Patrick Fishburn shot a bogey-free, 8-under-par 64 on Friday to grab the 36-hole lead at the RSM Classic in St. Simons Island, Ga.
At the finale of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup Fall series, golfers are playing Sea Island Golf Club's two courses over the first two days of the tournament. Fishburn followed a 67 at the par-70 Seaside Course with his 64 at the Plantation Course to get to 11 under par, one shot better than Maverick McNealy and Lee Hodges.
Hodges shot the round of the day with a 63 at Plantation, while first-round co-leader McNealy posted a 70 there. Amateur Luke Clanton carded a 65 at the Plantation Course and is tied with Michael Thorbjornsen (69, Seaside) for fourth at 9 under.
The players who make the cut will play both Saturday and Sunday at the Seaside Course.
Fishburn, 32, has never won on the PGA Tour but is putting himself in good position for next year. If the tournament ended Friday, he would leap from No 87 to No 56 in the FedEx Cup Fall standings. Nos. 51-60 qualify for the first two signature events of 2025.
Eyes on a victory.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 22, 2024
Rookie @PatrickFishGolf heads into the weekend with a one-shot lead @TheRSMClassic. pic.twitter.com/q4NVzrUhVD
Fishburn's 6-under 30 on the front nine Friday marked a career low. In addition to four birdies, he holed an eagle at the par-5 eighth.
"Made a nice eagle on 8, two really good shots in there to about 6 feet," Fishburn said. "And then (the birdie at) 9 was pretty lucky. I was kind of just left of the green a little bit in the fringe and ball was planning to go 6 feet by but hit the hole and went in, so that was pretty lucky."
Hodges also eagled the eighth hole at Plantation on Friday while piling up eight birdies and a single bogey in his needle-moving round.
"Just kind of kept it in front of me all day," said Hodges, 29. "Golf course isn't super hard over there on Plantation, pins were pretty gettable and the wind just made the hard holes hard, but it made the easy holes pretty easy, so just had to take advantage of those."
Clanton, 21, isn't vying for FedEx Cup points right now as he maintains his amateur status and continues his stellar college career at Florida State. He surprised fans by having three top-10 finishes this season, including tying for second at the John Deere Classic.
"What I've learned over the last couple events is everyone's really good out here and you can play good golf and still not win it," said Clanton, who had eight birdies and one bogey on his round. "So I'm just going to go out there the next couple days and enjoy the weekend, have some fun and have my best friend on the bag."
Sweden's Ludvig Aberg, the defending champion and highest-ranked player in the field, rallied from an opening round of 73 at Seaside by firing a 64 at Plantation to get on the right side of the cut line. Aberg is 5 under par through two rounds, in a tie for 17th.
Notable names to miss the cut of 1 under par included Zach Johnson (even par), Austrian Sepp Straka (even par), Gary Woodland (even par), Chris Kirk (2 over) and Italy's Francesco Molinari (2 over).
The RSM Classic is the final chance for players to reach the top 125 of the FedEx Cup Fall standings to secure full tour status for 2025. Four-time PGA Tour winner Daniel Berger, who missed significant time due to a back injury, is 5 under through two rounds and currently projected to jump from No 127 to No 120 in the standings.
Joel Dahmen, who made the cut and sits at 1 under par, is projected to slip from No 124 to 126.