Chris Gotterup is in a great position heading into the weekend at the Tour Championship.
Gotterup followed up his opening-round 64 at the Tour Championship on Thursday with a 67 on Friday.
The 27-year-old is sitting just one stroke adrift of the leaders, Viktor Hovland and Ryan Gerard, with 36 holes left to play at East Lake.
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A win for Chris Gotterup at the Tour Championship would give him a serious chance of winning the PGA Tour Player of the Year award.
Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images
Gotterup was unlucky to miss out on the US Ryder Cup team last year after playing some truly exceptional golf.
However, it’s fair to argue that he has got even better this year.
Chris Gotterup comments on extremely tough hole at East Lake
Gotterup addressed the media after his second round at the Tour Championship on Friday.
And he responded when asked about the difficulty of the conditions at East Lake during the second round.
“It definitely got a little harder when the wind switched and picked up a little bit,“ Gotterup admitted.
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“Like a hole like 15 was really hard to get a club that, one, landed pin high, and two, was on the green.
Photo by Tracy Wilcox/PGA TOUR via Getty Images
“We were hitting from 155. We were laughing and saying, if we played the back box today, there would be a lot of complaining going on.“
The 15th hole can actually be stretched out to longer than 200 yards.
Had the hole played to its full yardage on Friday, it would have been nigh-on impossible.
East Lake’s challenging 15th hole
Even from just 155 yards, the 15th played as the most difficult hole on day two at East Lake. Players averaged 0.138 strokes over par on the par-three throughout the second round.
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Just three birdies were made all day on the 15th, the same as there were double bogeys or higher.
The wind wreaked havoc with the players’ tee shots into 15 on Friday.
The pin was tucked tight to the edge of the green, with the water lying in wait for any balls that finished either short or left of the green.
Players were aiming 30-40 feet right of the pin with just a wedge in their hands.
That just goes to show how difficult the hole was playing.
And the par-three 15th will undoubtedly have a big role to play over the weekend in the outcome of this year’s Tour Championship.
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