Never heard the name, Jason Scrivener? Well, you’re not alone. He doesn’t have PGA Tour status and plays most of his golf on the DP World Tour. But this week, he’s joined good pal and fellow Aussie Jason Day at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and the pair went deep during Friday’s second round of alternate shot.
“Just known each other for a while and we’ve got the same agent,” Scrivener said when asked how the partnership came to be, “and I just messaged Jase, asked if he needed a partner, and he said yes.”
That text is paying dividends.
The Australians started their round with a nice birdie on the first after Day put his approach to six feet. Back-to-back birdies came at 4 and 5 before an eagle on 7, set up by Day’s 255-yard 3-wood finishing a mere 12 feet from the hole.
“Gripped down, high kind of like just fading this thing back into the wind to kill it enough to land soft enough,” Day said of the shot, “and fortunately for us this morning the greens were very receptive.”
After playing their next three holes in even par, they got back on track playing holes 11-14 at 3 under. A bogey on 17 and failing to birdie the par-5 last derailed their chances of beating their best-ball score from Thursday, and the Zurich alternate shot tournament record, but nevertheless the Aussies made a big jump up the leaderboard.
Zurich Classic: Leaderboard | PGA Tour Live on ESPN+
“I think we just kind of got on a roll today. We both were hitting fairways and greens and giving ourselves looks at it,” Day said. “Managed to roll a few in. I think it was just basically mistake-free. I think that was the biggest part.”
Day’s last three starts have ended with a Friday trunk slam, and his last win dates back to the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship. Despite the drought, the 12-time Tour winner isn’t getting ahead of himself.
“Obviously, it would be nice to win, but I can’t think about outcome stuff because obviously that’s going to stress me out if I think about it too much and things don’t happen my way,” he said. “Right now I’m just focused on trying to stay as present as possible every single day.”
The Jasons posted a 36-hole aggregate of 14-under 128, three back of the lead held by Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, and squarely in contention heading into the weekend.
