SAN ANTONIO — Brian Harman found the range with his iron shots and converted eight birdie putts — none outside 12 feet — for a 6-under 66 on Friday that gave him a four-shot lead over Keith Mitchell at the Valero Texas Open.
Harman has his first 36-hole lead since Bay Hill a year ago, and this is the largest lead he’s had at the midway point since he led by five at Hoylake in 2023 when he won the Open Championship.
“Just know that I’ve done it before and that it is possible,” Harman said of his experience with a big lead. “You get on big leads sometimes – and I’m sure Keith is going to make a few birdies coming in. Look, man, it’s just left foot, right foot and just take your time getting finished.”
Harman was at 12-under 132 at the TPC San Antonio.
Ludvig Åberg, at No. 5 the highest-ranked player in the field, and defending champion Akshay Bhatia were among those to miss the cut.
Mitchell, who needs a victory to get into the Masters next week, had an up-and-down day that added to an even-par 72. He did make some birdies coming in, holing a pair of 12-foot putts, only to take bogey from a bunker on the par-3 seventh hole and close with two pars.
“I’m still in there,” Mitchell said. “I wish I was closer to Brian than I am, but glad to make par on 9 so I could stay in the last group. … Thankfully, I played great yesterday and have two more rounds.”
Ryo Hisatsune and Matt Wallace each shot 67, while Sam Ryder stumbled to a 74 — 11 shots worse than his opening round to take the lead — while feeling some pain in his neck.
Ryder took only 21 putts in his opening round, when he tried not to do too much with a neck injury that caused him to miss the pro-am. The second round caught up with him, especially finishing late Thursday and then having an early tee time.
“I could sit here and make excuses, but I just didn’t play well,” Ryder said. “It’s definitely my neck — back is kind of bothering me a little bit — but it’s just tough with the quick turnaround. I think. But I kind of got off to a bad start and just didn’t really get in a good rhythm.
“All in all, if you told me I was going to be in this position going into Saturday, then I would have taken it on Thursday.”
Jordan Spieth was trying to stay in range of the leaders until he was fooled on a couple of late chips that led to bogeys on his final three holes. He wound up with a 73 and found himself eight shots behind in his final start before the Masters.
Rickie Fowler kept his Masters hopes alive – he needs to win to get in — with a 65, though he also was eight shots behind. His immediate goal after opening with a 75 was to make it the cut.
That was the goal of Tony Finau, who pulled it off in spectacular fashion. Finau was one shot below the cut line when he made a hole-in-one on the 16th hole. He then finished with two easy pars to post a 72 and make it with one shot to spare.
“I needed something to go my way,” Finau said. “I was leaking oil kind of coming in and really shooting myself in the foot on a chance to play the weekend. So it was a huge shot at the right moment.”
