Golf Capsules: Kelly leads rain-drenched Canadian Open
OAKVILLE, Ontario — PGA Tour tournament director Steve Carman perfectly summed up the rain-soaked 100th Canadian Open.
"The sponge is full of water," Carman said Friday after the latest round of rain saturated the already-wet Glen Abbey course.
Jerry Kelly topped the leaderboard in the rain-delayed tournament, shooting a 7-under 65 in the completion of the first round and reaching 11 under with three holes left in the second. Seventy-six players didn’t even start the second round.
Camilo Villegas, Tim Herron, Martin Laird and Nathan Green were a stroke back.
Villegas, tied for the first-round lead with Kevin Na after a 63 in the morning, also had three holes to play. Herron had two holes to go, Laird one and Green six.
"It would have been nice to get the whole round in and sleep in until 1," said Herron, set to resume play early Saturday.
Na, unable to start the second round, and Bob Estes were 9 under. Estes had five holes left.
The 42-year-old Kelly, the New Orleans winner in April, had seven birdies in a nine-hole stretch in the first round on the softened course.
"You can get after it," Kelly said.
In the second round, Kelly had five birdies and a bogey before play was suspended for the day because of lightning at 7:29 p.m. — 29 minutes after a nearly three-hour delay. About 20 minutes after play was called, the course was drenched again.
More than 2 inches of rain has soaked the course in the last two days and, coupled with lightning, has washed out about 12 hours of play overall.
"Our regulations dictate that we’re playing 72 holes by the end of Monday, then the option would be to go back to 54 holes," Carman said. "But we’re pretty much regulated to try and get 72 holes in by the end of the day Monday."
There also is a possibility of a Tuesday finish.
"Again, according to the regulations, if you’re playing the final round and half the field finishes on Monday night, that would force you to go into Tuesday to finish that round. That’s pretty much the only way we could go to Tuesday."
Villegas matched Na in the morning, playing the final six holes in 6 under. The Colombian hit to an inch to set up a birdie on the 152-yard 15th and holed a 15-foot eagle chip on the par-5 18th.
"What a great way to finish the round," Villegas said.
Lee Janzen, 5 under after 30 holes, withdrew after play was stopped. Aaron Baddeley, Tag Ridings, Greg Owen, David Gossett, Robert Garrigus, Mark Brooks, Carl Pettersson and Brian Davis also withdrew.
Stephen Ames topped the 15 Canadians in the field. He shot a 68 in the first round and was 7 under with three holes to play in the second.
"It’s difficult," Ames said. "Stop, start, stop, start."
Mike Weir was stuck at 1 under after shooting a 71 Thursday and never making it onto the course Friday. His opening round was interrupted by a 7½-hour delay.
Weir and Ames, a naturalized Canadian citizen from Trinidad & Tobago, are trying to become the first Canadian winner since Pat Fletcher in 1954.
DIVOTS: Arjun Atwal and Briny Baird aced the 132-yard 15th. They each won 2009 BMW Z4 Roadsters. Atwal was driving a 2006 BMW M6 in March 2007 when he was involved in a street race in Florida where the other driver crashed and died. Florida Highway Patrol investigators recommended Atwal, from India, be charged with vehicular homicide, but prosecutors decided not to charge him, saying the cars never made contact. ... Former Southern California star Jamie Lovemark opened with a 74 in his pro debut and was 3 under overall after playing 10 holes in the second round in 5 under.
Senior British Open
Funk leads by 3 shots at Senior British Open
SUNNINGDALE, England — Fred Funk shot a 5-under 65 for a three-shot lead at the Senior British Open on Friday.
He is a tournament-record 11 under through two rounds and leads Tom Watson by seven shots.
Funk has gone 36 holes without a bogey and his round, capped by a 174-yard 8-iron at the last hole for an eagle 2, gave him an 11-under 129, a 36-hole record total for the event.
He has a three-stroke lead over Sam Torrance, who also shot 65 and 2006 winner Loren Roberts another two shots back at 134.
Watson, trying to follow up his British Open runner-up finish on Sunday with a fourth Senior British Open title, shot 69 to share sixth place.
"I turned a good round into a mediocre round ... with poor putting," Watson said. "I had a lot of opportunities to make birdies today and didn’t make them.
"If I had putted average it would have been 67, maybe 66. If I had putted well, maybe 64. Tee to green was good."
He knows he has work to do.
"I’m a lot of shots off the lead the way Freddie’s playing. We’ll have to cut off his knee, or something," Watson joked.
"He’s a straight driver of the ball and if you do that you’re going to hit a lot of greens."
