Golf Capsules: Woods struggles during second round at Barclays
PARAMUS, N.J. (AP) — Jason Day can’t get a straight answer from doctors on the mysterious health issues sapping away at his energy. He at least knows exactly where he stands after two rounds of The Barclays.
A tournament that once looked as though it might belong to Tiger Woods shifted late Friday to the hands of the 22-year-old Australian, who showed some of his great promise with three late birdies for a 4-under 67 and a one-shot lead.
Nine players had at least a share of the lead at some point during the second round until Day’s late surge. He was at 8-under 134, one shot clear of Kevin Streelman (63) and Vaughn Taylor (70) going into the weekend of the FedEx Cup’s first playoff event.
"I just tried to stay as patient as possible, and it just kind of fell in my lap, which was really good," he said.
Woods didn’t so much lose his patience as much as his putting stroke. Part of that was playing in the afternoon on greens that became bumpy under foot traffic and a day of blazing sun, as Woods expected.
He wasn’t planning on missing a 20-inch par putt on the fifth hole, or failing to make a single birdie on the easier front nine.
"I didn’t hit it bad at all," Woods said. "I hit it really good. As I said, I didn’t putt really well. I hit it as good as I did yesterday. If I don’t make putts, I don’t score."
He wound up with a 73, eight shots worse than his opening round.
The good news for the world’s No. 1 player — he will stay atop the world ranking for at least another week after Phil Mickelson missed the cut, and he’s still very much in contention. Most times this year, a bad day for Woods meant an early tee time on the weekend.
He still was only four shots behind, and at least takes this with him into the weekend: He has missed only two fairways in two rounds, although he never hit driver one time in the second round.
"You play around here and post good numbers, you’ll move up the board," he said. "The guys aren’t going to be tearing this place apart."
Streelman sure did.
Two years after narrowly missing a playoff at Ridgewood Country Club, Streelman ran off six birdies in a seven-hole stretch for a 63 that will put him in the final group Saturday. Clearly, this is no ordinary place for him. Streelman’s grandparents are buried in a cemetery beyond the seventh hole. His parents live in the area. These are his roots.
"It’s like a special home for me, a special place," he said.
Stewart Cink raised his Ryder Cup hopes with a 69 that put him in a group at 6-under 136 with Ryder Cup hopeful Stewart Cink (69), Martin Laird (67) and John Senden, who reached 9 under until he stumbled badly down the stretch, taking a double bogey from the shrubs on the 16th. Senden shot 69.
It was a great start for Laird and Senden — and yes, even Woods — as it relates to the FedEx Cup. Laird and Senden were just inside the top 100 in the standings, knowing that only the top 100 advance to the second round next week outside Boston.
Woods, at No. 112, is virtually assured of making it through to next week.
Also at stake this week is the Ryder Cup, at least in auditioning for the European and U.S. teams. Padraig Harrington of Ireland has to rely on a captain’s pick, and he shot 68 to join the group at 5-under 137 that includes Adam Scott and Ben Crane.
Europe’s team — including the three picks — will be decided Sunday.
"The last thing I wanted was to come here and miss the cut, or play poorly here," Harrington said.
Woods wants to play on the U.S. Ryder Cup team as a captain’s pick — the American selections won’t be announced until Sept. 7 — and the desire alone makes him a worthy candidate. His game is starting to show plenty of promise, too.
Woods went to 8 under when he hit his approach to 5 feet for birdie on the 18th. Heading to the front nine, the easier of the two nines at Ridgewood, he had only 93 yards to the hole and a wedge in his hand. Woods went 40 feet long, left his first putt 6 feet short and made that to escape with par.
That set the tone for the rest of his round.
Posing over his tee shot on the par-3 second, it sailed over the green and left Woods a tough chip. As he started his swing, a photographer took a series of pictures. "Not in my swing," Woods said as he made contact, sending it 25 feet long for his first bogey.
The real damage came on No. 5, the 291-yard hole where Woods hit driver to 15 feet in the opening round. With the pin close to the front, he would have had to take something off a driver, so he opted to lay up. The plan worked fine until Woods putted to just inside 2 feet from the fringe, then missed the par putt.
