It was a big moment. It felt like I was hitting some good shots, but I’m just not driving it as well today. The forecast Friday calls for 5-10 miles per hour winds and a 50 percent chance of rain showers, with scattered thunderstorms possible in the early afternoon.
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It’s no less intriguing because of what’s at stake.
Last year’s victor Rory McIlroy will undoubtedly be one of the favourites as he takes on the field and hopes that he can do enough to keep his fiercest rivals at bay.
Even the climate gods are willing Dustin Johnson to that maiden Major title.
When Johnson tees off at 1:20 CST, both his recent and distant history will undoubtedly be in his mind. At a press conference yesterday, a reporter posed this question to Woods: “Now that you’re getting a lot older, is it fair to say that you have lost a step, or at least half a step?” “But you still have to play your game, especially in majors“, he said.
Kaymer is playing alongside Tiger Woods, who shot a three over par 75 Thursday. The former US Open champ tees off at 1:50 p.m. Eastern, along with Australian Geoff Ogilvy, another former US Open champion, and American Brandt Snedeker, who’s at one under par. Spieth has four wins this year, one more than McIlroy, though two of them are majors. The two-shot penalty kept him out of a playoff. “I feel a lot more comfortable right now”.
Iwata, who’s won twice on Japan’s tour and now is No. 2 on the money list, said courses on this side of the Pacific were considerably more challenging because of the long par 4s.
Just months into his professional career, Spieth shot 71 to McIlroy’s 72 in the first round, but could only manage a 76 in the second round to miss the cut, while McIlroy shot 67 and would only be denied victory two days later by a closing 63 from Scotland’s Martin Laird.
Darren Clarke finished at +15 for the two rounds so the less said about that the better.
Lingmerth also got off to a roaring start at the British Open with a 29 on the front nine (and a 40 on the back).
Woods started out reasonably well, setting up birdie putts of 9 and 10 feet on his second and third holes, Nos. He missed, and that was that.
As was the case in the first round, the early starters on Friday were expected to benefit from calmer conditions at Whistling Straits before the winds begin to strengthen in the afternoon.
The fireworks were, however, largely a thing of the morning when Johnson played like the champion he has so often promised to be.
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It was here in 2010, of course, that he grounded his club on scrub at the last after failing to recognise it as a bunker when leading by a stroke.
