Twenty-year-old Aldrich Potgieter fired a 10-under-par 61 during the second round of the Mexico Open on Friday to open a four-shot advantage at VidantaWorld in Vallarta, Mexico.
According to the PGA Tour, Potgieter is the fourth-youngest player to shoot 61 or better in a tour event. Only Patrick Cantlay, Nick Dunlap and South Korea’s Tom Kim have him beat.
Potgieter, who won the prestigious Amateur Championship in the United Kingdom as a 17-year-old, is no stranger to precocious achievements. Now he holds a 36-hole lead in the 10th start of his PGA Tour career.
“Last year I had that win (on the Korn Ferry Tour) early, played pretty good in the start of the year and then disappeared a little bit and I don’t want to be in that position to be playing for my card in the last event of the year again,” Potgieter said. “Yeah, just trying to put a good result up this week and keep the momentum going forward to the other weeks.”
The South African’s card Friday consisted of 10 birdies and eight pars, pushing him to 16-under 126 for the week. He led the field in both strokes gained approaching the green (3.223) and putting (4.851), and his longest birdie putt was a 20-footer at the par-3 13th.
“Started off really good with five birdies in a row (at Nos. 5-9) and that helped a lot to get momentum,” Potgieter said. “Made a really good chip-in for par on 10 to keep the momentum going. I knew on the back nine there was a couple of par 5s, three par 5s that I still had available to me, just tried to birdie those three and come up with a good score.”
Germany’s Stephan Jaeger fired a 64 to move into a tie for second at 12 under with Brian Campbell (65). Aaron Rai of England, the highest-ranked player in the field (No. 29), also carded a 64 to stake out fourth place at 11 under.
Ben Griffin (65), Akshay Bhatia (66) and Isaiah Salinda (67) are tied at 10 under.
Jaeger had five of his eight birdies on his second nine, the course’s front nine, including three straight at Nos. 6-8.
“It’s obviously the back (nine) you would think — with three par 5s it should play a lot easier,” Jaeger said. “… I don’t know, it sets up for me. I feel like if you hit a good drive or if you hit good drives, you have some shorter clubs in.”
Rai drove the green at the par-4 seventh, which played just 312 yards Friday, and made a 13-foot putt for eagle for the highlight of his bogey-free round.
“Just tried to flatten the flight, pitch it around the front edge just to control the line more than anything else,” Rai said of his drive. “Came off really well, started just right of the pin and yeah, it rolled out perfectly and left a pretty straightforward putt.”
Three players shared the first-round lead, and none of them fared well Friday. Germany’s Jeremy Paul shot a 70 to move to 8 under for the tournament. Norway’s Kris Ventura (71) remained at 7 under and Englishman Harry Hall (72) dropped to 6 under.
Blades Brown, a 17-year-old who turned pro in December, made his first cut as a professional (5 under).
“I’m so relieved that I was able to make the weekend,” Brown said. “I had about a 9-footer for par on hole 17 and thankfully that dropped. I’m super thankful to be here. Playing golf on a golf course like this, it’s hard to beat.”
Defending champion Jake Knapp struggled to a 72 on Friday and made the cut on the number at 3 under. Notable names to miss the cut include South Korea’s K.H. Lee (2 under), Charley Hoffman (1 under), Kurt Kitayama (1 under) and Ireland’s Padraig Harrington (1 over).
–Field Level Media
