SPRINGFIELD, N.J. – After a awful time on the greens during the first round of the PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy returned to Baltusrol Golf Club on Thursday evening to work on his putting.
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Rain was a major factor at Baltrusol Golf Club in New Jersey on Friday. One day after he salvaged a poor start with a 71, Mickelson began the second round by hitting his tee shot so far left that it went over the fence, onto Shunpike Road and actually caromed down another street called Baltusrol Way.
World No. 1 Lydia Ko, bidding to land her third major victory after winning the ANA Inspiration in California in March and last year’s Evian Championship in France, struggled to a 74.
No matter. He still came out firing.
And he hit just enough shots, and holed just enough putts, to get back into the mix at a major championship.
Spieth, a two-time major victor, began with back-to-back birdies and was two-under through six holes while fellow back-nine starter Johnston, the English crowd pleaser with the meaty nickname and hefty tee shot, birdied the par-5 17th and 18th.
U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson, who needs a low round to even make the cut after an opening 77, parred his first two holes.
Sweden’s Stenson, who fired a sensational final-round 63 to outduel Phil Mickelson at Royal Troon two weeks ago and set a British Open scoring record of 20-under, posted his second successive 67 for fifth place.
“The finish wasn’t what I was looking for, but it’s fine”, the five-time PGA Tour victor said.
“I’m going to go home and play with the kids and get them to bed”.
“I didn’t need to worry too much”.
“It’s felt like I found something with my golf swing the last two weeks”.
After squandering a great opportunity at Augusta, where he had five-shot lead on the back nine, Spieth hasn’t had a chance in the other two majors.
Equally thrilling was to be tied for the lead with Jimmy Walker, who shot a 4-under 66.
Lahiri had only 50 per cent accuracy off the tee, but he had 16 greens and he missed a lot of putts which meant a disappointing card.
The hole was played where the first group played it for the rest of the day. He birdied the par-3 ninth after a good tee shot to 11 feet, then followed with another after a chip-in on 13. The PGA of America fixed it and apologized, though two of the three players made bogey. “This was something I really wanted to accomplish”.
“It just goes through effortlessly with so much speed and power, and the ball just flies so long and true with such a tight flight pattern”. Spieth brought in PGA rules official Brad Gregory to get relief in a ruling that took almost 10 minutes and so many drops that Spieth kept cleaning the ball with his glove instead of throwing it to his caddie to wipe off with a towel.
Groundskeepers, forced to water greens Thursday so they did not burn out, drained huge puddles from several greens and cleared out numerous fairways.
“I thought I needed to make 4”, on 18, he said, “so that’s what I was trying to do. I’m pretty sure I’m going to fall right asleep and be just fine”. And that remains his biggest concern.
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Lee then produced a spectacular sequence of five straight birdies from the seventh before putting the seal on a dynamic display by picking up further strokes at the 14th and 17th.
