Tour Life
Beau Hossler leads the Zozo Championship, but he's doing even better off the course in Japan
Lintao Zhang
Golf fans have all very familiar with the phrase "sleeping on the lead," but what about "eating on the lead"? Or, in Beau Hossler's case, it's actually eating to the lead.
The 28-year-old PGA Tour pro is one shot ahead at the halfway point of the Zozo Championship, but he has been winning all week off the course in Japan. After firing a Friday 65, Hossler gushed about the food he's been enjoying the past few days.
"We went to sushi the first night in Narita, it was incredible," Hossler said. "The pieces of fish, they don't skimp over here, you're getting like three full bites on a nigiri piece. Then last night we did like a Japanese barbecue, had some wagyu, sirloin, et cetera. That was incredible. Just cook it right there in front of you. Want to try some ramen maybe tonight."
Sounds incredible, Beau. Which is what Hossler's round was in windy conditions at Narashino Country Club. His 65 wasn't just the low round of the day, but it beat the field average by seven shots.
It's the fifth career 36-hole lead for Hossler, who is still in search of a maiden PGA Tour title. He has five top-five finishes in 174 previous starts, including a pair of runner-ups. And he's as hot as a grill right now with 17 consecutive rounds of par or better and coming off a T-7 in Vegas last week.
Hossler currently leads Justin Suh by one shot at seven under par. Meanwhile, first-round leader Collin Morikawa fell four shots back after a second-round 73. Morikawa had his own special sushi experience earlier this week, but according to Hossler you don't even have to leave the course to eat really good at this tour stop.
"But even player dining here, I don't know what it is, the rice here is just different, it's way better," Hossler added. "I've been putting scrambled eggs on top of rice. It's been great. They do an awesome job with the hospitality this week. Like I said, I think every player out here looks forward to Tee-Scripts.com 2 coming here and eating food for the week. With the exception of if you're a vegan or something, I think you're in pretty good shape."
And Hossler is in pretty good shape to pick up that elusive first PGA Tour win. In between putting down his chopsticks, of course.