Peter Koutroumpis (@pksport)
RALEIGH, NC – The 2026 UNC Health Championship cut line was drawn at 1-under par on Friday at Raleigh Country Club.
Leading the 69 remaining in the field of the Korn Ferry Tour event was Jeremy Paul, who carried his 36-hole lead at 13-under par into the weekend.
To start the third round, Alvaro Ortiz sits just two strokes behind the lead at -11, with Theo Humphrey in third at 8-under par, while Rick Lamb, Ross Steelman, and Tyler Wilkes start the weekend close at 7-under par.
Paul is set to tee off along with Ortiz at 12:35 p.m. on Saturday as the lead group.
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2026 UNC Health Championship – Tee Times
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Soft, but getting fast and firm quickly
Paul noted some significance related to the greens and the difficulty and ease of play he had on them during the first two rounds.
“Now with the rain at the beginning of the week, greens are a little bit more receptive, but they’re kind of firming up,” Paul said.
“It’s very difficult to judge some greens that are in the shade, they are kind of softer than others, so I think the difficult part is just judging, in terms of where you want to land it on the greens – because there’s so many little ridges, and just judging how firm the first bounce is gonna be.
“I mean, you know, over two days, I’ve been doing this for long enough that I know, like, you know, you don’t get ahead of yourself…My mindset’s always going into the round, I’m trying to, you know, play as I would be playing a week prior, and just do my own thing, play my own golf, and then at the end, see where the score ends up. I don’t I try to not watch the leaderboard too much because, you know, it doesn’t really help.”
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2026 UNC Health Championship – Leaderboard
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Notables: Paul is leading the event, only his third start at the UNC Health Championship – his best finish came in 2022 (T19)….He holed a 44-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to card a 6-under 64 to finish with nine birdies in the second round…Paul recorded a new 36-hole career-low score at 13-under 127, passing his previous 36-hole low score of 131…The lead marks the lowest 36-hole score at Raleigh Country Club as host of the UNC Health Championship – it matches the lowest 36-hole score in the history of the UNC Health Championship, posted in 2019 when the event was played at The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation.
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