Round 2: Trevor Murphy levels course record at the Utah Championship, ties for the fifth position
Trevor Murphy of the United States shot a course record nine-under par 62 to move into contention on Friday and tied for the fifth position, midway through the second round of the Utah Championship, presented by Utah Sports Commission.
Tyrone Van Aswegen was the only other player to card the same score and surged on the leaderboard to tie for the second place.
The most interesting factor was that both the players were playing in consecutive groups in late afternoon.
Murphy is currently playing the first Web.com Tour event of the season, as he lost his card last year, after finishing 102nd on the money list.
Therefore, he does not have a full-time membership to play in each of the events on the Tour. He will have to come through the qualifying school or win any of the events that he will play on sponsor exemption this year.
This time, he qualified for the event through the Monday qualifiers, following a missed chance to play the TPC Stonebrae Championship when he lost by one stroke in the qualifying event.
"I've been working really hard on my game. I haven't been playing in as many tournaments. I've just been trying to get better by practicing," said Murphy, who had his wife, Amanda, serving as his caddie this week.
"I struggled out here the last two years and wasn't getting any better and wasn't really enjoying playing tournaments. I wanted to improve and get better, and that's what I've been trying to do".
Murphy started off on the back nine of the Willow Creek Country Club and birdied three of the first four holes. He ended the back nine with an amazing eagle on the 17th hole, followed by a birdie on the 18th.
The back nine also saw him make a strong move, as he managed to drain birdies on three of the first five holes. It was completely an opposite show of the game compared to his performance on the opening day.
He carded three birdies against the same number of bogeys on Thursday and settled for a tied 91st position on the leaderboard.
After the blistering second round, he is just two strokes behind the leader Morgan Hoffmann while entering the weekend.
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