Byeong Hun An will take a two stroke lead into the weekend at the Genesis Championship as he seeks a first victory on home soil in more than nine years.
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The South Korean, who won the DP World Tour’s Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award in 2015, started the second round one stroke behind overnight lead Ivan Cantero, but moved clear as he reached 11 under par after a six under round of 66 at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club.
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Despite bogeys on back-to-back holes on the fifth and sixth, An, who also made his second Presidents Cup appearance for the International side last month, played the front nine in three under as he carded five birdies.
He then made three further gains on the back nine, with his consecutive birdies on the 15th and 16th holes opening a gap between Italy’s Francesco Laporta and Casey Jarvis of South Africa, who share second on nine under.
The 33-year-old’s last victory home victory was at the 2015 Shinhan Donghae Open, just four months after he became the first Asian golfer to win the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
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Sharing fourth on eight under par are Cantero, Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia, Rikuya Hoshino of Japan and American Johannes Veerman.
The Genesis Championship is the final event of the Back 9 and the last opportunity for members to earn their playing rights for the 2025 Race to Dubai, with the top 114 on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex slated to keep their cards.
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Cantero is currently projected to move to 94th place, up from 117th, with Englishman Matt Southgate, who started the week in 127th currently projected to move to 110th as he sits inside the top ten on seven under par.
Player Quotes
Byeong Hun An: “I feel like I made a lot of putts of ten-footers, 15-footers so I think that helps for making birdies. They weren’t the easiest of putts but I’ve rolled in some nice putts in the last two days.
“I love to see the fans out here cheer for me. It doesn’t matter whether things go well for me or not, they are still there. Coming into this week I really didn’t have any expectations, I just always try my best. I really do like this home support, it’s a little different to when you don’t have home support especially yesterday when I teed off at 7.40 in the morning, usually nobody watches that early. Hopefully there will be more people this weekend and I can feed off from them.
“It would be nice to hold the trophy at the end of the day but I haven’t been here for the last five years – six years in a tournament – so all I’m trying to do is show some good golf because they don’t see much of me, so I’ll try my best and see what happens.”