"Ball was sitting in a hole," Woods said. "I could see it. I was trying to hit up on it and hook it like I normally do. I didn’t do it."
Day, meanwhile, is feeling rested. He feared he would need sinus surgery until another doctor tested him and thought he might have mononucleosis. "I can’t get a straight answer," Day said with a smile.
He rested well last week, although he hardly practiced, so he was pleasantly surprised to be leading.
Mickelson followed an opening 72 with a 3-over 74 and he missed the cut by four strokes.
It was the third time this year Mickelson has missed the cut — two of them were tournaments sponsored by Barclays, one of his top endorsement deals — and the ninth time he failed in a bid to replace Woods at No. 1.
He left the course without speaking to reporters.
LPGA
Wie leads at Canadian Women's Open in Winnipeg
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Michelle Wie’s second round didn’t have the wow factor of a hole-in-one, but a 3-under 69 on Friday was enough to keep her atop the leaderboard halfway through the Canadian Women’s Open.
The Hawaii native posted a two-round total of 10-under 134, three strokes ahead of Jiyai Shin of South Korea, who had a second-round 67.
Morgan Pressel had a 66 at the St. Charles Country Club to move into a tie at 138 with defending champion Suzann Pettersen of Norway.
Sarah Jane Smith of Australia also had a 66 and was in a group at 3 under in the tournament with a $2.25 million purse.
Wie, 20, had her ace on the par-3 11th during her first-round 65, a course record for a women’s competition.
"I tried. Didn’t work out," Wie said with a smile of not repeating the ace. "Compared to (Thursday), nothing was that dramatic."
She smiled again when describing one reaction of the large crowd that followed her.
"I think they were very disappointed on 11 today when I made a bogey," Wie said.
Pressel is in her fifth year on the LPGA Tour and is seeking her third victory.
"It looks like Michelle is very confident in her game right now, so it looks like I’m going to have to have two more days of golf like I had today and we’ll see what happens," said Pressel, who birdied five of her first eight holes.
Pressel’s best finish this season was a tie for second at the Evian Masters last month, an event won by Shin.
Shin is ranked No. 4 on the World Rolex Rankings and has nine top-10 finishes this season.
Only in her second year on tour, she said it was nice to have some fans call her name while she was in the same threesome as Wie.
"(They say), ‘Go Shin,’ and everybody knows my name, so I’m really happy and appreciate it, too," she said with a shy smile.
Smith’s 66 gave her one of the biggest turnarounds after she shot a 75 on Thursday.
She credited some of the about-face to her coach, Canadian Sean Foley, who has been working recently with Tiger Woods. She videotaped some practice swings after her first round and sent them to Foley for advice.
"He said I was just a little out of sequence so he just wanted me to get the feeling of my backswing being a little bit slower and get me in a better position to really give it a whack on the downswing today," Smith said.
The field dropped to 154 players after Shi Hyn Ahn and Il Mi Chung of South Korea were disqualified late Thursday for mistakenly playing each other’s balls on the 18th green.
Champions
Nick Price closes strong to lead Boeing Classic
SNOQUALMIE, Wash. — Nick Price spent more than an hour on the practice range Thursday night trying to find the swing that had eluded him last week at the Jeld-Wen Tradition.
He even took a club back to his hotel room hoping that his swing would finally click once again.
Somewhere between leaving his hotel and reaching the first tee box, he found it.
Price birdied the first four holes and five of the last seven to match the lowest score in tournament history and take the lead with a 9-under 63 in the first round of the Champions Tour’s Boeing Classic on Friday.
“I didn’t think I’d be sitting here yesterday,” said Price.
Price struggled to a 1-under total at the Jeld-Wen Tradition last week in Sunriver, Ore., finishing in a tie for 38th place.
“Last week I don’t know what happened but I got out of sync,” Price said. “I got here and I didn’t play very well in the Pro-Am yesterday.”
Price and caddy Matt Minister hit the practice range to try and work the kinks out of the three-time major champion’s swing.
