Lucas Glover is confident about his form at the Barbasol Championship after capping off a four-under 68 with two birdies to take a two stroke lead into the weekend.
The 2009 U.S. Open Champion, who is making his first appearance in this event, followed his opening round 63 with five birdies and a bogey during the second round despite struggling uncharacteristically with his driver.
Glover started his round par, birdie before ending a streak of six pars in a row with a gain at his ninth, the 18th. He followed with four more pars, a birdie and subsequent bogey at the fifth and sixth, before ending his day with back-to-back birdies.
Although struggling off the tee, Glover said his putting had kept him steady, and making those final birdies helped him feel that much more confident as he tries to take course learnings with him into the weekend...
"Birdied the last two, makes lunch taste good," said Glover, who comes to this event following back-to-back top six finishes.
"It was a bit of a struggle today, especially compared to yesterday. Uncharacteristically drove it very poorly, I just didn't hit enough fairways to hit the ball close and take it low again. Happy the way I finished and happy the way I rolled it, just not many of them were very close today.
"Having come here the first time, everything I've been told was this is as firm as the fairways have ever been. If we get what we're expected to get, some lines off the tees may change. So for me that's going to be a little more planning just not having been here before and not seeing it playing soft. But keep an eye on the forecast, greens will obviously still be receptive, but you've got to be coming in from the fairways as I learned the hard way today. Q. You mentioned you didn't
Elaborating, Glover said that the bigger part of his game plan for the rest of this week is to stay aggressive on the course, but he will also plan to come out early and work on what he thinks is an alignment issue.
"For me, it always starts with alignment and there's a lot of fade holes out here and I'm a drawer. I don't aim far enough left and I end up pulling it a little bit. So missed a lot of fairways through on the left today on a lot of the dogleg rights. Easy fix, just come out a little early tomorrow, work on it. Get some rest this afternoon, it was an early morning."
Two strokes behind him are Adam Long, Vincent Norrman and England's Daniel Smith, the latter of which said he got it round despite feeling uncomfortable with his irons.
Smith, whose Challenge Tour Ranking finish from last season's Road to Mallorca has allowed him to play exclusively on the DP World Tour this year, is building on last week's tie for 17th in Himmerland as he finds himself in the mix at the Barbasol Championship.
Despite being somewhat disappointed that his game didn't feel great, Smith is pleased that he is still right there as he contends for his first professional title.
"didn't actually feel great today," he reflected.
"Played really nice yesterday and then today kind of on the range this morning didn't feel too good but kind of was figuring it out along the way. Managed to hole a couple of nice putts and just drove solid really. Drove it well and kept it in play, so didn't really do too much wrong"
A four under par 68 followed an opening 64 at Keene Trace Golf Club, and Smith said he is working on staying calm as he is aware that there is still a long way to go.
"I think just kind of do what we've been doing. I've been playing fairly aggressive really, just hopefully continue to drive it well and then go from there. But I mean we're still 36 holes out, still a long way to go. I'll try and stay as calm as I can until back nine Sunday hopefully and we've got a chance, fingers crossed."