Watson made a grip adjustment on his putter late in his round which he hopes will help over the weekend.
"I’m just going to try and weaken my grip a little bit so I can feel both hands together a little bit more, to make myself release it better," he said. "We always have to try something."
Senior PGA champion Michael Allen shot a 65 and was tied for fourth with Tom Kite (68).
Watson was tied at 4 under with Greg Norman (69), Mark McNulty (67), Don Pooley (66), Denis Watson (68) and Gordon J. Brand (68).
Funk finished his round half an hour before Watson and Norman were going to start, but they were delayed for two hours by a thunderstorm.
It meant that 18 players did not complete their rounds. They will do so early Saturday.
Funk said his score was better than he played.
"Like yesterday, my front nine was not that solid," he said, pointing to par saves at the second and seventh holes. "Yesterday I wasn’t driving well on the front nine, today my irons were a bit ragged."
He birdied the par-5 first and 14th holes, "the ones you’re supposed to birdie. In between them I just plodded along."
Then he birdied 16 and eagled the last. "Three under for the last three makes my day look better than it was," he said.
Torrance lives near Sunningdale and has played the course so often, he feels he knows the course and the greens better than anyone.
"I know them like the back of my hand. I know where to hit the ball on them," he said.
"Now I’m in a position to do what I want to do this week," Europe’s 2004 Ryder Cup captain said.
He holed three big putts in mid-round, from 30 feet on the 10th, 15 feet on 11 and 12 feet on 13.
His drive on 18 finished in thick rough and his second cleared the green, but he had a flat lie from 20 feet and two-putted for par.
Roberts said he would have to start making a lot of birdies.
"I know Fred is not going to back up. You have to be thinking about 5 under a round over the weekend," Roberts said.
Norman double-bogeyed the seventh where he drove into a bunker and then three-putted.
"You just have to try to shoot the best score you can. You have to play your own game," he said.
LPGA
Miyazato, Choi, Brewerton lead at Evian Masters
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — Ai Miyazato of Japan shot a 6-under 66 on Friday to share the second-round lead at the Evian Masters and Michelle Wie was eight shots back after a 70.
Miyazato shares the lead at 9-under 135 with joint first-round leader Na Yeon Choi of South Korea (68) and Becky Brewerton of Wales, who bogeyed the 16th and 17th to shoot 68.
"Obviously there’s a touch of disappointment because I got to go 11-under. This is a really tough course to not have any bogeys," Brewerton said. "It would have been quite an achievement not to. Disappointed I did it at the end, but I would have taken 68 at the start of the day."
In-Kyung Kim of South Korea, the other first-round co-leader, was a shot back in fourth.
"This is my fifth time in Evian, but I haven’t been playing good the last four years, so I am happy with that," Miyazato said. "I made my first birdie on 3 today, that was a pretty long putt, like 6 meters. After that, I (managed to) keep it going."
Despite a double bogey on the fourth, Wie hit five birdies in her round to retain a chance of gaining points for a place on the U.S. Solheim Cup team for next month’s matchup against Europe.
After finishing Thursday’s opening round at 3 over, top-ranked Lorena Ochoa began her second round with bogeys on the first two holes. But the Mexican made a string of birdies to shoot a 69 to be at even par.
Brewerton is vying for a place on Europe’s team after her rookie appearance two years ago.
Song-Hee Kim of South Korea hit five consecutive birdies on the front nine in shooting a 66 to be two shots behind the leaders. Sophie Gustafson of Sweden and Yuko Mitsuka of Japan also shot 66s and are at 7 under, along with Karine Icher of France (69).
Defending champion Helen Alfredsson of Sweden (69), who is bidding for a fourth Evian title, was at 5 under.
Brewerton made birdies on Nos. 2, 3 and 5, while an eagle at the seventh and another birdie early on the back nine moved her to 11 under.
After winning the Spanish Open last week, the 26-year-old from Wales is finding her best career form.
Veteran Laura Davies, the 1987 U.S. Women’s Open champion and a two-time Evian Masters winner, is so impressed by Brewerton that she fears losing her own place on the Solheim Cup team.
"If she keeps going like this, she’s going to be an automatic (pick) in the points. She’ll knock me out and I won’t be playing," Davies said.
Several players mentioned how much slower than usual the greens are this year.
"They are playing slower than they have in years past," said Natalie Gulbis, the 2007 champion. "The course is tough and playing longer than it has."
-- Jerome Pugmire
PGA European
Gonzalez takes lead at midpoint of SAS Masters
LODDEKOPINGE, Sweden — Ricardo Gonzalez of Argentina shot a 5-under 68 for the second straight day to take a 1-stroke lead at the midpoint of the SAS Masters on Friday.
