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 awesome ball of fireplace.
Over the previous few days, the warmth index has soared above 110 levels throughout Southwest Tennessee, and plenty of gamers have struggled within the insufferable warmth.
That features Denny McCarthy, who will not be solely combating by a hip damage 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 lots, and I lose lots of salt once I sweat, so I’m ingesting lots of sodium, lots 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 yr simply to seek out out extra about my physique, extra about this sweating downside that I’ve. It’s helped out on a number of the hotter weeks this yr for positive.”
McCarthy admitted that he was not hydrating sufficient finally yr’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, which noticed related circumstances to those gamers are going through this week. McCarthy then defined how, due to the warmth, he couldn’t concentrate on his golf and thus turned in considered one of his worst performances of the season.
However he actually didn’t wrestle on Friday.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25575760/2166309615.jpg)
McCarthy, who remains to be searching for his maiden PGA Tour title, carded a outstanding 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 all the things fairly effectively,” McCarthy mentioned after Friday’s spherical.
“I putted effectively. I hit lots of good iron photographs. Bounced again properly after a few the bogeys I had. Yeah, all the things felt actually stable right this moment.”
McCarthy can 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 all the things from in all places. Three of his 9 birdies got here from exterior of 25 ft.
“I’m simply attempting to place the identical quantity of intention and concentrate on every putt, whether or not it’s quick or lengthy, attempting to make it however not attempting to ram it eight ft by,” McCarthy mentioned.
“Simply actually attempting to lock in, decide my spots, and hit nearly as good of putts as I can.”
He did miss just a few putts from a shorter vary, however these long-range bombs made it for it after which some.
But, no photos exist on the scorecard and McCarthy’s added as much as a outstanding 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 awesome reprieve from the Memphis warmth.
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By. Be sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.
