Win probabilities: Rocket Mortgage Classic

DETROIT — Taylor Pendrith of Canada shot a 7-under 65 on Friday to take a one-shot lead over Tony Finau into the weekend in the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Pendrith and Finau shared the first-round lead at 8 under and will be in the final group Saturday, pairing a 31-year-old PGA TOUR rookie with a 32-year-old veteran coming off his third career victory. Rookie Lee Hodges (66) was three shots back. PGA TOUR rookie of the year front-runner Cameron Young tied a Detroit Golf Club record with a 63 for a share of fourth place — five shots back — with Russell Henley (65) and Stewart Cink (66). Rookie Sahith Theegala (67) was another shot back in a pack that includes defending FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay, who bounced back from an opening-round 70 with a 65. Davis Love III, the 58-year-old U.S. Presidents Cup captain, was in Detroit in part to play and more importantly to get to know players better on and off the course that may represent the country in September at Quail Hollow Club in North Carolina. Love missed the cut at 5-over 149, but made the most of an opportunity to have dinner with some President Cup candidates and to play two rounds with with Young and Will Zalatoris. Young and Zalatoris, teammates at Wake Forest and close friends, may be paired together again in two months. “If they make the team, they’re a natural,” Love said. Zalatoris, No. 13 in the world ranking, perhaps felt pressure playing with Love because he barely made the cut. He had to birdie his 36th hole to get to 3 under, the cut line, with a pair of lackluster rounds. If Young does not earn an automatic spot on the American team, he might be a captain’s pick. “Cameron is trending up,” Love said. “Go back to Jordan Spieth. Nobody heard of him and next thing you know in one year he’s on the Presidents Cup team, and Cam’s headed that way, too. No one ever heard of him on the Korn Ferry and here he is, he almost won a major.” Young had a runner-up finish at The Open Championship and at the PGA Championship, he missed a playoff by a shot. He has four second-place finishes and was third in two tournaments. And in Detroit, Young showed Love up close what he can do. “I would hope that I made some kind of case,” he said. Pendrith is playing in his third tournament after being out for nearly four months with a broken rib, a break that reminded him of his youth. “We have a long offseason in Canada, so I didn’t touch a club all winter basically growing up so I guess I’m kind of used to it in a way,” he said. Pendrith said matter of factly that he can compete with the best when he’s healthy and has showed that so far at Detroit Golf Club. No one, though, has been better than Finau lately. The Salt Lake City native with Tongan-Samoan heritage is 32 under over his last 107 holes, including rallying from a five-shot deficit last Sunday in Minnesota to win the 3M Open by three shots. Pendrith tried to pull away in the second round in Detroit, opening with four straight birdies and six in his first 10 holes. He had two birdies and a bogey over the final five holes to finish Friday alone in first. Finau, meanwhile, started slow with only one birdie on the front nine before carding five birdies on the back. He has a shot be the first PGA TOUR player to win two straight regular season tournaments since Brendon Todd in 2019. “Anytime you win, you breed confidence,” Finau said. “I was just happy to carry that confidence from last week right into this week.”

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Even for being located next to the ocean, the iconic finishing hole at Pebble Beach is short for par 5s by modern standards. That didn’t keep Seamus Power, who has plenty of pop, from taking an iron off the tee and playing it as a three-shot hole. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Jason Day more than comfortable at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Power knew what he was doing. He wrapped up a sublime display with his wedges Friday with a 4-foot birdie, his 10th of the round, to set a 36-hole record in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The 34-year-old Irishman had another 8-under 64 — the seventh time in 14 rounds this year he has been at 65 or lower — and built a five-shot lead to par. “My wedge play was great,” Power said. “I had three or four shots I hit very, very close and the way I’ve been putting — they were not gimme birdies, but certainly ones you would expect to make — it just changes your whole complex of your round, of your score.” That score was 16-under 128 over rounds at Spyglass Hill on Thursday and Pebble Beach on Friday, both under as magnificent weather as the Monterey Peninsula can provide. Power broke the 36-hole tournament record previously held by Nick Taylor (14-under 129) in 2020 and Phil Mickelson (15-under 129) in 2005. Tom Hoge could only manage a 69 at Monterey Peninsula and was at 11-under 132 along with Adam Svensson of Canada (63 at Monterey Peninsula) and Andrew Putnam (67 at Spyglass). Patrick Cantlay again was slowed by a back-to-back bogeys. Four of his six birdies were on the par 5s at Spyglass, and he had a 68 that left him six shots behind to par. Jason Day, who tied for third at Torrey Pines last week to at least get back inside the top 100 in the world, had a 66 at Monterey Peninsula and was still in the mix at 9-under 134. He was joined by a relative surprise, Sean O’Hair, working himself back from a torn oblique. O’Hair has opened with a pair of 67s. All of them are chasing Power, who might just not be coming into his own. After attending East Tennessee State — a scholarship became available when another kid from his part of the world, Rory McIlroy, decided instead to turn pro — Power toiled on the eGolf Tour in North Carolina, where a victory worth $15,000 made him feel as though he won the lottery. He worked his way onto the Korn Ferry Tour and then the PGA TOUR, where he kept a full card only once in three years until breaking through with a victory in the Barbasol Championship last July in Kentucky. It was an opposite-field event, but it was a win. And equipped with more confidence than ever, Power now is No. 50 in the world and trying not to think about a Masters invitation. A win would take care of that, and Power isn’t doing much wrong at the moment. The five-shot lead to par — Monterey Peninsula is a par 71, the other two courses are are par 72 — ties the tournament record for largest margin through 36 holes. “I just feel much more comfortable in these positions,” Power said. “I’m putting myself there a little bit more often, so it definitely seems a little easier, but still obviously a lot of work to do over the weekend.” He made his move Friday with a birdie on the par-5 sixth — set up by more good wedge play, this prompted by a bad drive — and a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-3 seventh. The most picturesque part of Pebble Beach brought out his best golf. A big drive set up a wedge to 6 feet for birdie on the ninth, he holed a 25-foot putt on the 10th and then hit wedge to about 5 feet on the 11th, and a 6-iron that just cleared the bunker in front the par-3 12th and rolled out 8 feet by the cup. More wedge work led to a short birdie on the 14th. His one big gaffe — other than a three-putt bogey from 60 feet on the par-3 fifth — was some indecision on a club at the par-3 17th that led him to quit on his swing, the ball soaring right toward the two-story grandstand. He dropped his flop shot into the bunker and had to make a 5-foot putt for bogey. Irritating? Yes, but not enough to change his strategy on the 535-yard closing hole. Iron off the tee, lay up to just inside 100 yards, let the wedge and putter take care of the rest. It’s not an easy game. It just feels like that now more than it ever did.

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