Pierceson Coody fired a five-under-par 67 to hang on to a two-shot lead in the US PGA Tour ISCO Championship on another low-scoring day in Nicholasville, Kentucky
Coody, who started the day with a three-shot cushion after a superb 61 on Thursday, had six birdies and a bogey in his five-under 67 at Keene Trace Golf Club.
His 16-under total of 128 put him two strokes clear of Belgian Matthis Besard, US veteran Chez Reavie and Rico Hoey of the Philippines.
A raft of early starters were in the clubhouse on 13-under by the time Coody teed off.
He teed off on 10 and regained the solo lead when he rolled in a 21-footer from the fringe for his third birdie of the day at the 17th.
But he bogeyed the next after an errant tee shot led to a lost ball.
Coody, a three-time winner on the developmental Korn Ferry Tour who is seeking his first PGA Tour title, regained a share of the lead with a birdie at the fifth, and pulled away with an eight-foot birdie at the seventh and a five-foot birdie at the eighth.
Besard, who played collegiate golf in America before earning his DP World Tour card for this season, had nine birdies in his nine-under 63.
He opened with back-to-back birdies, calling his unlikely 32-foot birdie at the second the highlight of the round.
Besard was joined on 14-under by Reavie, who teed off on 10 and rolled in an 18-foot birdie on the 13th to launch a run of six birdies in seven holes.
That included five in a row starting at the 15th. And after birdies at the sixth and seventh he drilled a five-foot eagle putt at the 18th.
Hoey joined them on 130 with a bogey-free 66.
Reavie, a 42-year-old in his 17th season on tour, claimed the last of his three wins in 2022. But he said he’s enjoying playing alongside the big-hitting newcomers to the tour ranks.
“I love it,” he said. “I love playing with young guys. It feels like it keeps me young a little bit.”
Half a dozen players were a further stroke back on 131, with another four tied on 132.
The halfway cutline of eight-under was a record relative to par in an individual stroke-play event on the PGA Tour, which has kept records since 1970.
The previous low cutline was seven-under at the 2020 Shriners Children’s Open.
