Live leaderboard: Round 2 of RSM Classic

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – There were all sorts of reasons to doubt Francesco Molinari, who heads into the weekend hot after a bogey-free, second-round 67 got him to 7 under par and in a three-way tie for the lead with players still out on the course at the 83rd Masters Tournament. Sure, in the last 12 months he had won four times around the world, including The Open Championship. And OK, he went 5-0-0 at the Ryder Cup, mostly with Tommy Fleetwood. But in seven Masters starts he’d done no better than 19th, in 2012. He didn’t even do very well as a caddie for his brother, then-reigning U.S. Amateur champ Edoardo, at the 2006 Masters. “I didn’t learn a lot, to be honest, about the course, because we were going sideways most of the time,� Francesco said, laughing. He called the two days of pulling clubs for his brother, “a bit of a nightmare.� How uninspiring was Francesco’s record here? It wasn’t a nightmare, but one of his fellow major winners, when presented with the idea of drafting Molinari for a Masters fantasy team, said this week, “He hits it too flat to win at Augusta. Fleetwood, yes, but Molinari doesn’t hit it high enough.� All of which is turning out to be completely wrong. Molinari 2.0 is not the same player, as he continues to prove for the slower learners among us. For starters, he said Friday, he is way more comfortable on the greens. His work with putting coach Phil Kenyon paid big dividends starting last spring, when Molinari won the European Tour’s BMW PGA Championship, and he kept right on winning at the Quicken Loans National, The Open, and this season’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. What did he change? The question should probably be: What didn’t he change? He transformed his setup, he said, from upright to more of a crouching position. He altered his path, from in-to-out to neutral. He changed his actual putter, in both shape and markings—the old one had an alignment line, this one a dot. And he changed his tempo. “Pretty much I could have started putting left-handed,� he said. “It would have been a similar process.� The payoff has been stark. He’s 23rd in Strokes Gained: Putting (+.564) this season compared to 182nd (-.487) last year. He’s the only player on the PGA TOUR to improve a stroke or more since last season. “I feel a massive difference when I’m on the greens or around the greens, compared to my previous times here,� he said after taking just 25 putts Friday. As for the assertion that he hits it too flat, or isn’t long enough, that’s now completely wrong, too. Molinari admits he used to be that guy. He was playing the 2014 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool when it hit him like a golf ball to the forehead. Paired with uber-long Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy for the third round, Molinari realized he was so comparatively short he didn’t stand a chance, even if he played perfectly. “I saw that I didn’t stand a chance, really,� he said. “I didn’t play my best golf, but even if I had, there wasn’t much I could do to compete against them. That was a big wake-up call.� He went to work on his swing, making a bigger turn on his historically compact swing, and working out for the first time. “I was more of a couch guy a few years ago,� he told the PGA TOUR’s Sean Martin last fall, for a story chronicling Molinari’s distance gains. The result: He has gained 20 yards since 2015. According to Mark Broadie, who invented the Strokes Gained metric and who keeps statistics for Molinari, a 20-yard distance gain can mean up to three strokes per tournament. The par-5 eighth hole is a good example of how that plays out at Augusta National. In the past, Molinari said, he had to aim his tee shot left of the right fairway bunker, but now if the wind is right he can clear it. That can mean the difference between going for the green in two, or laying up. He birdied the eighth Friday, and is 4-under on the par 5s in eight chances so far this week. He’s too short? Too flat? No and no. He’s atop the leaderboard, is what he is. Did he feel overlooked, the way fellow co-leader Brooks Koepka (71) has? Also no. “There’s obviously loads of great players in golf right now,� said Molinari, who is coming off a third-place finish at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. “And you know, I think I’m getting the attention that I deserve, and it’s not something that I seek or that I want desperately. I’m happy to go about my business and keep playing good golf.� Francesco Molinari isn’t going sideways at Augusta anymore.

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In a season devoid of a traditional rookie class, it's predictable that there will be lulls in attention for golfers who could crash the conversation for the potential to trigger voting for an Arnold Palmer Award winner. In fact, that Will Zalatoris already has achieved Special Temporary Membership is a bonus. Alas, there's no news out of The RSM Classic. The only non-member who made the cut was Bernd Wiesberger, and he finished T4, but the 35-year-old Austrian exhausted his rookie eligibility with 11 starts during the 2014-15 season. Only four others in the field of 156 at Sea Island still have rookie eligibility, but Michael Hebert now is a career 0-for-4 on the PGA TOUR, Brandon Crick is 0-for-2, PGA Georgia Section representative Anthony Cordes was making his TOUR debut, and Davis Thompson is an amateur. Of that smattering, the only golfer who presents as a strong possibility to contend for ROY at some point is Thompson, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Georgia. He was No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking at the start of the week of the RSM. In the latest update of the WAGR (in which Thompson slots second), Andy Ogletree rose to a career-best fourth. It's also where he finished his amateur days since he turned professional after finishing T34 at the Masters. Only professionals collect the equivalent of FedExCup points, so hejoins the play-for-pay ranks with zero. Elsewhere, Takumi Kanaya outlasted Tomohiro Ishizaka in a playoff to determine the winner of the Dunlop Phoenix in southern Japan. After trading a par and two birdies on the par-5 18th hole, Kanaya's birdie on the fourth time through secured the title. It was Kanaya's third start since turning professional, but it's already his second victory on the Japan Golf Tour. He's now 126th in the Official World Golf Ranking. Remarkably, both Kanaya and Ishizaka still are college students. Rafael Campos (only 2020-21 PGA TOUR rookie) Starts = 3 Cuts Made = 0 FedExCup Points = 0.000 FedExCup Rank = n/a Last Week = DNP Next = TBD ^ – The value beside Will Zalatoris reflects where he would rank among members with his total of equivalent FedExCup points. If he’s inside the top 125 at the conclusion of the Wyndham Championship, he’ll earn PGA TOUR membership in 2021-22. He can become a member this season with a victory on the PGA TOUR or with two more wins on the Korn Ferry Tour. Non-members: Through the 2020 RSM Classic * – Because the 2019-20 season was contracted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this season’s target for Special Temporary Membership is 288.035 FedExCup points. It’s what Martin Kaymer totaled en route to ranking 150th in the FedExCup during the 2018-19 season. Non-members who achieve STM receive numerous benefits, three of which are primary as it concerns opportunities to compete on the PGA TOUR: 1) Unlimited sponsor exemptions; 2) Unlimited starts; 3) Position in the Beyond 150 Reshuffle. However, a non-member who achieves STM remains ineligible for the FedExCup Playoffs unless he wins a tournament. NOTE: The Player Advisory Council and the Player Directors nominate annually a list of first-season PGA TOUR members for the PGA TOUR members for the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year. A player's rookie season ("Rookie Year") is defined as the season in which he becomes a PGA TOUR member (including Special Temporary Members) and plays in 10 or more events as a member or finishes in the Top 125 on the official FedExCup points list or qualifies as a Top 125 non-member, whichever occurs first. Further, for purposes of this definition, a new member (including Special Temporary Members) shall not be eligible to be a rookie if he has previously played in more than seven official PGA TOUR money events as a professional in any prior season. PGA TOUR members who have played in at least 15 official money tournaments vote on this award. The Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup and Olympic Games each count as one the 15. In their discretion, the Player Advisory Council and Player Directors may determine that circumstances (the potential lack of nominees due to the absence of 2020 graduating class from the Korn Ferry Tour) may not warrant the selection of an award recipient in the 2020-21 season

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