Making his tourney debut and with preferred lies in effect, World No. 85 Matt Jones walked off with bogey-5 for a 1-under-par 34-35=69 in the second round of the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, down one spot to T7, four shy of leader Hideki Matsuyama (68).
The Aussie’s second PGA TOUR title came at last season’s Honda (70/1 outright), ending a near 7-year winless drought on TOUR. He won by five, matching the tournament’s record for margin of victory, after being T2 (3 back) thru 36 holes. More recently, the 41-year-old was T6 two starts and two weeks ago at the Shriners, before fading to T27 (64-67-71-70). He’ll play out of the fourth-to-last threesome on Saturday with Troy Merritt and Lanto Griffin. At halftime, the Arizona State alum has carded laps of 67-69 for 4-under 136, totaled eight birdies against four bogeys, and ranks T8 in Driving Accuracy (65.4%), T20 in Greens in Regulation (66.7%), and T16 in putts per GIR (1.708).