Nick Taylor is in good shape after 36 holes at the Cadillac Championship.
The Canadian held the clubhouse lead after shooting a 2-under 70 in his morning round on Friday at the PGA Tour Signature Event at Doral in Miami before settling into a mix for second.
Taylor, from Abbotsford, B.C., is 8 under through two rounds.
Taylor was 3 under through the front nine on Friday after notching an eagle on the par-5 eighth, but slumped to 1 over on the back nine. He found the water on the par-4 18th, but managed to avoid major trouble by holing his bogey putt.
"I scrambled well. I didn't hit it probably as well tee to green today as yesterday. But scrambled really well. Made a few key putts to keep the round going," Taylor told reporters.
"Then a great save on 18, obviously hitting the drive in the water there, and walking away with a (bogey) was a good save. So overall, I just scored well today."
The 38-year-old has five career wins, including one in each of the past three years. He is 63rd in the FedExCup standings this year and does not have a top-10 finish.
Fellow Canadian Sudarshan Yellamaraju is 4 under for the tournament after shooting a 6-under 66 on Friday. The PGA Tour rookie was a sizzling 9 under through 16 holes before double-bogeying the 17th and bogeying the 18th.
Cameron Young shot a 5-under 67 to get to 13 under and take a five-shot lead at the midway point of the $20 million event.
Young's lone blemish: a bogey at the par-4 14th, where his chip from an awkward sidehill lie didn't reach the putting surface. Otherwise, he was flawless — just as he was Thursday when he had a bogey-free 64 to grab the lead.
He got the stroke he dropped at the 14th back two holes later, when he drove the green at the par-4 16th and coolly two-putted for his 14th birdie of the week.
“There's a lot of golf to be played on a difficult golf course," Young said. “But so far, I've played well.”
Young played with Scottie Scheffler; the world's No. 1 player had a bogey-free 67 but ended the day exactly where he started it — seven shots off the lead.
Taylor (70), Alex Smalley (71) and Jordan Spieth (71) were tied for second. Gary Woodland (69) was alone in fifth at 7 under and Scheffler was in a logjam of players — Alex Fitzpatrick among them — at 6 under.
“I definitely need to not get further away,” Scheffler said. “No, it depends on how the golf course is playing. All I can do is go out there and be committed to what I need to do and that’s pretty much it.”
Young even had mistakes work out for him. He hated the birdie putt he hit on the par-4 13th, starting to walk toward the hole with the ball about halfway there.
Some guys do that when they know they've just made a putt.
Young wasn't in that mindset. He gave an almost-apologetic wave when the ball wound up dropping into the cup.
“I was absolutely disgusted about halfway there,” Young said. “I think my read netted out to be OK, but I just thought it was going to go a little bit left and then a little bit right and it ended up going six inches left and six inches right. ... When you’re putting well, some of those, they tend to wobble into the hole and that one did.”
Spieth rolled in a birdie at the par-4 18th, an absolute rarity through the first two rounds at Doral. The 18th on the Blue Monster course is a serious test, with water lining the left and seriously narrowing the fairway for all but the biggest hitters.
Spieth's birdie was the sixth on the 18th through the tournament's first two days.
“It’s just a really hard tee shot for most guys,” Taylor said.
The 18th even gave Young some trouble. Or tried to, anyway.
Young’s second shot at the finishing hole bounced off the base of the bleachers, coming to rest in the middle of a nest of cables on the ground well behind the green. He took a drop, didn’t get a great lie of out that, and still chipped to veritable tap-in range to save his par.
“I may have a two- or three- or four-shot lead starting tomorrow, but it just goes away so fast out here,” Young said. “There's no sense really playing like you have a four-shot lead. You might as well play like you’re four back.”
He took note of what happened to start the second round, using that as his proof that the leaderboard might be a whole lot tighter before he tees off in Round 3 on Saturday afternoon.
Kurt Kitayama and Sudarshan Yellamaraju — the first group off the tee Friday morning — took full advantage of very calm conditions. They both soared up the leaderboard; Kitayama had the round of the day with an 8-under 64 (which included a bogey on 18) and Yellamaraju was 9 under for the round through 16 before dropping three shots on his final two holes and finishing with a 66.
They're both at 4 under for the week.
“It definitely helps when you’re both playing,” Kitayama said. “The rhythm, being first off, helps. We didn’t have to wait for anyone, kind of going at our own pace, not worrying about being behind or waiting on a group. And so, when you’re both playing well, it’s nice to feed off each other’s energy.”
--with files from The Associated Press
