Sweden’s David Lingmerth shot a second consecutive 5-under 65 for a two-stroke lead over Australian Geoff Ogilvy after the second round of the Quicken Loans National on Friday.
World No 99 Lingmerth, whose only PGA Tour victory came at the 2015 Memorial Tournament, birdied three of his first five holes at TPC Potomac in Maryland en route to a round that matched Ogilvy for the day’s lowest score.
Lingmerth won here on the developmental Web.com Tour five years ago and once again enjoyed stellar ball-striking as he hit 10 of 14 fariways and 13 of 18 greens in regulation to double his overnight lead.
“I feel like that’s kind of one of my strengths, a thing I pride myself in, hitting a lot of fairways,” said Lingmerth. “I like this type of golf course when you can see the definition. You can zone in on your targets. You’ve really got to stay committed off the tee.”
TPC Potomac is hosting the event for the first time and has been redesigned since it last welcomed the PGA Tour in 2006.
As a result, Lingmerth, who does not have a top-10 finish on the PGA Tour all year, is more familiar with the course than most and has happy memories to draw from.
World number nine Rickie Fowler (72), the highest-ranked player in the field, was 12 shots off the pace after a round in which his only blemishes were bogeys at the par-four sixth and 18th holes.
Former US Open champion Ogilvy, who has fallen from a career-high third in the world rankings to 231st, started from the 10th tee and birdied three of his first four holes en route to a bogey-free 65.
“Very nice to get off to a start like that,” said Ogilvy, who has eight PGA tour wins, but only two since 2009.
“You kind of want to get under before you get over on a course like this because it’s kind of hard to catch up, because it kind of beats you over the head all day.”