan International will play as a par 72, measures 7,261 yards and be played on bentgrass greens for the third straight week. This tournament has been played at Sheshan International in 13 of the last 14 seasons and all but two of the last 13 winners have been outside the top 30 in overall world golf ranking at the time of their win (exceptions: Y.E. Yang 77th/2006, Russell Knox 85/2015). The course is fairly straight forward with tree-lined fairways, which will be average in width, but where the course gets difficult is when the golfers miss the fairway and hit it in one of the many fairway bunkers or in one of the many water hazards that come into play on 11 holes. In the last three years, the course has played inside the top-half of difficulty in scoring relative to par with last season playing as the third most difficult; this is evident with both fairways hit in regulation and greens hit in regulation percentage registering lower at Sheshan International relative to the TOUR average. Par 5 scoring average will again be important this week with three of the four playing over 550 yards. Golfers who also do well on par 3 scoring average from 200 to 225 yards should be considered when building lineups, all four of the par-3s measure over 200 yards. Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee will be paramount with accuracy as a priority; hitting it in the rough or in any of the many fairway bunkers may be penal this week. TOP VALUES Rory McIlroy ($11, 700) McIlroy’s Off-The-Tee game is second-to-none. In his last six tournaments, he’s gained almost a stroke on the field in hit fairway percentage and ranks first in Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee over the same timeframe. Even though Rory finished outside the top 50 last season at Sheshan International, he ranks just outside the top-10 in Strokes Gained: Total at this tournament the last five years. Tony Finau ($9,700) Finau struggled in Japan, but now gets to play a tournament he’s had success at, finishing 11th back in 2017 and second last season. Like Rory, Finau’s Off-The-Tee ability is elite, ranking fifth in Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee over his last six tournaments; it’s not only his distance, but he’s also been hitting the fairway this season, ranking T11 in fairway hit percentage and 30th in hit fairways gained over the field in his last 24 rounds. Finau also putts better on bentgrass greens, ranking just outside the top-30 in Strokes Gained: Putting over his last 36 rounds. Patrick Reed ($9,600) Reed isn’t on the same level as Finau or McIlroy with his driver but still ranks inside the top-10 in Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee over his last six tournaments and has the short game to contend at this course. Reed ranks inside the top-30 in par 5 scoring average and eighth in sand save percentage over his last 24 rounds along with two top-10 finishes here dating back to 2016. Kevin Kisner ($7,200) There’s no metric for “narrative-street� analysis, but Kisner may take a page out of Tiger’s book last week and go for the win this week in Shanghai to enhance his chances at getting a Presidents Cup captain’s pick from Woods. We’re not just relying on the metaphoric analysis with Kisner, he also has solid current form, ranking ninth in Strokes Gained: Approach-The-Green and sixth in par 3 scoring average from 200-225 yards in distance. He’s a great putter on bentgrass and has a second place finish here back in 2016. J.T. Poston ($6,700) Poston had a good end to his season, making it to the BMW Championship with a T16 finish and followed it up with a Top-11 in his first start of the new season at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Poston also recorded a top-30 last week in Japan. His solid finishes have a lot to do with his ball-striking, gaining 3.3 strokes Tee-to-Green over his last five tournaments. Poston ranks inside the top-15 in par 3 scoring average from 200 to 225 yards, 11th in birdie or better percentage, 16th in Strokes Gained: Approach-The-Green and 23rd in par-5 scoring average over his last six tournaments. Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. About the writer: “I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is reidtfowler) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.�

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NAPA, Calif. – A rookie leader after 36 holes. The threat of a 59, then the eventual course record. Weezer headlining the post-round concert. It was an eventful second round Friday at the Safeway Open.  LEADERS TYLER DUNCAN (13 under) – He’s 36 holes into his PGA TOUR career and has the lead at 13 under. “Yeah, it’s crazy,â€� said Duncan, who ranked 23rd on the Web.com Tour’s top 50 priority list. “Nothing I could have ever dreamed of, for sure.â€� He’s done it with crisp iron play, some terrific putting – he ranks second this week in strokes gained: putting – and a flatline demeanor. “I’ve really just stayed calm,â€� Duncan said after following his opening 65 with a 66 that included one eagle, four birdies, three bogeys and one par on his final nine. “I’m not sure what it is. I’m usually a pretty calm guy, but I figured I’d be nervous and amped up and everything. But I’ve stayed really calm and I’ve had a clear mind the first two rounds.â€� Now, of course, comes the weekend. He’s in the final group with defending champ Brendan Steele and Chesson Hadley. Three weeks ago at the Web.com Tour in Boise, Idaho, Duncan had the 36-hole lead but felt the nerves and eventually faded to a T-5 finish. He figures to use that learning experience this weekend as he pursues the improbable Cinderella story. “My nerves will definitely be ramped up a little bit,â€� Duncan said. “I learned a lot (from Boise) and I’m looking forward to having another opportunity to get after it.â€� BRENDAN STEELE (12 under) – He just keeps rolling along, following his opening 65 with a 5-under 67. For the first time in Steele’s career, swing coach Chris Mason is on the bag this week. Steele’s regular caddie, Christian Donald, is at a wedding in England. The temporary switch in caddies obviously hasn’t disrupted his momentum at Silverado. “Chris has wanted to get on the bag for a little while and just see what I’m doing out there,â€� Steele said. “He sees me in practice rounds and can walk during tournament rounds, but he doesn’t get to see what’s actually going on between my ears while we’re out there.