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Murray takes ace in stride
He keeps focus, stays in the hunt
By Barbara Matson
Globe Correspondent

NORTON — For a while, there was very little putting. The tee shots were jumping in the hole.

Grayson Murray jazzed up his scorecard Saturday in the second round at TPC Boston, dropping an ace on the 213-yard, par-3 eighth hole.

Some 65 seconds later, Lucas Glover also lit up his card, making a 1 on the 161-yard, par-3 16th. They were the second and third holes-in-one of the tournament after Kevin Tway sank one Friday at the 11th hole.

Tway, incidentally, was Murray’s playing partner the first two days.

Murray, who had skittered his way across the course with four bogeys, one double, and six birdies, plus the ace, stayed in contention at 6 under par, three strokes back of leader Jon Rahm. He was making a move when he birdied Nos. 6 and 7, followed by the ace, which temporarily put him in the lead at 6 under.

Murray was pretty blasé about the ace.

“I mean before, when I was younger, yes, I’d go crazy,’’ Murray said. “I’d have to call everyone that I knew.

“But I mean, it’s just an eagle. You know if you make an eagle on a par 5, you don’t really have to calm yourself. You obviously don’t want to follow it up with a bad number because then you wash out what you just did.’’

“When we are as good as we are out here and you hit shots at the pins, some of them are just going to go in.’’

With 196 yards to the hole and the wind in off the left, Murray took out his 6-iron, his 200 club.

“It was a really good swing,’’ he said. “Sometime you hit these thin shots and they work out and they go in. But this shot never left the pin and it’s lucky when it does go in.’’

It was the eighth, or maybe the seventh, ace of his career. He wasn’t sure how many and said they’re kind of routine.

“I mean, I won a car last year,’’ he said. “I took the cash instead of the car, but this year I haven’t won anything yet, so I’m a little bummed about that.’’

The personable Tour rookie from Raleigh, N.C., is another of these youngsters on the Tour — he’s 23 — shaking up the order of things. He won the Barbasol Championship in late July to become the eighth consecutive player in his 20s to win on Tour.

He is right on the cutline for the next step in the FedExCup playoffs, the BMW Championship. Murray, who is 70th in FedExCup points, still has a chance to get to East Lake and the FedExCup final, but he has ceded the Rookie of the Year honors to Jon Rahm (one Tour victory and eight top 10s).

“I could win this week, next week, and possibly East Lake, I would probably still give that Rookie of the Year to Jon Rahm,’’ he said. “It’s unbelievable what he’s done this year.’’

His ace came about 65 seconds before Lucas Glover drained a hole-in-one on No. 16. Glover, who said he had no idea Murray had an ace on the other side of the course, said he has seven aces in his career, five in competition. Glover got his hole-in-one as his round of 69 wound down to leave him at 2 under.

“I was between 7 and 8 [iron] the whole time,’’ said the 37-year-old Glover, who is 57th in FedExCup points, “and benefited hitting third.’’

Unlike Murray, Glover admitted the ace got his blood racing.

“They are all, honestly they are all the same,’’ Glover said, “because you hit a nice shot, and the excitement and the adrenaline; [then] step up to 17 and hit a 3-wood 25 yards farther than I usually hit it because I was so pumped up. It was awesome.’’