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4 takeaways from Day 2 at the CJ Cup

Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

The PGA Tour is in South Korea this week for the CJ Cup at Nine Bridges golf course.

Justin Thomas, Jason Day, Adam Scott, and Pat Perez headline the event, which has a $9.25-million purse for the 78-player field. Luke List vaulted to the top of the leaderboard Friday, posting a bogey-free 67 in difficult conditions, while Thomas took a step backward.

Here are four takeaways from Day 2 on Jeju Island:

A different golf course

The field faced ideal conditions in the first round Thursday, resulting in 29 scores in the 60s at Nine Bridges. It was a different story Friday. A fifth straight day with no rain and 20-mph winds presented a firm, fast layout, leading to only seven rounds in the 60s.

"My front nine the wind was flipping around pretty good, the last three or four holes, not only did it lay down but when it picked up it was out of the other direction," Lucas Glover told pgatour.com. "It was tricky."

Xander finally crashed

The PGA Tour Rookie of the Year has been one of the hottest players on tour the last two months, going 43-under par in his last 21 rounds. But that wasn't the case Friday, when Xander Schauffele tossed five bogeys and tripled both par 5s on the back nine to post a 10-over-par 82 - his worst score on the PGA Tour.

Bombers are shredding the home hole

The finishing hole at @thecjcup should make for an exciting finish.

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The par-5 18th has been the easiest hole through two rounds, playing -0.468 shots under par in 156 attempts. The longer hitters, like Justin Thomas, have been bombing their tee shots into the left portion of the fairway, where just a wedge or 9-iron is needed to reach the putting surface. Shorter hitters, meanwhile, have been forced to take the longer route to the green down the right side, requiring them to use woods or hybrids.

Good vibes for List

After a decent FedEx Cup playoff run, Luke List favored competition over rest, which appears to be the right call. The 2017-18 PGA Tour season is only three weeks old, and List has entered all three events, finishing T-37 at the Safeway and T-13 in Malaysia. The 32-year-old holds the 36-hole lead at 9-under par heading into the weekend.

"It really doesn't feel like too much of an offseason anymore. It's kind of a continuation of the year before and you get your offseason in December," List told pgatour.com. "For me, I felt like I was playing well in the playoffs, so I tried to continue that a little bit into these first events of the year."

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

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