Playing the Seaside Course, World No. 295 Ryan Blaum fired a 5-under-par 35-30=65 in the second round of The RSM Classic to reach 8-under 134, up 13 places on the live leaderboard to T3, three short of 36-hole clubhouse leader Jason Gore and six shy of the leader on the course Charles Howell III, who was the 18-hole pace-setter.
The Duke alum landed 10 (of 14) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, losing 0.583 strokes off-the-tee but gaining 0.737 on approach and 0.876 around-the-green. He squared three bogeys at holes 1, 3, and 8, outpaced by eight birdies at 3, 7, 9 and five straight at 13-17. The 35-year-old’s split included four conversions from between 11 and 31 feet, and a hole-out 3 at 14 from 36'10" away, posting 1.500 putts per GIR and 4.011 SG: Putting. This is his third RSM with a best of T71/MDF two tries ago in 2017, and checked in 3-for-4 on the season with one top 25, a T20 at the Sanderson Farms three starts ago.