That’s anticipated to tax the 76 gamers remaining after the minimize, which barely spared Brooks Koepka, Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler and Scottie Scheffler, the world’s top-ranked participant. However it nonetheless claimed a group of stars, together with the previous main champions Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas, who gained final yr’s P.G.A. Championship however missed three of 4 main cuts this yr.
“Everyone has their waves, their form of momentum and rides and rock bottoms, no matter you wish to name it,” mentioned Thomas, whose greatest main end this yr was a tie for sixty fifth on the P.G.A. Championship in Could. “I simply maintain telling myself, ‘That is it, I’m popping out of it,’ and I sadly have shocked myself a pair instances with some unhealthy rounds.”
As an alternative, far much less acquainted gamers had been far nearer to Harman. Shubhankar Sharma, who has by no means completed increased at a significant than a tie for 51st, quietly assembled two rounds of par or higher to face at three underneath, identical to Min Woo Lee. Jason Day, a former world No. 1, was tied with them after capturing a 67 on Friday.
Simply forward of them was Sepp Straka, who additionally carded a 67.
Tommy Fleetwood, the son of close by Southport who started play on Friday with a share of the lead, completed at even par, placing him in second place and 5 pictures behind Harman.
However the others who had led at dawn light. Emiliano Grillo made a double-bogey on the second gap and a bogey on the third. A meager restoration on the again 9 collapsed when he bogeyed the sixteenth and seventeenth holes, leaving him with a 74 for the day and eight pictures off the lead. Christo Lamprecht, a 22-year-old newbie from Georgia Tech, bogeyed 5 of the primary seven holes on Friday, shoving him to date down the leaderboard that it was not solely sure throughout his spherical that he would make the minimize.