Matt Fitzpatrick of England shot a spotless, 8-under 63 to vault into the lead halfway through the RBC Heritage on Friday in Hilton Head Island, S.C.
Fitzpatrick climbed to 14-under 128 at Harbour Town Golf Links, while Norway’s Viktor Hovland came close to tying him at the end of the day but settled for a 65 and second place at 13 under.
“Good play, good breaks, took advantage of them, is probably the best way to describe it,” Fitzpatrick said. “I feel like I played well, had some good breaks and took advantage of them.”
Harris English sits third at 10 under following a 68, and first-round leader Ludvig Aberg of Sweden made three back-nine bogeys on his way to 70, slipping into a tie at 9 under with Patrick Cantlay (64) and Austrian Sepp Straka (67).
There is no 36-hole cut at the post-Masters signature event with a $20 million purse. Justin Thomas, last year’s champion, will be grateful to see the weekend as he’s fallen to dead last in the 82-man field following rounds of 76 and 75 (9 over).
Fitzpatrick, 31, won the Heritage in 2023 in its first year as a signature event. With the course comfortability came a lucky break at the par-3 14th to stay bogey-free Friday.
His tee shot flew far left of the green, but his ball appeared to bounce off a tree and a cart path to come back to the green with some speed. It nearly rolled all the way off into the water, but a sprinkler head helped bring it to a stop. The head allowed Fitzpatrick a free drop for relief, and from just off the green he drilled a 33-foot putt for birdie.
“It’s obviously nice to get those breaks. You need those in golf,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s not always going to go your way for 72 holes. Nice to get the break and then nice to take advantage of it.”
Hovland balanced eight birdies against two bogeys on his day, including consecutive birdies at Nos. 16 and 17. He posted his low round despite finding just six of 14 fairways off the tee.
“I had a pretty rough start to the year, to be fair. I felt like I’ve done a better job of scoring than I have maybe compared to last year,” Hovland said. “… I have been really struggling off the tee, but now I’m starting to see those big misses are happening less and less, and I’m getting more and more comfortable off the tee, and yeah, we’re still not quite there yet, but really liking where the trajectory is headed.”
English could be closer to the lead were it not for a double-bogey 6 at the 11th hole where he hit it all over the park.
“I left it a little right off the tee, had to lay up and kind of got gusted,” English said. “I felt like I executed the shot I wanted to and just got the direction and didn’t know it was going to hurt it that much come into 11 and you pay the price. … That’s what makes this place different and so difficult if it blows like this. All you need is 15 to 20 miles an hour and it can change in a heartbeat.”
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler hit all 14 fairways off the tee — just the fourth time in his career he’s done that — but only turned that into four birdies in a bogey-free 67. He’s seven off the pace at 7 under.
Akshay Bhatia matched Fitzpatrick for the round of the day, shooting 63 and tying a tournament single-round record with 11 birdies. After a poor first round, he moved up to 6 under on the leaderboard.
–Field Level Media
