Australia’s Cameron Percy fired a 4-under-par 66 on Friday during the second round of the Kaulig Companies Championship to claim a one-shot lead through 36 holes at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.
Percy’s bogey-free trip around the wet and windy South Course pushed him to 7 under as he hunts his first PGA Tour Champions title. First-round leader Jerry Kelly and Zach Johnson are one shot behind while Boo Weekley sits two back.
Percy, 52, and his caddie have done the math to decide what it should take for Percy to make the tour’s fourth major of the year his first win.
“We worked out most of the time if you get to 12 under, you’ll win,” Percy said. “So I didn’t care about my score, I’m just trying to get to 12 under. That’s 3 under a day and I’m one shot ahead of that.
“Really, you know, I’m still 5 behind what I’m trying to do. I need 5 more under from here on in and if someone beats me, well, that’s just too good.”
Kelly, who won majors in 2020 and 2022 at Firestone, already has figured out what it takes. If not for a bogey on No. 18, he’d hold a share of the lead with Percy. Instead, he finished with a 69 for the day to join Percy and Johnson as the only golfers who are at least halfway to 12 under.
Johnson pieced together five birdies and two bogeys for the second straight day to net another 67.
“The days were very similar, yesterday and today,” Johnson said. “Obviously the scorecard was very similar. Created a lot of opportunities. I missed some short putts yesterday. You can argue I missed a couple short putts today, too. But I made a couple, so I’m driving it great, I seemed to give myself a lot of good opportunities.
“Seems like the harder the hole — the more difficulty — I seem to execute even better. That was encouraging.”
Weekley, who has shed the sinus infection that forced him to withdraw from last week’s U.S. Senior Open after the opening round, posted a bogey-free 67 to move to 5 under. He climbed five spots into solo fourth going into the weekend.
“Today I didn’t have a square (a bogey),” Weekley said. “I got lucky, though. I missed a couple greens on the par-3s and I actually drew good lies. You know, when you draw the good lie, you feel good about it, you feel like you can get it up and down, and I got it close every time and just tapped it in.”
Tag Ridings, the only golfer in the 76-man field to match Percy’s second-round 66, joins South Africa’s Retief Goosen (67), Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke (70) and Ryan Armour (68) at 4 under.
Stewart Cink, who won this year’s first two majors, posted a 68 Friday to round out the top 10 with Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen (70) at 3 under.
