Brian Harman builds 4-shot lead at Texas Open

Mitchell, who needs a victory to get into the Masters next week, had an up-and-down day that added to an even-par 72. He did make some birdies coming in, holing a pair of 12-foot putts, only to take bogey from a bunker on the par-3 seventh hole and close with two pars.

“I’m still in there,” Mitchell said. “I wish I was closer to Brian than I am, but glad to make par on 9 so I could stay in the last group. … Thankfully, I played great yesterday and have two more rounds.”

Ryo Hisatsune and Matt Wallace each shot 67, while Sam Ryder stumbled to a 74 — 11 shots worse than his opening round to take the lead — while feeling some pain in his neck.

Ryder took only 21 putts in his opening round, when he tried not to do too much with a neck injury that caused him to miss the pro-am. The second round caught up with him, especially finishing late Thursday and then having an early tee time.

“I could sit here and make excuses, but I just didn’t play well,” Ryder said. “It’s definitely my neck — back is kind of bothering me a little bit — but it’s just tough with the quick turnaround. I think. But I kind of got off to a bad start and just didn’t really get in a good rhythm.

“All in all, if you told me I was going to be in this position going into Saturday, then I would have taken it on Thursday.”

Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., was the low Canadian, nine shots back of the lead after a round of 70.

Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., stood 10 shots back and Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., was projected to miss the cut at 1 under.

Jordan Spieth was trying to stay in range of the leaders until he was fooled on a couple of late chips that led to bogeys on his final three holes. He wound up with a 73 and found himself eight shots behind in his final start before the Masters.

Rickie Fowler kept his Masters hopes alive — he needs to win to get in — with a 65, though he also was eight shots behind. His immediate goal after opening with a 75 was to make it the cut.

That was the goal of Tony Finau, who pulled it off in spectacular fashion. Finau was one shot below the cut line when he made a hole-in-one on the 16th hole, and then finished with two easy pars to post a 72 and make it with one shot to spare.

“I needed something to go my way,” Finau said. “I was leaking oil kind of coming in and really shooting myself in the foot on a chance to play the weekend. So it was a huge shot at the right moment.”

Among those missing the cut were Ludvig Aberg, at No. 5 the highest-ranked player in the field, and defending champion Akshay Bhatia.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Brian Harman builds 4-shot lead at Texas Open

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