A day after equaling his career low round on the PGA TOUR with a bogey-free 9-under 63, Akshay Bhatia (1st/-11) cards a 2-under 70 to move to 11-under 133 at the midway point of the Valero Texas Open.
Related: Akshay Bhatia opens with career low at Valero Texas Open
His five-stroke 36-hole lead equals the largest on TOUR this season (Patrick Cantlay/2024 Genesis Invitational).
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Marks the largest 36-hole lead at the Valero Texas Open since the event moved to TPC San Antonio in 2010 (previous: 4, Si Woo Kim/2019/finished T4); Dave Marr holds the Valero Texas Open all-time record with a six-shot lead after 36 holes in 1958.
Equals his second-best opening 36-hole score on TOUR (131/2023 Butterfield Bermuda Championship, finished T20).
The 133 falls one shy of the lowest opening 36-hole score since the Valero Texas Open moved to TPC San Antonio in 2010 (Si Woo Kim/132/2019).
Bhatia holds the 36-hole lead/co-lead for the first time; previous-best position after 36 holes is T4 (three occasions; most recently last week at the Texas Children’s Houston Open (finished T11).
Is making third start at the event (MC/2021, T46/2023).
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Has five top-20 finishes in nine starts this season, with a T11 at last week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open his best outing.
Has one win in 53 prior PGA TOUR starts (2023 Barracuda Championship).
Three-time PGA TOUR winner Brendon Todd (T2/-6) is in search of his second victory in Texas (2014 AT&T Byron Nelson); has two top-10 finishes in seven prior starts at the Valero Texas Open (T6/2014, T8/2022).
Prior to matching 3-under 69s this week, Russell Henley (T2/-6) had never broken 70 in two starts at the Valero Texas Open (MC/2016, T52/2019).
Denny McCarthy (T2/-6) seeks his first PGA TOUR victory in his 174th start, with a playoff loss to Viktor Hovland at the 2023 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday his best outing.
Rory McIlroy (5th/-5), the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking, opens 69-70 in his sixth start of the season; current streak of five starts to start the season without a top-10 is his longest such streak since 2010, his first season as a member, when he won the Wells Fargo Championship in his sixth start, earning his first career PGA TOUR title.
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With a win this week, defending champion Corey Conners (T10/-3) would become the first player since World War II to earn his first three wins at the same event; has made 16 consecutive cuts, the fifth-longest active streak on TOUR, and is coming off a T13 at THE PLAYERS Championship.
