Australasians well placed ahead of Aronimink’s weekend
Min Woo Lee in action on the greens today – image PGA of America
Australasians are well placed at the halfway stage of the PGA Championship in Philadelphia, with five of the eight who started the event within four shots of the lead as the second major of the year enters the weekend.
It is the first time since 2012 at Kiawah that no player is as many as 5-under par or better through 36 holes of a PGA Championship.
Min Woo Lee leads the charge at 3 under and just one behind the joint leaders, Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy, but Jason Day, three from the lead and Cam Smith, Ryan Fox and Daniel Hillier four back, have kept alive their hopes of a significant finish.
Lee began the day tied for the lead at 3 under with six others, but through 10 holes had slipped to 1 under before birdies at the 11th, 15th and 16th before missing the green at the 17th and taking bogey. He was, however, able to par the last and finish with a round of even par 70, and he shares third place and one from the lead.
Yeah, not as in control as yesterday, I would say,” said Lee when asked to describe his round. “But happy with the grind. I did lose it a little bit out there just in the middle part. There’s some tough holes out there. But it’s very easy to get your mind spiralling, but you can’t do that at a major championship.
“So made sure Shane, my caddie, and I had to regroup and thought I played the last seven, eight holes pretty good. But, yeah, the scores are showing that it’s a very tough course.
“I just like the way this course shapes up for me. You have to drive it really well, and I have been driving it really well. Approach play is a lot better. The chipping and putting’s not too bad too.
“So I think just becoming a lot better player over the last year, I would say, definitely matured, but the game has matured as well, and that’s where we wants to be. Hopefully, we can keep going when the circumstances become tougher, especially at a major.”
Lee is one of six players at 3 under and just one off the lead but, such is the congestion on the leaderboard, 29 players are within four shots of the lead and so Lee has a big task to not only push ahead over the final 36 holes but to watch his back also.
Jason Day jumped out of the blocks with two birdies to begin his round, but he would drop shots at the 9th and 12th holes. At 1 under par, however and, just three from the lead, he is very well placed in pursuit of his second win in this championship.
Cam Smith recorded three birdies and four bogeys in his round of 71 to be at even par and just four off the lead, and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox recovered from a slow start to his round to finish with a round of even par and be at that same score for his opening 36 holes.
Daniel Hillier has done well in his first attempt in the event to make the cut and be just four from the lead at even par heading into the weekend. Hillier, who appears to be building some rather substantial platforms in his career of late, produced an eagle from 40 or so feet at the 10th, and despite a bogey at the last, the final stages of this event could well highlight his capacity to compete at this high level.
Elvis Smylie sat on the cutline for much of the day after his early start on day two, but late in the afternoon, it became clear that his score of 4 over would see him through to the final 36 holes, which is a significant achievement in itself.
Adam Scott and Travis Smyth will both miss the weekend.
Of the leaders, both are well credentialed PGA Tour players, McNealy having won one event and recorded numerous top-three finishes, while Smalley has yet to win but has numerous second-place finishes to his name thus far.
The real threat, however, would appear to come from the logical favourites Scottie Scheffler, who finds himself just two from the lead after his round of 71 today.
Scheffler was unable to build any momentum during today’s second round after dropping three shots early, but he did enough to be just two shots from the lead and very much still the man to beat despite his frustration in the way the course was set up today.
“This is the hardest set of pin locations that I’ve seen since I’ve been on TOUR, and that includes U.S. Opens, that includes Oakmont. I did ask, I asked Fooch, who caddies for Justin Rose. He’s been around a long time — and I asked Teddy too — have you seen anything like this before? They said maybe Shinnecock is the only place they have seen that has pins that could compare to this.
“But it’s different in a sense on this golf course, because Oakmont, their greens are extremely severe, but they’re extremely severe in one direction. Here, it’s like the green may slope all this way, and then we put the pin down here and then there’s also a slope this way. And like it’s not as, how would you say, natural to the slopes that are there. There’s a bit more, I think, that’s manufactured into the greens, and it’s just very difficult.
“It’s difficult to get the ball close to the hole. It’s difficult to hole putts, especially when you have big slopes and wind, and I think that’s why you see the scores so close to par.
Rory McIlroy appeared to play himself out of the tournament on day one, but with a second-round 67, he has let everyone know that, on a golf course such as this, he is certainly not out of it at 1 over and just five back.
“It’s been hard to make birdies out there because obviously, one, the wind the last couple days, but also where they have put these hole locations, I feel like they have really tried to protect the course the first couple of days. So it seems like they have used up a lot of the really hard ones.
“So, depending upon a little bit calmer conditions and maybe a couple more favourable hole locations, I think guys that are just here for the weekend I think everyone’s got to feel like they have got a chance. Yes, it’s bunched, but you get on a run with wedges on that front nine, and you shoot 4-, 5-under and all of a sudden you’re right in the thick of things.
“At five back, I do feel like I’m right in the tournament, and that’s really what I wanted to do today was to just get myself back in it, and I feel like I’ve done that.”
