Todd Clements birdied four of his final six holes Friday, capping a 6-under 66 with a 20-foot putt on the par-3 ninth that dropped him to 13-under 131 and gave him a two-stroke lead at the halfway point of the Corales Puntacana Championship.
The closing stretch did the heavy lift. Through 12 holes, Clements was even on the day. Then the birdies came in bunches — four over a six-hole span against wind that had been bothering the field all afternoon — and the 29-year-old Englishman walked off with the 36-hole lead in a co-sanctioned event that shares a spot on the calendar with the British Open.
“Read it well and just went in the right speed, so I was delighted to see that one drop,” Clements said of the closing putt. “Overall, it was a great day.”
He was less interested in the leaderboard than in the process. “Just going to keep trying to do the same things,” he said. “The field has some great players out here and I know golf does some funny things. It’s just about continuing to do what I do and controlling what I’m trying to control.”
That restraint is reasonable given the company behind him. Ben James, Johannes Veerman, and Gordon Sargent were tied for second at 11 under. James matched Clements’ 66; Veerman and Sargent each posted 67. James, a former Virginia standout making just his fifth professional start, earned his PGA Tour card through the PGA Tour University ranking and has shown no nerves through two rounds. “Just pretty much do the same thing, hit it nice and putt it nice,” James said. “That’s it. Keep it simple.”
Alejandro Del Rey of Spain sat solo fifth at 10 under after a 68. Joe Highsmith reached 9 under with a 67. Ivan Cantero Gutierrez, who shared the first-round lead with Clements, stumbled to a 71 and fell into a tie for seventh at 8 under — a three-shot swing between the two overnight co-leaders.
Blades Brown, the 19-year-old playing as a special temporary PGA Tour member, also landed in the group at 8 under after a 69. U.S. Presidents Cup captain Brandt Snedeker, who won an opposite-field event in Myrtle Beach in May, was tied for 20th at 6 under.
Clements’ lone DP World Tour victory came at the 2023 Czech Masters. He missed the cut last week at the ISCO Championship in Kentucky, making this week’s turnaround — from packing up early to leading a PGA Tour event — the kind of volatility that makes golf’s week-to-week form nearly impossible to model. Fifty European tour players are in the field under the co-sanctioned arrangement, and Clements is the one who has played the best golf through 36 holes, regardless of which tour’s flag flies over the leaderboard.
Two rounds remain. The wind is expected to stay. Clements has a two-shot cushion and a closing kick that suggests he knows what to do with it.
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