Gonzalez had six birdies and one bogey to finish at 10-under 136 at Barseback Golf Club on the longest course in European Tour history (7,665 yards).
Overnight leader Lee Slattery of England shot a 70 and was alone in second place.
Both leaders have been struggling this year. Gonzalez, who failed to qualify for last week’s British Open, was only 13th on the European money list and 153rd on the "Race To Dubai" standings.
Tied for third at 6 under were Scotland’s Richie Ramsay (70), the former U.S. Amateur champion, Sweden’s Martin Erlandsson (70) and Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal (71).
Amateur
Medalists Spieth, Anderson advance to USGA finals
BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Medalists Jordan Spieth of Dallas and Amy Anderson of Oxbow, N.D. scored semifinal victories to advance to the finals of the boys and girls USGA Junior Amateur championships on Friday.
Spieth, 15, will play Jay Hwang, 16, of San Diego in the boys final, while Anderson will play Kimberly Kim, 17, of Hilo, Hawaii for the girls crown. The championships will be played over 36 holes on Saturday on the New Course at the Trump National Golf Club.
Spieth blew a 4-up lead and then came back to post a 1 up victory over Logan Harrell of Huntersville, N.C., sinking a sliding 4-foot par saver at No. 18 to seal the win.
Hwang, who only started playing golf five years ago, won the 12th, 13th and 14th holes en route to a 3 and 2 win over Nicholas Reach of Moscow, Pa.
Anderson, who lives in a town of 300 people — what she calls a golf course surrounded by homes — chipped in from 20 feet to save par on the 18th hole and then won the match on the 19th hole when Luz Alejandra Cangrejo of Colombia hit her tee shot into the hazard on the 10th hole and eventually conceded.
Kim, who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2006 as a 14-year-old, played 14 holes in 7 under in posting a 5 and 4 win over Doris Chen of Bradenton, Fla.
The most interesting matches of the day involved Spieth and Anderson, who were the low scorers in the 36-hole stroke play on Monday and Tuesday that set the fields of 64 for match play.
Spieth, who has been friends with Harrell for about three years, went 4 up through six holes but saw his lead evaporate when he bogeyed No. 7 and Harrell birdied Nos. 9-11.
"He just started making putts from everywhere," said Spieth, who lost in the semifinal of this event last year. "He was pumped. He was screaming and making fist pumps."
Spieth won the 12th with a par, but Harrell birdied the 13th to even the match again.
Spieth took the lead for good with a 6-foot birdie at No. 15 and won the 16th when Harrell missed a 3-footer for a bogey. Spieth gave a hole back with a bogey at No. 17, but he made his last putt from 4 feet to close out the match.
"I told myself you’re not going to have a chance like this to win if you don’t capitalize here," Spieth said.
Anderson, 17, has been the biggest surprise this week. She plays golf about five months a year, and she has made the most of this event after driving here with her family.
She also got lucky.
Two down with three to play, she tied the match when Cangrejo bogeyed the 16th and 17th holes. All appeared lost at the 18th when she faced a 20 footer from off the green for par with her opponent 3 feet from the hole for par.
However, Anderson used a lob wedge to chip in.
"It was definitely a miracle," Anderson said. "First it was a question to putt or chip and there was too much scruffy grass to putt. My caddie told me to play it right edge and I pulled it, but it had cut spin so it broke right in the hole."
Anderson felt sorry for Cangrejo, who was in tears after the match.
"It’s not the way you want to lose or win a match," Anderson said.
"This will just motivate me to practice more so it doesn’t happen again," said the 16-year-old Cangrejo, who lost in the first round last year to eventual champion Alexis Thompson.
Hwang was tied with Reach after 11 holes before taking control by winning three straight holes, winning the 13th and 14th with birdies.
"He doesn’t make a mistake," Reach said of Hwang. "He made one mistake at 7, he made a double. Other than that he did not make a mistake."
Hwang, who has never won a tournament other than in near home, has been playing well lately. He finished sixth in the recent Junior World Championships.
"I’m excited, more than nervous," Hwang said.
Kim, who struggled with her putting in a 1 up win over Jennifer Johnson in the quarterfinals on Friday morning, made everything with her putter in the semifinal. She also added an eagle on the par-4, third hole, sinking a wedge from about 57 yards.
Kim is trying to become the first golfer to win the Women’s Amateur and then the junior amateur, an event for players 17-years-old and under.
"It would be cool but you never know what will happen tomorrow," said Kim, who will be playing in her fourth USGA final. She also finished second twice in the Women’s Amateur Public Links.
-- Tom Canavan
