Tom

Lewis

This is the Englishman’s second Barbasol after a T40 last year, where he ended with a day-tying-low 65 (8 birdies, 1 bogey). Three starts later he wrapped his second season on the PGA TOUR with a missed cut at the Wyndham and a 156th-place in the FedExCup standings. This season, the World No. 637, who was once ranked as high as 46th, has split time between the Korn Ferry and DP World Tours, primarily on the KFT, and has one top 10 in 15 events, a T10 at the ISPS Handa in Spain nine starts ago. Today, the 31-year-old circled six birdies on 12 greens in regulation, two from between 13 and 22 feet, posting 1.893 SG Tee-to-Green and 2.097 SG: Putting. He’s in the field this week as one of 44 players from the DPWT-side of this first-ever co-sanctioned event on this side of the pond. See link below to post-round comments.

The 30-year-old Jacklin earned co-medalist honors after shooting 66-71 and finishing at 5-under 137 along with 22-year-old Ryan Gerard (66-71). Gerard, who recently finished his college career at North Carolina, will make his professional debut next week at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. Also advancing are Keith Green (4-under 138) from Debary, Fla., and amateur Fred Biondi (3-under 139) from Brazil, who plays college golf at Florida. Rickie Fowler, a local Jupiter resident aiming for his 13th U.S. Open, fell one stroke short and is first alternate, with England’s Tom Lewis as second alternate. Also falling short were Austria’s Matthias Schwab, Kevin Tway and Matthew Wolff.

The Englishman has now made his way into the weekend in six consecutive starts on the PGA Tour. After a disappointing month of May that saw Lewis miss the cut in three of the four events he played in, he has since found some form. However, he’ll need to improve on his recent play if he expects to play next week in New Jersey. With his best finish of the summer coming at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, where he finished in a tie for 25th, Lewis needs at least a top-three finish this week to secure his spot inside the top-125. Sitting 154th in the season long race, Lewis has only captured such a finish one time in his PGA Tour career, a runner-up at last year’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Finishing in a tie for 51st in last year’s Wyndham Championship, Lewis will need to make vast improvements around Sedgefield Country Club if he expects to play at Liberty National.

The 30-year-old finished T12 on debut last year, where he was T19 after three days (68-71-66-69). This is the second time (individually) in 45 career events that he’s the top 10 at the three-quarter mark, first since T10 at last season’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude, where he closed with 4-under 66 for a career-best T2. The Englishman will play out of the sixth-to-last twosome in the finale with Kevin Tway. He went out in 2-under (4 birdies, 2 bogeys), including three straight circles at 7, 8 (chip-in from 41'10") and 9 (hole-out from off the green with the flat stick from 29'3" away), but stalled out to eight pars and a bogey-5 at 16. On seven (of 14) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, Lewis gained 1.122 strokes around but lost strokes on approach (-1.643) and on the green (-0.378), missing four putts from inside of 11 feet. With 54 holes in the books, he ranks Top 20 in all strokes gained categories with the exception of 51st in approach (0.434).

Both Lewis and Niemann are bogey-free at the halfway point, the only two players at press time, and both have shot identical scores of 65-69. For Lewis, this is his first 36-hole lead/co-lead in 45 events, and is chasing his first TOUR victory, looking to better a T2 during last season’s rookie campaign at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude, where he was T57 at the midpoint (73-70-61-66). This is the third time this season in 23 events that he’s in the top 10 after 36 holes, neither of the previous two resulting in top-10 finishes, while his lone top 10 is a T8 eight starts ago at the Zurich teamed with sponsor invite Thomas Pieters. The Englishman penciled three birdies on eight (of 14) fairways and 14 greens in regulation, losing 0.649 strokes on approach but gaining 0.743 around and 1.857 on the green, including an 8'9" par-save at his final hole, the par-3 ninth.

The Englishman piped 11-of-14 fairways and pelted 16 greens today. It was his proximity on those GIR that was most impressive. By day’s end, he had given himself 12 scoring chances from inside of 16 feet. Lewis converted three of those chances but also warmed up the flat stick to pour in four long-distance birds from the 17-to-21 foot range. Currently gaining 3.040 strokes gained on approach, this will go in the books of one of his five best measured approach rounds on the PGA TOUR. It’s doubtful this co-lead will hold but if it does it would be his third first-round lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR (T30/2011 Open Championship; T47/2020 Honda Classic).

In need of some consistency, Lewis looks to Detroit Golf Club as a spot on the calendar to provide some. With only one top-20 finish on the PGA Tour this season, Lewis has peaked and valleyed throughout the 2021 calendar year. Coming off a top-50 at the Travelers Championship last week, Lewis arrives to the Rocket Mortgage Classic with a bit of form. Primarily from off-the-tee, as the Englishman has gained strokes in said statistical category in nine consecutive starts. The same can’t be said for the rest of his game as Lewis has consistently struggled with his irons, losing strokes on approach in four straight starts. He even did so last year in this tournament, losing –2.9 SG: Approach on the week, but was more than offset by gaining +6.3 SG: Putting en route to his top-15 finish.

The Englishman currently ranks 154th in the FedExCup race and could use a big summer push to the finish line. He is 10-for-19 this season with a trio of top 25s. The highlight of his season was a T8 at the Zurich Classic where he played alongside Thomas Pieters. Lewis has dipped to 120th in the Offiical World Golf Ranking after spending all of 2019 and 2020 inside of the top 100. The 30-year-old has two European Tour titles and also won on the Korn Ferry Tour, yet he’s still in search of his big breakthrough on the PGA TOUR circuit. The driver has been his main weapon as he heads into the week ranked 35th in strokes gained off-the-tee while he’s losing strokes to the field in all three of the other sub-categories of strokes gained.

The Englishman, who opened with 70 (4 birdies, 3 bogeys), is the third player out of the morning wave to post a low of 65. “Yeah, I played well out there today. I drove the ball better yesterday, finished poorly, that was a shame. But everything was going the right way today. I holed some good putts on 6 and 7 there, which obviously helped the score.” This is his second Valspar, first since a missed cut in 2012 (72-73) as a non-member and second year as a professional. The 30-year-old arrived 8-for-15 on the season with three top 25s, two consecutive, and one top 10, a T8 at last week’s Zurich teamed with non-member, sponsor invite Thomas Pieters. On eight (of 13) fairways and 13 greens in regulation, he posted 0.187 SG: Off-the-Tee, 2.324 SG: Approach, 0.788 SG: Around, and 3.225 SG: Tee-to-Green. Lewis ticked six birdies at 10, 14, 17, 1, 6 (fringe-shot from 11'10") and 7, four conventionally from between seven and 26 feet, recording 1.692 putts per GIR and 2.358 SG: Putting. His career best on the PGA TOUR among two top 10s in 37 events is T2 at last season’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude, where he was T57 at the midpoint (73-70-61-66).

The Englishman didn’t pass the eye test when it comes to traditional metrics today (6-of-14 fairways; 11 GIR). It doesn’t tell the whole story though because he swallowed just two bogeys and gained 4.14 strokes over the field average at Spyglass Hill today. The highlight of his round was an eagle conversion at the par-5 seventh hole. This week’s hot start likely comes as a surprise for most gamers as Lewis arrived without a top-40 finish over his last 10 PGA TOUR appearances. He is also making his tournament debut this week, so perhaps it’s love at first sight for Lewis and Pebble Beach. He will now take his talents back to the host course for the remainder of the week.