Price said his caddy saw he wasn’t setting his club at the top of his backswing and that the club was getting “wishy-washy.” He started to hit the ball better on the range last night and took a club back to the hotel to try and get the feel for his swing back.
His first iron shot of the round was a sand wedge that spun back to a foot on the first hole for an easy birdie. He followed with birdies on the next three holes.
Price rolled in birdies from 20 and 25 feet on the 6th and 13th, respectively, then capped the round with a 40-footer on the 17th.
“It was a really good day,” Price said. “All in all I putted beautifully today.”
Tom Pernice Jr. is two shots back after a 64, and Hal Sutton and Bernhard Langer are tied for third after each shot a 66.
Pernice Jr. surged to the top of the leaderboard early thanks to a pair of eagles at the par-5 15th and 1st holes. He added birdies at the par-5 18th and 8th holes to finish the round at 6 under for the day on the par-5s alone.
“I hit some good wedge shots into two of them and then the other one was a rescue that I hit in there and made the putt and capitalized on it,” Pernice Jr. said.
“The par-5s are gettable here if you drive the ball in the fairway and get a favorable wind on some of them you can take advantage of them.”
Pernice made a 40-footer for birdie on the par-4 12th hole to jump start his round. He then holed out a lob wedge from 92 yards out on No. 15 that spun back into the hole for his first eagle of the day. A 2-iron from the right rough to 10 feet led to another eagle.
Langer hit a 3-wood to six feet from 220 yards out on his second shot on the par-5 8th. He made the putt for eagle to move him to 3 under. Langer then added birdies at Nos. 14, 17 and 18 to stay three shots off the lead.
Hometown favorite Fred Couples shot a 68. Couples had chances to gain ground on the leaders, but had birdie putts from inside 15 feet at Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8 just miss — preventing him from keeping pace with partners Price and Langer.
Couples drove the par-4 14th, a 293-yard hole, with a 277-yard carry over a massive canyon, but three-putted from the front edge of the green.
An errant tee shot on 15 that ended up at the base of a tree in the fescue that lines the course forced Couples to play out to the 16th fairway, leaving him a 250-yard blind shot into the green. The shot missed short left in the rough and he was unable to save par.
“I think I just need, like everybody else, to make a few putts tomorrow,” Couples said.
“I had plenty of chances, especially the first several holes, and I just didn’t make any.”
Defending champion Loren Roberts is tied with Couples and four others at 4 under.
PGA European
Trio tied for lead after 2nd round at Gleneagles
GLENEAGLES, Scotland (AP) — Gary Boyd and David Lynn of England and Julien Guerrier of France were tied for the lead at the Johnnie Walker Championship on Friday, completing two rounds at 9 under.
Guerrier shot a 5-under 67, while Boyd and Lynn had 68s. Marc Warren of Scotland (70), Mark Foster of England (67) and George Coetzee of South Africa (68) were two shots back.
Simon Dyson of England shot a 70 to grab a share of seventh place at 6-under. He is four places outside of qualifying for the European Ryder Cup team and needs to capture the Johnnie Walker to ensure automatic selection for the event at Celtic Manor.
Also at 6 under were Paul McGinley of Ireland (70), Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain (68) and Edoardo Molinari of Italy (68).
Jimenez was a late entry as he looks to secure his place on the Ryder Cup team, while Molinari is hoping a good showing will help him earn a captain’s pick.
Guerrier, who captured the 2006 British Amateur championship and turned professional right after the 2007 Masters, was inspired by Martin Kaymer’s recent run to the PGA Championship title.
"I watched Martin Kaymer, 26 years old, make the fantastic title in the U.S. PGA and I said, ‘He’s a good player, but I’m a good striker and I can do it,"’ Guerrier said. "So I try to do it and don’t try too much, just play your golf, play your best and go see the flag and play it. That’s all."
European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie missed the cut and will now focus on his Sunday night choice of captain’s picks.
"I just think it’s super that everyone is performing to the best of their ability," Montgomerie said after shooting 71 and 76 to finish at 3-over.
"I can’t please everybody, the only way I could do that was to pick 20 players, but I have to leave out some good players, some winners," the Scott said. "It’s a good headache to have."
