England’s Harry Hall carded a four-under-par 66 on Friday to take a three-shot lead at the halfway stage of the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas.
Hall, ranked 197th in the world and chasing a maiden win on the PGA Tour, recovered from a shaky start to rattle off a string of birdies at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth and go into the weekend at 12-under .
The 25-year-old from Cornwall took the lead after an eight-under-par opening round on Thursday.
Playing on the back nine on Friday, Hall bogeyed his fourth hole of the day, but then carded five of the next six holes to get his round back on track.
Although a bogey on the third dropped him three down for the round, he comfortably rolled in an 11-footer for birdie on the seventh on his way to a four-under round.
“I don’t think I’ve played my best golf on the PGA Tour yet this year, and I think it came this week,” Hall said.
“Hopefully I can keep this up for the next two days.”
Harris is chasing the English hall after the Englishman carded a four-under-par 66, leaving him nine under, three out of the lead.
The highlight of a bogey-free round for the Englishman was a brilliant ace on the par-three eighth, where his nine-iron landed on the tee green and rolled into the hole.
“It came in just like I wanted and luckily went in the hole,” English said.
“As long as I keep hitting that ball and keep giving myself chances, some good things will happen this weekend.”
Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo was one shot back at eight-under after a five-under par 65, while three players – Adam Schenk, Robby Shelton and South Korea’s An Byeong-hun – were five off the lead at seven-under.
World number one Scotty Scheffler is also in the hunt after shooting a second straight 67. Scheffler was tied for seventh place with Andre Novak at six under.
“I wish I was a little higher on the leaderboard, obviously, but I feel like my game is in a really good spot, so excited for the next few days,” Scheffler said.
But just as Scheffler was contemplating the weekend, golf’s newest cult hero Michael Block was brought back down to earth with a bump.
Club Professional Block delighted the crowd after finishing tied for 15th at the PGA Championship last week.
However, the 46-year-old finished bottom of the field and missed the cut by 15 overs following his first-round 81 after shooting a second-round 74 on Friday.
Block had no regrets after his whirlwind week, however, and was looking forward to going home to play with Messi, his Labrador.
“He’s waiting for me,” said Block. “I haven’t seen him in about two weeks, and I can’t wait to go home and throw a ball with him.”
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