David GonzalezThe English Trophy lead is shared three ways at The Caversham, where Collin Adams, Aron Zemmer and Kristian Hjort Bressum reached 12 under after 36 holes and left themselves precious little room for a leisurely Saturday.
One shot behind sit Deon Germishuys, Hamish Brown and Frederick Kjettrup. Six more are another stroke back. Nobody has exactly misplaced the tournament, but nobody has found a comfortable chair either.
Adams finds a useful reset
Adams supplied the round of the leading trio, an eight-under-par effort built around two eagles and a timely change of mood.
Starting from the tenth, the American eagled the 11th, added birdies at the 14th and 16th and turned four under for the day. Five straight pars briefly cooled things before a birdie at the fourth reopened the tap. An eagle at the fifth and birdie at the seventh completed the push to 12 under.
The score is notable; the explanation may be more useful. Adams arrived in Reading after a season he freely describes as difficult, with a recent trip to the first stage of Q-School apparently providing something of a reset rather than another item on the worry list.
“I haven’t had the best season so far. I actually went and played first stage of Q-School a couple of weeks ago and that has given me a bit of confidence; that gave me a little bit of a mental reset.”
There was also a simple instruction behind the golf: “I told myself that I would play myself out there rather than trying to play the field.”
At 23, that is easier said than done with a leaderboard beginning to crowd around you.
Zemmer keeps making the 11th look absurdly generous
Aron Zemmer’s relationship with the 11th has become the tournament’s most eye-catching statistical oddity.
After making an albatross there in the opening round, the Italian returned in round two and made eagle. Five under on one hole across two days is the sort of arithmetic that makes the rest of a scorecard look needlessly complicated.
Zemmer’s second-round 65 was hardly a one-hole production. He opened with birdie, recovered from a bogey at the third, picked up another shot at the fifth, then followed the eagle at 11 with three straight birdies from the 14th. A final birdie completed a round which moved him alongside Adams and Bressum.
“Today was I think a little bit easier, it wasn’t as windy as yesterday and I think it’s very scoreable today,” he said.
His plan for the weekend is notably less exotic than his scoring on the 11th: “I’m not going to change anything. I have a good game plan with my Caddy and we’re going to stick to that.”
Given the evidence so far, tinkering would feel almost rude.
Bressum leads while asking more of himself
Bressum began the day alone at the top after an opening 64 and did enough to stay there, even if he sounded rather less impressed than the scoreboard.
The Dane mixed six birdies with two bogeys for a four-under round. He remained tied for the lead, yet focused on the chances that escaped.
“I put myself in a lot of good positions” he said. “I didn’t execute my chances as well today, but the score is good, I’m happy with four under par.”
More revealing was his assessment of the mental side.
“I don’t think I’ve been good enough mentally so far this tournament, although I’ve made some very good scores, but I’m very motivated to go tomorrow and make a good effort.”
That is a fairly severe review from a man at 12 under. Golfers have always been inventive when searching for something to improve.
One shot covers a lot of danger
The three leaders have company close enough to hear the spikes.
Germishuys, Brown and Kjettrup share fourth on 11 under, while six players sit at 10 under. With only two strokes separating the leaders from those tied seventh, the weekend has the shape of a tournament likely to punish even a short quiet spell.
For Adams, that means keeping the attention narrow. For Zemmer, it means resisting the temptation to improve a plan already producing a 65 and outrageous numbers on one particular hole. For Bressum, it may mean accepting that leading a tournament does not require perfection, inconvenient though that may be to the perfectionist.
The leaders get each other on Saturday
The third round begins at 7:20am local time, with Bressum, Zemmer and Adams grouped together at 12:14pm.
That pairing removes any mystery about where the pressure is coming from. Each will have the other two in plain sight, while a compact chasing pack waits one swing away.
After two days, The Caversham has produced three different routes to the same number: Adams with a reset, Zemmer with a hole he may wish he could play 18 times, and Bressum with standards higher than his position suggests.
Twelve under has been enough to share the lead. On Saturday, sharing may become the least comfortable part of it.
