Contemplating the town of Memphis is the birthplace of rock and roll, it’s solely apt to reference the good, late Jerry Lee Lewis. It feels as if TPC Southwind, the host of this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, has been engulfed in an ideal ball of fireside.
Over the previous few days, the warmth index has soared above 110 levels throughout Southwest Tennessee, and lots of gamers have struggled within the insufferable warmth.
That features Denny McCarthy, who is just not solely preventing by means of a hip harm however faces a extra precarious scenario on this climate than anybody else. He talked about his perspiration concern after Thursday’s opening spherical.
“I sweat loads, and I lose loads of salt after I sweat, so I’m consuming loads of sodium, loads of salt earlier than I even sweat,” McCarthy defined after his first spherical 4-under 66.
“I acquired professionally sweat examined within the fall final 12 months simply to seek out out extra about my physique, extra about this sweating drawback that I’ve. It’s helped out on among the hotter weeks this 12 months for certain.”
McCarthy admitted that he was not hydrating sufficient finally 12 months’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, which noticed comparable circumstances to those gamers are dealing with this week. McCarthy then defined how, because of the warmth, he couldn’t deal with his golf and thus turned in one among his worst performances of the season.
However he definitely didn’t wrestle on Friday.
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McCarthy, who remains to be searching for his maiden PGA Tour title, carded a exceptional 7-under 63 to shoot up the leaderboard and seize a share of the 36-hole lead. Hideki Matsuyama, who has had an attention-grabbing week himself, additionally sits at 11-under for the championship alongside McCarthy.
“It was a extremely good spherical. I did every little thing fairly properly,” McCarthy stated after Friday’s spherical.
“I putted properly. I hit loads of good iron pictures. Bounced again properly after a few the bogeys I had. Yeah, every little thing felt actually strong as we speak.”
McCarthy can also be top-of-the-line putters on the PGA Tour, and he made that recognized on Friday. He drained 160 ft price of putts, making every little thing from in every single place. Three of his 9 birdies got here from outdoors of 25 ft.
“I’m simply making an attempt to place the identical quantity of intention and deal with every putt, whether or not it’s brief or lengthy, making an attempt to make it however not making an attempt to ram it eight ft by,” McCarthy stated.
“Simply actually making an attempt to lock in, choose my spots, and hit nearly as good of putts as I can.”
He did miss a couple of putts from a shorter vary, however these long-range bombs made it for it after which some.
But, no footage exist on the scorecard and McCarthy’s added as much as a exceptional 63, which ties the bottom spherical of the week. Viktor Hovland and Sam Burns additionally posted 63s on Friday.
However now McCarthy could have a chance to loosen up and take a chilly plunge to chill off—an ideal reprieve from the Memphis warmth.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By means of. You should definitely try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You may comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.