â€� Mason is seeing a lot of good. Steele has missed just two greens through the first two rounds and ranks first in the field in strokes gained: tee to green. CHESSON HADLEY (11 under) – It was around the middle of his back nine that Hadley started thinking about 59. He birdied the 13th hole to go to 8 under on his round, then birdied the next three holes. He arrived at the 17th tee needing two birdies or an eagle (the 18th is a par 5) but parred both holes. The 11-under 61 is his career best and ties the tournament record set on other courses in this event. “That’s certainly nothing to hang your head about,â€� said Hadley. “But you don’t get many chances at 59, so I was aware of it and I was certainly trying to do it. But at the same time, you’ve got to be aware you can’t do anything stupid because you’re trying to win a golf tournament.â€� Hadley ranked first on the Web.com Tour priority list, having won twice during the recently completed season. He didn’t see this kind of round coming – he opened with an even-par 72 – but he’ll never forget the bid for 59. The last time he had a chance to go that low was an amateur event several years ago. “It’s just kind of magic out there when you’re doing that,â€� Hadley said. “These rounds don’t come often and I feel like I made the most of it today.â€� OBSERVATIONS PHIL’S BETTER BUT SAME. After hitting just two of 14 fairways in the first round, Phil Mickelson found eight fairways on Friday. But the improved accuracy didn’t lead to a better score, as he shot a second consecutive 69 that leaves him at 6 under. “I expected to score a little bit better, but I had some good chances today,â€� Mickelson said. “… I let a few opportunities slide.â€� He double-bogeyed the 14th after a wayward drive and a missed 5-foot putt for bogey. But he immediately responded with three straight birdies, knocking a couple of approach shots within 10 feet. “I made a few mistakes,â€� Mickelson said. “Certainly I hit it a lot better but yet I show the same score.â€� STREELMAN’S NEW COACH. Kevin Streelman recently switched coaches, and is now using Australian Andrew Getson, who also works with Mickelson. Streelman lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, which is Getson’s home base at Greyhawk. “We’ve been best friends for a long time and I kind of wanted to hold off on that because we’re such good friends,â€� Streelman said. “I didn’t want to mess with that, but he’s just too knowledgeable and keeps things too simple.â€� Streelman comes off a season in which he finished 83rd in FedExCup points, his worst result since 2012. It’s also the first time since then that he’s failed to post at least one top-3 finish. But so far so good this week, as he’s shot 69-68 and is 7 under. “Right now I’ve got a real simple swing thought that’s worked nicely for two days,â€� Streelman said. “We all know this game can be mean at times, but hopefully it continues for the weekend.â€� HAAS HEATS UP. On Thursday, Bill Haas needed 32 putts and ranked 103rd of the 144 players in the field in strokes gained: putting. On Friday, he needed just 25 putts and ranked first in that category. His total feet of putts made went from 65 feet, 4 inches to 169 feet, 4 inches. During a six-hole stretch, he made putts of 34, 23, 32 and 30 feet. No wonder he called his second-round 65 a “fun day.â€� “I made probably four putts that I normally don’t make,â€� said Haas, who’s 7 under going into the weekend. “Making one of those a round is fun, so making three or four of those was a lot of fun today. … Golf would be a lot more fun if you could just putt like that every day.â€� EXTREME TEMPS. When the morning wave teed off Friday, the temperatures were in the 40s. By the time they finished, it was in the 80s. That required some adjustments for those with early tee times. Kevin Streelman said the ball wasn’t traveling far on his first nine holes, forcing him to “add a few clubsâ€� until the temperatures heated up. Noted Graham DeLaet, who dealt with the extreme differences on Thursday: “When we teed off yesterday, the ball was going nowhere and you couldn’t compress it, everything was a bit softer. Then in the afternoon you can really hit the ball long.â€�  NOTABLES JOHN DALY – Birdied his final hole to make the cut on the number. That keeps alive the hope of singing a song with the Goo Goo Dolls at Saturday’s post-round concert. EMILIANO GRILLO – One of two Presidents Cup players in the field this week (Phil Mickelson is the other), Grillo was at 9 under for the tournament until three-putting his last two holes for bogeys. “Stupid mistakes,â€� he said before heading to the practice green. HUNTER MAHAN – After a season in which he missed 16 cuts in 26 starts, Mahan is in the mix this week at 6 under. He missed just one green on Friday and has hit 32 of 36 in the first two rounds. HAROLD VARNER III – Still seems to be feeling the bounce of his successful scramble to make the FedExCup Playoffs, as he’s at 7 under after his 68 on Friday. SANGMOON BAE – It’s a short stay for his first PGA TOUR start since his two-year mandatory military service in Korea, as Bae shot a 75 to finish at 4 over and miss the cut. MAVERICK McNEALY – Was tied for the lead at one point, but suffered a triple bogey late in his round. Still, his first pro start remains a positive one, as he’s 5 under after a 71. QUOTABLES “Yesterday I go out and practice, and Phil’s out there grinding. So he’s won I don’t know how many times on TOUR and he’s working harder than me. That’s not a good sign.â€� – Harold Varner III when asked about his own improved work routine that’s led to better results recently. “A little nap sounds good right now … To be able to just hang out in Napa Valley the rest of the afternoon is pretty nice.â€� – Bill Haas, who started his second round at 7:20 a.m. local time “Napa’s a special place. I come here once or twice a year outside of the tournament. I love it here and it’s a fun golf course to play.â€� – Phil Mickelson SUPERLATIVES Low round: 11-under 61 by Chesson Hadley Longest drive: Jamie Sadlowski, 366 yards at the 12th hole. Incidentally, Sadlowski also had the next two longest drives — 362 yards (at the 13th) and 361 yards (at the 14th). Longest putt: Kevin Tway, 63 feet, 11 inches at hole No. 14 Toughest hole: The 224-yard seventh hole, which played to a stroke average of 3.225. CALL OF THE DAY SHOT OF THE DAY BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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