|
| Phil Mickelson reacts to a missed putt on the first hole during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Merion Golf Club, Friday, June 14, 2013, in Ardmore, Pa. |
ARDMORE, Pa.
(AP) -- Play has been suspended for the day at the U.S. Open, with Phil
Mickelson and Billy Horschel tied for the lead.
Mickelson
birdied the 18th late Friday to finish a 2-over round of 72. Horschel
shot 3-under 67, hitting all 18 greens in regulation at Merion Golf
Club.
Their 1-under totals of 139 made them
the only players under par for the tournament; nearly half the field had
yet to complete the second round, which was halted because of darkness.
Luke
Donald, Steve Stricker and Justin Rose were in the clubhouse at even
par. Two other players were still on the course at even par.
The
second round began late in the morning because storms on Thursday
forced half the field to return early Friday to finish the first round.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Billy
Horschel hit all 18 greens in regulation. Hard to think of a better way
to climb to the top of the leaderboard at the U.S. Open.
He
shot 3-under 67, sufficiently managing the nasty rough and hard-to-read
greens to become the clubhouse leader late in the second round Friday
at the Merion Golf Club.
Horschel was 1 under
with a 139 total, posting one of the few red numbers on a trying day for
much of the field. He missed the cut in his only previous U.S. Open, in
2006, but recently won for the first time on the PGA Tour at the Zurich
Classic.
"I've acquired some patience, not as
much as I wish I had," said the 26-yeaar-old from Jacksonville Beach,
Fla. "But I just think that the older I get, the more mature I get on
the golf course, the more understanding that if I do have a bad stretch
of holes, it's not that I don't hit the panic button, I just don't press
right away."
Phil Mickelson held the solo
lead for much of the afternoon, but he missed birdie chances during a
streak of 10 consecutive pars. He then 3-putted No. 12 for a bogey and
dropped another stroke when he put his tee shot in the sand on the short
par-3 13th, the easiest hole on the course.
Seconds
later, Steve Stricker, playing in Mickelson's group, sank a birdie putt
from about 15 feet to move into a tie with Horschel for the lead.
Justin Rose was also at 1 under on the back nine.
Hoping
to build on his own 67 from Thursday, Mickelson put his first shot in a
bunker and 3-putted the first hole for a bogey. He was in rough and
sand at No. 2, but he recovered to start the run of pars, avoiding even
the distraction of a groundhog - a relative of Punxsutawney Phil? - who
made a mad dash across the fairway at No. 6. Mickelson lipped out a
4-foot birdie putt at No. 8.
A five-time
runner-up seeking his first U.S. Open title, Mickelson had the luxury of
a late tee time, much needed after he showed up with just a few hours
to spare for the opening round so he could attend his daughter's
eighth-grade graduation in California. It turned out to be a gift. While
Mickelson was able to rest Friday morning, much of the field endured
the ordeal of finishing a delayed first round followed by a second round
with little break in between.
By the time
Mickelson teed off, only he and Belgium's Nicolas Colsaerts were under
par. Colsaerts shot a 69 in the first round, but he fell off the pace
Friday with three bogeys on the front nine.
As
for the weather, the sun stayed around for most of the afternoon after
play began in a cool drizzle that was far gentler than the storms that
interrupted play twice on Thursday. The fallout from all the rain was a
cramped schedule, complicated because the course requires long shuttle
rides to move the players to and fro. It also left players and
spectators spackled in mud from their shoes on up.
The
must-see group of Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy was at times
a hard-to-watch bunch - perhaps even for Woods' ski champion girlfriend
Lindsey Vonn, who was part of the gallery.
The
trio combined to shoot 14 over at the halfway mark. Woods' troublesome
left elbow flared up again, and he hit a chip from just off the green
that traveled barely a foot while making bogey at the par-4 7th.
Woods
then dropped his left hand off the club and shook his wrist while
putting his tee shot wide of the fairway at No. 8, just as he had done
several times on Thursday. The arm clearly bothered him again on the
next shot, which he put in the rough near the green. He saved par on the
hole and finished a second-round 70 that left him at 3 over for the
tournament, still in contention if he can stay healthy.
"It's
hard with the wind and the pin locations," Woods said. "They're really
tough. ... We didn't think they were going to be as severe as they are."
Woods
was tight-lipped about his elbow, saying only that it first bothered
him at the Players Championship five weeks ago. Asked what he felt, he
answered: "Pain."
Masters champion Scott fell
apart quickly, all but quashing any hope for a Grand Slam. He was 3
under when first-round play was suspended Thursday, but he hit a
hard-luck Merion shot at No. 12: an approach that landed just short of
the pin, spun backward and rolled some 75 feet to the edge of the
fairway rough. He also put a tee shot out of bounds at No. 14 to
complete a first-round 72, then came back after the short turnaround to
post a 76, 8 over, through two rounds.
"I got
off on the wrong foot and just struggled to find my rhythm all day,"
Scott said. "I didn't make the putts I needed to kind of save some shots
here and there. And they just slipped away too easily. But that's what
can happen if you're just a little bit off."
McIlroy
had quite the adventure, putting his drive at No. 4 onto the No. 8
fairway. Once he got back to the correct hole, he put a shot in a bunker
and bogeyed the par 5. His second-round 70 left him at 3 over.
"I'm very happy. Right in there for the weekend," McIlroy said. "I don't think I'll be too far away by the end of the day."
Then
there was Luke Donald, who actually pulled ahead of Mickelson at 4
under with back-to-back birdies, including a chip-in at the par-3 13th
during his second round. But Merion took him apart on the front nine
when he bogeyed four consecutive holes, turning his number from red to
black. His second-round 72 left him at even-par.
Coming
into the Open, the question was how Merion would fare against a
modern-day championship field. It last hosted this event in 1981, with
the thinking that today's golfers had outgrown the course.
Certainly,
the 301-yard par-3 10th and 102-yard par-3 13th yielded their share of
makeable shots, but pre-tournament concerns about scores in the low 60s
seem totally unwarranted.
"It's very difficult to make those putts," Donald said, "when the ball is breaking so much."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.