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Valspar Championship 36 Hole Recap and Weekend Preview

By Ryan Andrade

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Steve Stricker and Will MacKenzie lead, while Jordan Spieth looks to make up ground after two rounds of the Valspar Championship.

49-year-old Steve Stricker holds a share of the 36-hole lead heading into the weekend at the Valspar Championship. He will look to win his first tournament since the 2012 Hyundai Tournament of Champions. It’s a pleasant surprise quite honestly to see Steve Stricker playing this well. He hasn’t played well since 2013 where he finished 3rd in the FedEx Cup standings.

The shot of the day was Stricker’s 2nd at the par-4 10th hole.

The eagle really got him going, and set him up for a great back nine to get tied for the lead at 5-under-par.

It’s no secret that Stricker’s biggest strength is his putter. It played well for him on Friday where he gained 2.8 strokes putting. With the greens all being redone, they are a little inconsistent. They are not running true, so it’s difficult to judge at times. They are also a fair amount slower than last year. Stricker hasn’t been bothered by it at all. He just puts great strokes on them, and lives with the results, and right now they are pretty good.

Stricker is sharing the top of the leaderboard with two time PGA TOUR winner Will MacKenzie. His performance has really come out of nowhere. His best finish this year was a T-51 at the Honda Classic. MacKenzie has made a big improvement with his putter this week. To this point in the season he was ranked 205th from strokes gained putting.

MacKenzie said it best, “I can win any week, anybody can.”

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Three are tied just one back at 4-under-par. That would be Bill Haas, Graham DeLaet, and Daniel Berger. Haas played in the feature group of the week with Jordan Spieth and Henrik Stenson, and shot a 4-under-par 67 on Friday to climb up the leaderboard. Bill’s dad Jay Haas has been out on the course watching him this week, so that might be a reason for his stellar play so far. Bill Haas has had a decent season to this point with a couple top 10’s, but a win would bode well for his Ryder Cup hopes and FedEx Cup points.

I think the favorite going into the weekend should be the PGA TOUR rookie of the year winner from last year, Daniel Berger. The old “sophomore slump” looked like it has gotten Berger to this point in the season. After an impressive 11th place finish in the FedEx Cup standings last year, he has missed cuts in 3 out of his last 5 events.

Berger has the length to compete out here, as evidenced by his 18th place ranking in driving distance. The key for him, like a lot of young players, is getting consistent with their short game. It shows some of the improvements Berger has made this week, as this course is one of the toughest on tour. Berger has a very aggressive swing, so we will see if that works to his benefit on the weekend. I think this is the week, however, he gets his first win of his career.

The biggest name in the field bounced back in a big way on Friday. World No. 1 Jordan Spieth shot a 3-under-par 68 and now finds himself 74 positions higher on the leaderboard than he did after the first round.

It was about as bad as it could get in round one for Spieth. He drove it erratically, poor distance control with irons, and didn’t make anything with the putter. It added up to a 5-over-par 76. Rory McIlroy came to the Texan’s defense, however.

It didn’t start exactly how Spieth would have liked. He bogeyed the easy par-5 1st hole after having to take an unplayable lie. From there, however, he struck the ball excellent. It was the best he has hit the ball since his final round 66 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am about a month ago.

Spieth was a hole out machine on Friday, as he made three from off the green. It was good for Spieth because he struggled on these greens. If he doesn’t get the hole outs he finishesat 5-over-par and misses the cut. Instead he is currently 2-over and still has a shot at it. Getting off to a fast start on Saturday will be key. One thing is for sure, if he hits the ball like he did on Friday the last two rounds, he is going to make the leaders nervous.

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"15 holes. 20 putts."

It's a Friday hole-out party for @JordanSpieth.

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