Tiger Woods is 44 years old and has won 82 PGA Tour events. Ryan Palmer is 43 and has won four PGA Tour events. At Torrey Pines on Friday it was the (slightly) younger guy who turned in the round of the day.
Palmer fired a 10-under 62, one shot off the North Course record, to take a 2-shot lead to the weekend at the Farmers Insurance Open. Palmer didn't just have the low round of the day. He had the low round of the day by four shots on an afternoon where the jewel of a golf facility in La Jolla was not playing easy.
"It played a lot harder than yesterday," said Woods, who shot a 71 on the South Course. "Everyone except for Ryan. He's the only one who kind of figured it out.
Woods is 4-under par for the tournament and six shots back. That puts him in a 21-way tie for 17th place with a pretty darn group of golfers that includes Rory McIlroy, Bubba Watson, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and former SDSU star J.J. Spaun.
One of the fun feature groups before the tournament started had a trio of local products in Xander Schauffele, Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler playing together. All of them missed the cut.
Brandt Snedeker, a two-time Farmers Insurance Open champ, is 2nd at 8-under par. He obviously knows how to attack these golf courses and whatever knowledge he has, Palmer figured it out.
After shooting even par in the first round Palmer's 62 came as a surprise, even to him.
"You can never wake up the next morning and go today's gonna be a good day, we're gonna shoot 62," said Palmer. "It's just not gonna happen. You just kind of go along with each hole and when you're putting well the hole gets bigger."
Whether or not it stays big enough to hold off the who's who of golf chasing him we'll find out over the next 36 holes.
