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Thomas won his first and only PGA Tour title at the $7
million co-sanctioned event a year ago and the American backed
up his opening round 64 with some flawless golf to lead the way
heading into the weekend on 14-under for the tournament.
"I didn't play as well as I did yesterday. I drove it better,
which was good, but I definitely had a couple iron shots and a
couple wedges that I felt like I should have hit closer, but
bogey-free is always good," Thomas told reporters.
Anirban Lahiri is alone in second place after firing a second
straight 66 but the Indian repeated the late lapse he suffered
on Thursday to fall out of a tie for the lead when he stumbled
over the line with a double-bogey seven at the last.
Russell Knox recorded the best round of the day to move into a
tie for third place on 11-under alongside James Hahn and Hideki
Matsuyama, the America-based Scot signing for a flawless
nine-under-par 63 to surge 23 places up the leaderboard.
Joint overnight leader Derek Fathaeur dropped into a tie for
sixth place after a two-under 70, while fellow American Keegan
Bradley (72) fell two shots further back in the second event of
the wraparound 2017 PGA Tour season.
Thomas set the tone for his round with four birdies on his
opening seven holes and while he only managed to pick up two
more shots coming in, the 23-year-old has only recorded one
bogey in 36 holes and looks a good bet to defend his title.
"I'm just going to try to do the same thing. Just going to try
to hit fairways and from there, I'll be able to attack because
I'll have short-scoring clubs," Thomas added.
"Out here, you have to make a lot of birdies to get closer to
the lead or build a lead, so I'm just going to try to keep doing
the same thing and make a lot of birdies."
The event is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour.
(Writing by John O'Brien in Singapore; Editing by Sudipto
Ganguly)
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