Barracuda Championship Round 2: Rico Hoey Doubles Up on 13s to Grab the Lead

Consistency is not supposed to be the sexy play in a format built for fireworks. Rico Hoey is making a case for it anyway.

Hoey followed Thursday's 13 points with another 13 on Friday at Tahoe Mountain Club, reaching 26 points and taking a one-point lead into the weekend at the Barracuda Championship. Max McGreevy and 2021 champion Erik van Rooyen are tied for second on 25. France's Tom Vaillant is alone in fourth on 23, and a five-player pack sits on 22: Isaiah Salinda, Joel Dahmen, Vince Whaley, Ryan Gerard and Jackson Suber.

Hoey Feels at Home

Hoey's afternoon round was tidy more than spectacular, with a single bogey on the card, and the finish was the best part. Hoey made back-to-back birdies, the second of them at No. 18, to edge one point clear of the field.

The comfort level is obvious. Hoey was born in the Philippines, grew up in California and played college golf at USC, and the week has a homecoming feel. "I just feel like I'm at home," Hoey said, per the AP. "I really like the course."

That comfort matters for a player still chasing a breakthrough. Hoey is winless in 51 career PGA TOUR starts, with a best finish of runner-up at the 2024 ISCO Championship. This is the second time Hoey has held a 36-hole lead or co-lead on TOUR, and two steady days at 6,000 feet have put the first title within reach.

McGreevy's Bogey-Free Burst

If Hoey was steady, McGreevy was the day's loudest climber. McGreevy posted 16 points in the afternoon, the best of six career rounds at this event, and never gave a point back. The highlight came on the par-5 3rd, where an eagle paid out 5 points in one go.

The context makes it even better. McGreevy arrived in Truckee off three straight missed cuts, then opened with a modest 9 points on Thursday before Friday's surge moved McGreevy all the way to a share of second. "Just plotting along, getting a lot of good looks," McGreevy said. It looked like a lot more than plotting from where everyone else was standing.

Van Rooyen Finds the Putter

Van Rooyen did the damage early. Playing in the morning wave, the South African made eight birdies against two bogeys for 14 points and a 36-hole total of 25. Van Rooyen knows exactly how this format rewards a hot putter, having won this event in 2021, and Friday was a reminder of what that looks like.

"Finally making some putts," van Rooyen said, per the AP, after a season that had not been kind on the greens.

Vaillant, a DP World Tour member making just a fourth career PGA TOUR start, kept pace with a 15-point round that included just one bogey. Gerard matched that 15 to jump from 7 points into the pack at 22, and Salinda added 14 to join the same group.

Homa Survives, Martin Stalls

Friday's biggest swing among the names belonged to Max Homa. After finishing Thursday at minus 1, Homa answered with 14 points and moved to 13, two points clear of the cut line.

First-round leader Ben Martin went the other way. After piling up 16 points on Thursday, Martin made zero on Friday and slid into a tie for 24th, now 10 back of Hoey. Nick Watney, who started the day tied for second, also posted a zero and fell back to 14.

The Cut Claims a Champion

The cut came in at 11 points, and it took some notable names with it. Defending champion Nick Dunlap at least went out with a highlight, eagling the final hole of the round, but finished the week on 1 point. NCAA champion Michael La Sasso, playing on a sponsor exemption, ended two days at minus 9. German twins Yannik and Jeremy Paul are both headed home, and Ireland's Seamus Power missed by a single point after opening the round with a double bogey. Cameron Champ, part of the six-way tie for third after Thursday, lost 6 points on Friday and missed the weekend at 7.

Weekend Math

Here is the thing about a one-point lead in this format: it is not really a lead at all. One birdie erases it. One eagle on a par 5 flips it by four. Eight players are within four points of Hoey, and the course has already shown it will hand out 15 and 16-point rounds to anyone hitting it close.

The stakes are clear. The winner leaves Tahoe with TOUR status through 2027 and a spot in next year's PGA Championship, and for Hoey it would be a long-awaited first PGA TOUR title. Van Rooyen is chasing a second win at this event. Saturday will tell us who can stack points and who starts giving them back.

Catch up on Thursday in our Round 1 recap. More details are in the PGA TOUR's Round 2 recap (opens in a new tab).

Sources: PGA TOUR (Round 2 recap, AP), Golf Channel, Golf Today, RTE. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.