Zach Johnson fired a 9-under-par 63 and joined Brett Quigley and first round co-leader Scott Hend of Australia at the top of the leaderboard after two rounds at the Principal Charity Classic on Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa.
Johnson recorded the low round of the tournament and sits at 12-under along with Quigley and Hend.
Six players are within two shots of the lead. South Africa’s Retief Goosen, who carded a 64, Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen (65) and Australian David Bransdon (66) are at 11-under, while Doug Barron (67), Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal (67) and Vaughn Taylor (68) are congregated at 10-under.
In his first year on the tour, the 50-year old Johnson has finished in the top ten in all seven starts. He tied his low round of the season on Saturday by birdieing five consecutive holes on the front side (Nos. 4-8) and adding four more on the inward half.
“Today was good. I mean, I putted nice,” said Johnson. “I still feel like I left some shots out there. Kind of eats at you, but at the same time I made a couple putts that you’re not supposed to make so it probably all evened out in that regard. Yeah, excited. I put myself in a place now where I can make a run tomorrow.”
Quigley, who shot a 7-under round of 65, birdied both par-3s on the back nine, including the toughest hole on the course, the 198-yard 14th.
On the possibility of being paired with the Iowa native Johnson on Sunday, Quigley said, “I love that. I mean, we like playing in front of people. It certainly means a little bit more and gets us a little more fired up, a little more excited knowing that everybody will be pulling for Zach. That’s an easy like. He’s one of the greatest guys in the world, obviously world-class player and just he’ll be right there.”
For the second consecutive day, Hend birdied all four of the par-5s on the course. Even though he leads the tournament in putts per GIR (1.50), he struggled out of the gate on Saturday.
“I found it a bit hard to get a grasp of the speed of the greens after we had the rain delay,” said Hend. “Took me a little while to sort of get back into how soft the greens had got and the slowness of them. Just took me a little while to get used to it again. Picked that up as we went into the back nine.”
Johnson is looking for his second Champions Tour victory after a victory at the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational in March. He will certainly have the most support on Sunday.
“Well, fortunately, I’ve had that response for quite some time,” said Johnson. “I do not take it for granted. The fans are amazing. I do zone out, so apologies if I ignore or don’t hear you because I’m zoned out. There’s not a whole lot — I’m thick-skulled, like there’s not a whole lot going on up there so I’ve got to keep it simple and not try to get too distracted.”
