Louis Oosthuizen was flawless on Friday in the second round of the WGC-FedEx St Jude Classic in Memphis, Tennessee as he carded a six-under-par 64 to move into a share of seventh place on nine-under-par through 36 holes.
His sublime form of the past month continued, even after a week off, and he made six birdies with no dropped shots in a characteristic display of great putting to round off his solid work off the tee and on to the greens.
“I had a few opportunities yesterday where I didn’t make the putts between 10 and 15 feet that were not too difficult,” he said. “Today, I definitely got the putter rolling nicely and my speed was really good today. I felt like when there was a good opportunity for birdie, I took advantage of it.”
He took the week off after some close shaves in the Open Championship and the 3M Open on the PGA Tour after that, feeling he just needed a little recharge. “When you’re playing pretty well, a week doesn’t do that much to the game,” he said. “It’s when you have two or three weeks off, then you need to do a bit more to keep sharp. But I do feel I’m playing well. I know the good and bad things in my swing at the moment and when you have that and you’re putting nicely, you need to take advantage of it.”
He is four shots off the lead still held by America’s Harris English, who carded a five-under 65 to go with his opening 62. That gave English a two-stroke lead over Australia’s Cameron Smith and Abraham Ancer of Mexico, both of whom carded 62 in the second round. Ian Poulter, Sam Burns and Scottie Scheffler share fourth on 10-under, one ahead of Oosthuizen and Bryson DeChambeau.
Garrick Higgo carded a level-par 70 in the second round. He is on two-under for the tournament in a share of 38th. Wilco Nienaber signed for a two-over 72 and remains in 66th and last.
For Oosthuizen, it’s a question of keeping up with the putting: “The greens are as good as you can get them, so if I can hit as many greens as I can and give myself some putts, I might have a chance,” he said. “But there are quite a few guys that can get going around this course, because they are probably some of the best greens we’ll see all year.”
