Tag: Satoshi Kodaira

Ryan Brehm takes step towards first PGA Tour win with 36-hole lead at Puerto Rico Open

Brehm finds himself just two more days away from his first win on Tour.

What do you get when you mix 36 holes of bogey-free golf with a 3-3-3 second-round finish? The 36-hole lead at a PGA Tour event.

Midway through the 2022 Puerto Rico Open – an opposite-field event to the elevated Arnold Palmer Invitational – Ryan Brehm finds himself just two more days away from his first win on Tour and first victory since the 2019 LECOM Health Challenge on the Korn Ferry Tour. The 35-year-old fired a 5-under 67 on Friday, aided by a birdie-eagle finish at Grand Reserve Golf Club.

“It was kind of boring until the end,” said Brehm of his round. “I feel like I had to scramble quite a bit, had some difficult up-and-downs, got them up and down, made a few good putts for par, kept the momentum going and finished with a birdie-eagle, made a bomb on the last hole. You add it up, it’s pretty good.”

Michael Kim, Satoshi Kodaira and Max McGreevy are in hot pursuit, just one shot back at 10 under. Callum Tarren rounds out the top five at 9 under.

“As much as you want to take a giant leap at the start, I’m definitely one to take a lot of steppingstones, for sure,” said McGreevy, who fired his career-low on Tour on Friday with an 8-under 64. “This is just one of those in that direction that’s just going to gain more confidence for myself and for my game and I’m excited for the next steppingstone. Hopefully another low round tomorrow and keep building on those steppingstones and hopefully keep giving myself chances.”

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Satoshi Kodaira shines as Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau sputter at Travelers Championship

On a day when some of the biggest names in golf struggled at TPC River Highlands Japan’s Satoshi Kodaira topped the leaderboard.

CROMWELL, Conn. – On a day when some of the biggest names in golf struggled to get on the birdie train at TPC River Highlands, Japan’s Satoshi Kodaira rode the express to the top the leaderboard.

Ranked No. 294 in the Official World Golf Rankings coming into this week, Kodaira, who has won seven times on the Japan Tour, combined pinpoint accuracy from the fairway with a hot putter to card four birdies on Nos. 12 through 16 (he started on No. 10) Thursday at TPC River Highlands. After making the turn, he went birdie-eagle-birdie to start his second nine. That dropped his score to 8 under, one better than Kramer Hickok, who shot a 7-under 63 in the morning wave to take the early lead.

On the par-3 eighth hole, a three-putt bogey dropped Kodaira back into a tie with Hickok at 7 under. Still, it was easily the best round of the season for the 31-year-old.

“(I) had a good flow going at the beginning of the round, and that continued throughout the round, and so it felt really good,” Kodaira said afterward. “Before the round I wasn’t thinking this way, but I been playing well these few tournaments, so the flow of that is continuing, so I felt really well going into this round.”

[vertical-gallery id=778112332]

Heading into the Travelers Championship, Kodaira earned three top-20 finishes, but those were his best showings of the year. He has appeared at 20 PGA Tour events this season and missed the cut 10 times. His best finish this season is T-11 at the Wells Fargo Championship in May, and before today’s 63, Kodaira’s lowest score this season was 66, which he shot three times. Thursday’s 63 matched his career low-round on the PGA Tour, posted during the second round of the 2018 RBC Heritage, a tournament he went on to win.

Low scores like Hickok and Kodaira’s 63s are nothing new at TPC River Highlands. Jim Furyk posted the PGA Tour’s only 58 here in 2016, and playing as an amateur on a sponsor’s exemption in 2011, Patrick Cantlay shot 61 on Friday to take the tournament lead. Last year, Dustin Johnson shot 61 on Saturday before winning the next day.

As Kodaira was lighting up the 6,841-yard, par-70 course on Thursday afternoon, several big-name players struggled.

On a day when the field’s scoring average was 70, Brooks Koepka made three birdies and two bogeys on the way to shooting 69.

“I’m awful the week after a major, especially U.S. Open, because it takes so much out of you,” he said. “But still, I should have played better. No excuses. I mean, I’m kind of tired. I am going to enjoy getting to bed tonight.”

Rickie Fowler, Bryson DeChambeau, Adam Scott and Phil Mickelson also shot 69.

“I had a fun day. I didn’t score as low as I wanted to but didn’t hurt myself,” Mickelson said Thursday evening. “I need to come out tomorrow and play a good round.”

Dustin Johnson, the defending champion and world’s No. 2-ranked player, carded two bogeys and a double-bogey that offset four birdies and shot even-par 70.

Playing with what appeared to be a sore back, Paul Casey shot 71, while Tony Finau and Matthew Wolff shot 76.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=none image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[lawrence-related id=778112442,778112434,778112398]