Zach Johnson shot a blistering seven-under-par 65 to jump into a tie with Ryan Moore on nine-under 135 after the second round of the Texas Open on Friday.
The pair lead Andrew Landry (67) and Grayson Murray (69) by a shot, with Ben Crane (66), Canadian David Hearn (68) and Scotland’s Martin Laird (65) two strokes further back on six-under.
Sergio Garcia (72) missed the cut for his second straight tournament after finishing at two-over-par. The Spaniard cut a frustrated figure at the fifth hole where he threw his driver into the bushes in disgust after hitting his tee shot.
The 38-year-old, who also missed the cut at the Masters earlier this month, was the only top-20 ranked golfer in the tournament.
There were contrasting fortunes for the Irish duo as Graeme McDowell shot a 71 to make the cut at one under par while Seamus Power was well back at nine over after a second round 77.
Johnson had looked like he would struggle to make the cut in the first round when he was three-over through 13 holes but finished with three straight birdies on Thursday.
He carried that momentum into Friday’s round, carding six birdies and a spectacular eagle at the short par-four fifth where he holed out from a greenside bunker. The only blemish on his card was a three-putt bogey on the ninth hole, his last of the day.
“Keep hitting fairways and keep putting myself in position to be aggressive,” the 42-year-old said when asked what he will need to do to win the tournament.
“I don’t want to take my foot off the pedal because what I’ve learned certainly over the last so many odd years with these young guys is there’s no fear.
“They are going full bore so there’s no reason I shouldn’t either,” the two-times major champion said.
Fellow leader Moore shot a second-round 67 that included five birdies. The 35-year-old is the only player in the field not to bogey a hole at the Greg Norman-designed TPC San Antonio.
Collated second round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour Valero Texas Open, TPC San Antonio — AT&T Oaks, San Antonio, Texas, United States of America (Irish in bold, par 72)
135 Zach Johnson 70 65, Ryan Moore 68 67
136 Grayson Murray 67 69, Andrew Landry 69 67
138 Ben Crane 72 66, Martin Laird (Sco) 73 65, David Hearn (Can) 70 68
139 Keegan Bradley 68 71, Denny McCarthy 72 67, Chris Kirk73 66, Billy Horschel68 71, Chesson Hadley68 71
140 Brian Stuard 71 69, Richy Werenski 72 68, Vaughn Taylor72 68, Beau Hossler71 69, Jimmy Walker71 69
141 JT Poston 72 69, Andrew Putnam 73 68, Steve Marino 73 68, Matt Atkins68 73, Joshua Creel69 72, Nicholas Lindheim74 67, Harris English69 72
142 Nick Watney 70 72, Adam Schenk 71 71, Ollie Schniederjans71 71, Sean O’Hair72 70, Ernie Els(Rsa)73 69, Zecheng Dou(Chn)71 71, Kyung Ju Choi(Kor)73 69, J.J. Spaun72 70, Zac Blair73 69, Kevin Streelman74 68, Trey Mullinax74 68, Aaron Baddeley(Aus)71 71, Joaquin Niemann (a) (Cl) 72 70, Rod Pampling(Aus)72 70, Keith Mitchell70 72, Brandt Snedeker70 72
143 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 70 73, Graeme McDowell (Nirl) 72 71, Matt Kuchar71 72, Kevin Tway72 71, David Lingmerth (Swe) 75 68, Troy Merritt73 70, Dylan Frittelli(Rsa)72 71
144 Jason Kokrak 74 70, Benjamin Silverman (Can) 71 73, Hudson Swafford72 72, Austin Cook70 74, Cameron Champ72 72, Jamie Lovemark75 69, Danny Lee (Nzl) 76 68, Ethan Tracy72 72, Daniel Summerhays74 70, Corey Conners(Can)70 74, Anirban Lahiri(Ind)76 68, Peter Malnati75 69, Retief Goosen(Rsa)73 71, Sam Ryder73 71, John Senden(Aus)74 70, Kevin Chappell72 72, Ricky Barnes73 71, Brendan Steele70 74, Jim Furyk71 73, Johnson Wagner72 72
145 Charley Hoffman 72 73, Xander Schauffele 75 70, Lanto Griffin78 67, Si Woo Kim(Kor)71 74, Joel Dahmen74 71, Hunter Mahan73 72, Ben Martin73 72, Michael Thompson72 73, Julian Suri74 71, Bill Haas73 72, Brice Garnett72 73, Andrew Yun73 72, Brandon Harkins72 73
The following players did not make the half way cut:
146 Luke List72 74, Pat Perez72 74, Martin Flores75 71, Roberto Diaz (Mx) 69 77, Brian Gay74 72, Nate Lashley75 71, Fabian Gomez (Ar) 73 73, Billy Hurley III72 74, Wesley Bryan75 71, Sergio Garcia(Spa)74 72, Jonathan Byrd73 73, Russell Knox(Sco)74 72, Nick Taylor(Can)76 70
147 Kyle Thompson73 74, Ryan Palmer71 76, Bronson Burgoon74 73, Cameron Percy(Aus)75 72, Curtis Reed74 73, Stephan Jaeger(Ger)76 71, Talor Gooch75 72, Patrick Rodgers75 72, Dominic Bozzelli75 72, Sung Kang(Kor)76 71, Matt Every72 75, Scott Piercy74 73, Conrad Shindler75 72, Kevin Na77 70, Sang-moon Bae(Kor)71 76, Mackenzie Hughes(Can)72 75, Tyler Duncan73 74, Cameron Tringale74 73
148 Adam Scott(Aus)75 73, Greg Chalmers(Aus)77 71, Martin Kaymer(Ger)72 76, Stewart Cink74 74, Shubhankar Sharma(Ind)76 72, Tom Lovelady74 74, Peter Uihlein75 73, J.B. Holmes73 75, Xinjun Zhang(Chn)77 71, Rob Oppenheim75 73, John Huh75 73, Jonathan Randolph73 75
149 Shawn Stefani 75 74, Matt Jones (Aus) 72 77, Paul McConnell71 78, Ryan Armour72 77, John Peterson76 73, Jon Curran69 80, Brett Stegmaier75 74
150 Harold Varner III 74 76, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 73 77, Martin Piller76 74, Steve Wheatcroft73 77, Chris Paisley(Eng)79 71, Tom Hoge75 75, Chad Campbell77 73, Whee Kim(Kor)78 72
151 Kris Blanks 80 71, Scott Brown 77 74, Jesse Droemer 74 77, Aaron Wise78 73, Tyrone Van Aswegen(Rsa)80 71
152 Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 81 71
153 J.J. Henry 78 75, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai) 78 75, Cody Gribble79 74, William McGirt82 71, Seamus Power(Ire)76 77
155 Derek Fathauer 82 73, Rick Lamb 82 73
157 Troy Matteson 74 83
158 Robert Garrigus 80 78, Michael Kim 77 81
165 Steven Bowditch (Aus) 83 82
