Justin Thomas followed his 11-under-par 59 with a 64 and extended his lead to five strokes over Gary Woodland after two rounds of the Sony Open in Hawaii in Honolulu.
The 23-year-old Thomas, who has won two of his last three events including the SBS Tournament of Champions last week, set the PGA Tour record after 36 holes with a score of 17-under 123.
“I really hit a lot of quality shots, I felt, especially to start the round, which was key to kind of get me calm and get me in a good zone,” said Thomas, who overcame three bogeys with seven birdies, including four in a row through No. 12, and a nine-foot eagle putt on the last hole.
“All my bogeys today were terrible, they really were. The three-putt on 8 was just … losing my concentration, and 13 was a terrible iron shot, and then 17 was just a mental mistake.
“Those bogeys really, when I was on 18 tee, I was pretty hot. I was pretty fired up; the fact that I had given up shots when I felt like I shouldn’t. So to end up with an eagle like that was huge and to give me two more shots for the lead was big.”
Woodland carded a second consecutive 64, while Hudson Swafford followed an opening 62 with a 68 and was seven shots behind in a tie for third with Zach Johnson, who carded the low round of the day at 61, and Olympic gold medalist Justin Rose of England, who followed a 62 with 68.
Russell Henley, who won the Sony Open in 2013, shot 67 and was eight back in a tie for sixth with Webb Simpson (65), Charles Howell III (66), Luke List (64), Satoshi Kodaira (66) of Japan, Russell Knox (67) of Scotland and Tony Finau (67).
Jordan Spieth, the top-ranked player in the field at No. 5 in the world, posted a 67 and was nine down in a tie for 13th, No. 6 Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, who has won four of his last six events, as another shot back in a tie for 24th after a 67, and defending champion Fabian Gomez of Argentina was 12 behind in a tie for 48th following a 66.
