NEWS

Van Aswegen holds clubhouse lead on second day at Mexico Championship

By PGA.com news servces
Published on
Van Aswegen holds clubhouse lead on second day at Mexico Championship

LEON, Mexico – Tyrone Van Aswegen fired a 7-under 65 at the Web.com Tour’s Mexico Championship during the morning wave on Friday. Michael Putnam, the leader after Round 1, will finish his second round at El Bosque Country Club starting at 8:00 a.m. CT. 

For the second day in a row, play was suspended for the day with nearly half the field yet to complete their round.

Michael Connell, who played with Van Aswegen in the first two rounds, finds himself one stroke off the pace.

In a share of fourth two back are Germany’s Stephan Jaegar, who is still on the golf course, and PGA Tour veteran Jeff Klauk.

Argentina’s Clodomiro Carranza, who has yet to start his second round, and Duke alum Wes Roach are three back in a share of sixth place.

It was another calm morning at El Bosque and no one took advantage of it more than Van Aswegen. The Oklahoma City University alum had a plan to keep it in play and stuck to that throughout the round.

“I just hit fairways and greens and gave myself opportunities,” the South African explained. “The greens were receptive this morning, so you could be aggressive if you were in the fairway.”

The four-year pro mainly hit his strong 3-woods off the tee and described his play this week as “conservative but aggressive.”

“I didn’t hit one driver today,” he said. “If you’re in play, you’re going to have opportunities and today I took advantage of those.”

Connell, who tied for third at the BMW Charity Pro-Am last week, is riding a hot putter. He drained a downhill eight-foot putt on 18 for birdie. The PGA Tour veteran has a strategy to get the most out of his round each day.

“The greens kind of dictate what I do,” he said. “You just have to kind of pick your spots, pick a shot you can hit, and execute it by knocking the putt in.”

Putnam feels very fortunate to not be out there playing in the tough conditions. The Washington native will get back at it Saturday morning and be able to play as aggressively as he did in Round 1.

“I’m happy we stopped playing,” he said with a smile. “The conditions were going to be really tough if we went back out there. With a little rain this even and hopefully some calm conditions in the morning it’s going to play a lot easier than it would’ve this afternoon.”

Once the second round is complete, players will begin the third round in threesomes off split tees.