List shoots way to top of JDC leaderboard

Luke List made his own momentum on an almost perfect day for golf at TPC Deere Run.

As it turned out, List's 8-under 63 — which tied for the day's low round — catapulted him to the top of the leaderboard and a 1-shot lead over Munoz, who followed his opening 63 with a 4-under 67.

Those two, though, have plenty of company atop a bunched leaderboard in the 50th annual PGA Tour event in the Quad-Cities.

Seven players — Adam Schenk (67-64), Chesson Hadley (63-68), Brandon Hagy (67-64), Chase Seiffert (68-63), Chez Reavie (64-67), Lucas Glover (68-63), and Ryan Moore (65-66) — are a shot behind at 11-under.

Nick Taylor (67-65) and Patrick Rodgers (67-65) also got to double-digits under par and sit at minus-10 heading into Saturday's altered start times that have threesomes off both tees beginning at 10 a.m.

Six more — Doug Ghim (66-67), Jhonattan Vegas (67-66), Kevin Na (67-66), Jason Dufner (68-65), Russell Henley (67-66), and Hank Lebioda (64-69) —are at 9-under and well within striking distance headed into weekend play that includes 72 players at 4-under or better.

The cut, however, ended Dylan Frittelli's first title defense. The 2019 JDC champ carded rounds of 68-71 with a nasty lip-out on a par putt on No. 18 ending his week.

With the title vacated, there are plenty of others ready to take the crown, and low rounds will surely pave the way to the throne.

“This course you can always expect to see birdies and guys going low, so it's not like there's anything funky going on,” said List of the packed leaderboard. “... It's a great golf course and if you do the right things tee to green, you can really make some birdies. I knew I had to keep going low and I'll have to go low this weekend.”

That was not a problem on Friday. After three pars to start his round on the back nine, List birdied 13 and 14. He then rattled off five straight birdies at 16, 17, 18, 1 and 2.

“Yeah, that's the beauty of this game,” said List. “Momentum is kind of funny and you can find it in the smallest of things.”

List said that his find came in the form of a couple of putting lessons. But his key Friday was his approach shots as he made only 59 feet of putts in a bogey-free round.

“Sometimes that's all it takes is just a little bit of lightning in a bottle like that, and hopefully I can continue that this weekend,” List said.

A quick turnaround between Thursday afternoon's round and an early Friday start didn't slow Munoz much.

The 28-year-old Colombian carded a solid 4-under 67 in Friday's overcast morning conditions.

“I felt great,” said Munoz of handling the quick turnaround of the late-early draw. “(Thursday) I hit 17 greens and shot 8-under. This morning on the front nine in the first eight holes I was 4-under for the day so I felt like I did a good job of maintaining that positive attitude, trusting my swing and giving myself chances. That's what I did.”

His fast start on the back-nine was spurred by birdies at 11, 13, 16 and 17 and netted him a score of 32 going into the turn. Things cooled off a bit as he carded an all-par front side of 35.

“I was very pleased,” said Munoz summing up his round. “It's never easy showing up the day after you shoot 8-under and you see how it goes. I thought I had a really good start. Putter went a little cold on the back but happy where I am and really positive the way I hit the ball.”