SAN DIEGO — Round two at Torrey Pines was a blustery one, with 35-50 mph wind gusts throughout the middle of the day, making it extremely tough for any golfer to score well. After 36 holes, Ludvig Åberg is still in the lead, tied with Lanto Griffin at six-under par.
It was certainly a rough round for the Swede, who finished three-over on the day and finished his round right as the horn sounded for play to halt due to lack of light. His struggles came in the middle stages on the South Course — which, despite being typically the harder course, statistically played easier than the North. Åberg stayed even on the day through the first three holes before bogeying the par-four fourth and seventh, as well as bogeying the par-three eighth. Åberg continued to struggle with a double-bogey on hole 14 despite his birdie the hole prior, bringing him back to one-over on the day. After the round, Åberg described the brutal conditions with an expletive and explained that the course was very hard to score on.
Sharing the lead with Åberg is Griffin, who was in full survival mode during round two, staying at the six-under score he came in with. The American was on the South Course as well, which was experiencing significantly slower winds — but still enough to halt play — and seemed to navigate through the early stages of the gusts just fine. He shot a one-over front with his only blemish on the tough par-three eighth, which is playing 0.150 strokes over par, and a one-under back with birdies on 11, 14 and 16, and bogeys on 12 and 17. Griffin’s last win came back in 2019 at the Houston Open. He talked after the round about what he thought of the conditions and round two as a whole.
“Throw the score out the window,” Griffin said. “It was kind of hang on for dear life, try and save pars on [the] majority of the holes and sprinkle in a birdie or two.”
Of the golfers who did not manage to avoid trouble were the two in Åberg’s group: Sahith Theegala and Keegan Bradley.
Theegala's round was very up-and-down with a one-under front and two-over back to equal out his first round and put him even par for the first two days. He started hot, with two straight birdies on three and four — the latter of which had played nearly half a stroke above par so far — before giving one right back on the fifth. A birdie the next hole later, Theegala looked to be right back in the driver’s seat before he bogeyed three of the next six holes when the wind started to pick up.
Team USA’s next Ryder Cup captain, Bradley struggled off the tee throughout the entire back nine, however seemed to keep his score relatively safe despite missing nearly every fairway right. His problem didn’t seem to be around the green, it really was just an issue of leaving the club face slightly open and pushing everything with little spin at all. Finishing the day at three-over, Bradley will likely miss the cut which will be announced tomorrow.
With the air horn stopping play once for the wind, and a second time due to darkness, the tee sheet is still unknown for tomorrow’s third round at Torrey Pines, with multiple groups still yet to finish, the last of which is only through 14 holes.
Either way, the first tee time will start at 9 a.m. with Åberg and Griffin likely being the final group to tee off on the South Course.