-- Bernie McGuire
Amateur
Four advance to U.S. Amateur semifinals
UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. (AP) — Peter Uihlein put his hands out with an almost apologetic look on his face after dropping a 5-foot putt to win his quarterfinal match at the U.S. Amateur on Friday.
Beating his college teammate, and one-time roommate, wasn’t very enjoyable for the top-ranked American amateur.
"It’s bittersweet. I just took out one of my best friends. It’s hard because seeing him after, he wasn’t happy," Uihlein said of his 1-up win over Oklahoma State teammate Morgan Hoffmann. "It’s hard for me to be excited when I just played him."
Uihlein’s victory over Hoffmann was one of four highly competitive matches in the quarterfinals of the 110th Amateur at Chambers Bay. A day after only a few of the 24 matches even reached the 17th or 18th holes, all the quarterfinals made it to at least No. 18, with Patrick Cantlay needing 20 holes to win his match.
Uihlein and Cantlay will meet in one semifinal on Saturday morning. The other will be a Cal-Stanford matchup, with defending champion Byeong-Hun An facing Stanford’s David Chung.
In another matchup of college teammates An beat Max Homa 1 up, while Chung dropped an 8-foot putt on the 18th to take out reigning NCAA champ Scott Langley.
It’s a power trio with Uihlein, Chung and An, joined by a relative unknown in Cantlay, who finished tied for second during stroke play and has quietly advanced to the semifinals. Cantlay needed 20 holes in the quarters, taking advantage of Jed Dirksen’s three-putt on the 18th green when Dirksen held a 1-up lead.
An is the first defending champion to reach the semifinals since Tiger Woods in 1996. He’s also trying to become the first back-to-back champion since Woods won three straight titles between 1994 and 1996.
"I definitely passed my goal," An said. "I’m really happy I’m here right now. I guess I’ll be more happy if I get to the finals and win."
Uihlein and Hoffmann were the top two players on an Oklahoma State squad that lost in the NCAA team finals to Augusta State. They might be the top two players in the field, but fell into the same bracket after the first two days of stroke play.
Their match was as competitive as expected with neither holding more than a 1-up lead. Uihlein went in front for good with a birdie on the par-4 16th as a train roared by on the nearby tracks. They halved the final two holes, with Hoffmann missing his birdie attempt that could have sent the match to extra holes.
"I wasn’t as on as I have been. That’s the way it goes," Hoffmann said. "We’re both Cowboys and hopefully he goes on and wins it for the team."
After two days of routs in his first three matches, An was finally forced to see Nos. 17 and 18. He hadn’t played beyond No. 16 in reaching the quarterfinals, but was forced to the final two holes by Homa’s backside rally. Homa won the 17th to cut An’s lead to 1 up, but his third shot on the par-5 18th came up short and Homa wasn’t able to make the birdie that would have extended the match.
Cal coach Steve Desimone stood to the side of the 18th green, meeting both of his players as the match ended.
"We played great golf today," An said. "That’s why I was very tired. We didn’t make that many mistakes."
Chung might be the hottest amateur in the United States entering the Amateur having won the Western Amateur and Porter Cup leading up to the event. The Stanford junior finally pulled ahead of Langley with wins at the 14th and 15th holes, and had a chance to finish the match but missed his birdie attempt on 17. Langley forced one more hole by making a 25-foot birdie putt at No. 17 and reached the 18th in two, stinging a 3-wood from 260 yards to about 50 feet. Langley’s eagle putt raced past and Chung’s birdie ended Langley’s hopes.
"I think you can’t not think about the prize," Chung said, noting that finalists receive an invitation to the Masters. "... But I think you have to stay grounded. It’s nice to think about how great Sunday could be if you get there, but just stay grounded and stay in the moment — try to at least."
Dirksen was a favorite of many fans, going without a caddie and carrying his own bag during the tournament. He was 1 up headed to the 18th, but left his third shot at the bottom of a ridge and three-putted to give Cantlay another chance. They parred the first extra hole, before Cantlay won with a par at the second.
"There are a lot of things going through your head just standing there and waiting for whatever happens to happen," Cantlay said.
-- Tim Booth
