By Tom Zulewski, Iron County Today
IVINS – After he carded a course-record 60 in his opening round, Adam Svensson wasn’t making too big a deal of his approach toward the second round at the Black Desert Championship on Friday. When he walked off the 18th green, Svensson’s round was still good enough to keep the Canadian on top of the leaderboard.
Svensson finished with a 2-under 69 and was tied for the lead with Henrik Norlander at 13-under par with Round 2 still in progress at the Black Desert Resort. Harris English (64), Sam Ryder (66) were in the chase, but Norlander was able to pull even with Svensson with birdies in four of his first seven holes on the heels of his opening-round 62.
Svensson didn’t let the initial success go to his head coming into Friday’s round.
“I didn’t have a goal (today),” said Svensson, who carded four birdies and two bogeys. “Mentally I told myself I gotta do what I did yesterday. If you make a couple mistakes, it’s all right.
The first-round leader started with a bogey at the 405-yard par-4 2nd hole, then was able to get three birdies in a four-hole stretch at 9, 10 and 12. The run was interrupted with a second bogey at the par-4 11th hole and he added a final birdie at the par-4 14th.
“I’m excited for the weekend,”Svensson said. “Feels like a while since I’ve been up this high on the leaderboard, but I’m sure someone is going to shoot 15-under.”
Svensson has one win in 125 starts on the PGA Tour.
Among the Utah contingent competing at Black Desert, BYU alum Zac Blair and Lone Peak High senior Kihei Akina were close to making the cut and competing over the weekend. Blair had rounds of 68 and 69 to finish 5-under par, while the 18-year-old Akina carded a pair of 69s to finish exactly on the cut line to earn his chance to play the final 36 holes in his PGA Tour debut.
“I thought I had to get to 5 (under) just to be safe,” Akina said. “I’m not sure yet, but I hope 4 will be the number.”
Join us here Saturday morning for a final recap from Round 2 and the start of Round 3 from the Black Desert Championship.