Author of a round of 62 the day before, JJ Spaun maintained the pace in the second round to remain in command of the St. Jude Classic on Friday in Memphis, Tennessee.
This is the first leg of the FedEx PGA Cup Playoffs on the TPC Southwind course.
Spaun scored 67 (-3) to edge Sepp Straka by one stroke and Troy Merritt by one stroke with a cumulative minus-11.
Five of the six Canadian players in the tournament will be final rounds. Adam Hadwin and Taylor Pendrith find themselves at 4 under and tied for 33rd place. Adam Svensson and Mackenzie Hughes find themselves in a group at 3 under, while Corey Conners (-2) just qualified after a round of 73 in the second round.
Despite scoring 67, Nick Taylor was unable to recover from a round of 74 on Thursday, and missed the cut.
Australian Cameron Smith, who is expected to join the LIV series at the end of the season, is tied for fifth at 8 under. Smith started the week ranked second in the Fed Ex Cup standings behind Scottie Scheffler.
Scheffler, who is ranked No. 1 in the world, will miss the weekend rounds due to his minus-1 overall. He had opportunities for birdies on two of his last three holes that he couldn’t convert, and his 68 card saw him miss the qualifying mark by one stroke.
This is also the case for Rory McIlroy, sixth in the standings before the start of the first stage of the playoffs. McIlroy (69) ended his day with a bogey and missed the qualifying mark for only the second time this season.
Same story for Jordan Spieth (74) who will not be able to participate in the rounds of the weekend after seeing a tee shot end up in the water at the 14th hole.
At least they will compete in the BMW Championship next week.
