By the time play finished Friday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Scott Piercy was within striking distance of the top spot on the leaderboard. He was eight spots closer to it on Friday than the day before, thanks to a second-round 6-under 65.
The effort can’t quite be called “sneaky” considering that Piercy’s round included two eagles, one of which was a hole-in-one at the par-3 seventh.
Piercy becomes the second man to record an ace this week (the 19th on Tour this season, for those wondering) after leader J.B. Holmes did the same at No. 4 during the first round.
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MORE: Complete list of holes-in-one made this season
There’s an obvious drawback for both of those achievements: They didn’t happen at the wild par-3 16th, the hole famously surrounded by stadium seating.
“I guess whenever you make a hole-in-one in Phoenix it’s pretty awesome. But I just did it on the wrong side where everybody didn’t see it,” Piercy said of the less populous seventh hole.
Piercy holed out from 194 yards at No. 7. After starting his round on the back side, it was a welcome boost to the end of the round. He gave one back at No. 9 with his only bogey of the day.
Piercy will start the weekend at 10 under and in solo fifth, three shots behind Holmes. He has not finished inside the top 10 in a PGA Tour event since the 2019 AT&T Byron Nelson last May.
