Round 2 Leaderboard:
- 8 J Vegas (F)
-6 M Pavon (F), M Fitzpatrick (F), Kim (F)
-5 M Homa (F), Scheffler (F), Higgo (15)
Irish
-1 T McKibbin (F)
+1 R McIlroy (F)
+ 2 S Lowry (F)
+ 2 P Harrington (F)
+ 4 S Power (F)
So McIlroy ends his second round on +1, just on the cut line. Tom McKibbin is on one under going into the weekend. The other Irish in the field, Harrington and Lowry ended on +2 and Power on +4. They will not make the cut. Vegas leads on -8, two shots ahead of the field with everything to play for tomorrow.
So McIlroy ends his second round on +1, just on the cut line. The other Irish in the field, Harrington and Lowry ended on +2 and Power on +4. They will not make the cut. Vegas leads on -8, two shots ahead of the field with everything to play for tomorrow.
McIlroy (E) chips and leaves the ball 20 feet away on 18. No sweat, he almost makes birdie with the first putt and taps in for par to finish level for his two rounds. That’s a 69 for the day and he is here for the weekend eight shots behind the leader Vegas
The ball was above not below McIlroy’s feet. He hoiks it out of the rough without falling backwards into the stream. The ball stays right but he has an up and down for par from beside the green. He can afford to make bogey and fall back to +1 and still be inside the cut.
McIlroy’s drive on 18 hits the hospitality suite on the left and bounces back into play. It stops just short of the stream running down the side of the fairway but it is a terrible stance with the ball way below his feet. He needs to conjure something here and make sure he does not make a 6.
It’s not over till it’s over with McIlroy. Just after Scheffler misses a tiddler on 17, McIlroy also misses from 18 inches. His putt back is longer than the first putt but he makes it for bogey and falls back to lever par with one hole to play. Scheffler is a healthy 5-under par.
On 17 McIlroy (-1) sweetly chips in from off the green. It looks short at the beginning but the ball keeps rolling and rolling. He has a two foot putt for par and then it’s on to the 18th.
McIlroy (-1) misses the green to the right with his iron from 185 yards. He didn’t look pleased after hitting the ball, bending his body to try and steer it towards the flag. He needs an up and down to hold par - not for the first time.
A long putt from McIlroy (-1) on 16 is sweet. It’s just a tap in for par and he moves quickly on to the par-3, 17th.
Holy moly the cut line has changed again and gone back to +1 which leaves Harrington (+2) on the wrong side of it. Lowry made par on 18 but his bogey on the 16th puts him at +2 for the first two rounds and like Harrington on the wrong side of the cut line - unless it changes again.
When McIlroy started the day he was 13 shots behind. A birdie on the par-5, 15th hole leaves him just seven behind the clubhouse leader Vegas on -1. His drive down the 16th fairway, a par 4, is excellent.
Lowry (+2) hits the green with his second to 18. A two putt from where he is for par should be good enough to get him into the weekend. Not his favourite says McGinley.
Kim goes to -5 with a 252 yard hole-in-one at the 6th hole, his15th.
So, it looks like Harrington is safe on +2. He has finished his second round and will be here for the weekend. Lowry has made par on the Par-3 at 17 and is also on +2.
Now it is Lowry fighting for survival. He has just made bogey on 16 to go to +2. The good news is the cut line has gone out from +1 to +2.
McIlroy makes his birdie putt on the 14th to get back to level par. That’s an excellent up and down from the bunker. Needed that badly as he heads to the 15th, a par 5 that he can reach in two.
McIlroy (+1), throws the ball up high and is safely out of the sand at 14. He leaves it about six feet from the flag with a strong chance of holing out for birdie and back to level par.
Bad news for Harrington, who made bogey on the 18th hole, which leaves him one shot below the cut line on +2.
Lowry lips out on the 16th and bites his knuckles in frustration. He could have done with that sitting on the cutline of +1.
McIlroy (+1) drives his ball on the 340 yard, 14th hole into the sand on the right. That’s a decent miss with the possibility of an up and down. Lowry is on the cut line of +1 through 15 holes.
McIlroy gets his pitch over the corner of the sand trap at 13 just perfectly. It’s a short putt for a par save and turning into a real arm wrestle to stay for the weekend - he makes his par 3 and stays on +1.
13th, 214 yards and McIlroy lands his ball on the green in the middle. But the severe slop on the green funnels the ball off and to the right and it settles behind the bunker. Paul McGinley says he thinks it is a flaw on the green. McIlroy didn’t deserve that. It’s another bogey possibility.
A poor second shot on the 12th hole knocked McIlroy out of position. His third to the par 4 left him with a mid range putt, which he just missed. That’s bogey, bogey in his last two holes to send him back to +1 and on the cut line.
Lowry is +1 through 14 holes.
McIroy (E) makes a mess of his second shot on 12 and his ball ends up short and to the left. It looks like he must pitch over the sand trap. Just as people thought he’d done all the work and it was about building a score for the weekend! A bogey here and he’s back on the cut line.
On 12 McIlroy (E) tries to slide his drive left to right but the fade doesn’t happen and he leaves the ball out left in the rough. It now depends on whether the trees are between his ball and the green.
Lowry (+1) birdies the 12th to tiptoe onto the cut line. McIlroy (level) is on a side apron, so to speak on the par five 10th in two. Superb distance control. That’s his fourth birdie and he’s in red figures. 10 single putts in 11 holes. The putt from off the green doesn’t count to that tally. McIlroy (-1) and Scheffler (-4) had a great chance for birdie but missed. Schauffele (+2) who has made his last 63 cuts in a row is fighting hard, he also birdies 10.
Thank you all for your company. Johnny Watterson is going to take you to the house.
McIlroy is 4-under for his second round and -1 overall, but he has left a long putt short on 11 and throws his head back in frustration. That’s about six feet away from the cup...and he misses it on the left to drop one shot back. That’s a bit of a momentum stopper as he falls back to level par.
McIlroy (level) had eight single putts on the front nine. Gerard (-6) makes a birdie on the sixth.
McIlroy (level) started the day 13 shots behind Vegas. He’s now eight with nine holes to play, including The Green Mile, the final three hole closing stretch.
Hello and welcome to the Irish Times Golf Blog for day two of the US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. John O’Sullivan here and later you will have Johnny Watterson guiding you through today’s play.
It’s a big day for the Irish competitors, the best of which on day one was Holywood’s Tom McKibbin (-1) who shot a first round 70. He’s started his second round on the 10th, and caught a left fairway bunker 319 yards from the tee.
Rory McIlroy, a four-time winner at Quail Hollow and the US Masters champion, came into the tournament burdened by expectation, his and others, but his swing was very much out of sync yesterday as he struggled to a three over 73, a double bogey on the 16th hole, his seventh, the start of his troubles. He had a big dose of the ‘lefts,’ off the tee, while his iron play didn’t have its usual accuracy. The putter was cold, cold, cold.
Padraig Harrington the 2008 US PGA champion signed for a two over 73, the same number as Shane Lowry who fought hard from three over at one stage without getting much reward. Seamus Power had a rollercoaster front nine for him – the back nine on the course – on the opening day which included an eagle, double bogey, birdies and bogeys; it was hard to find a par. He eventually finished with a respectable 72.
McIlroy (level) plays the front nine in three under par. The world number one Scheffler moves to four under. Vegas (-8) in the clubhouse with Smalley (-6) and Pavon (-6) his closest pursuers.
Round 2 Leaderboard:
- 8 J Vegas (F)
-7 A Smalley
-6 M Pavon (F),
-5 B Griffin (6), M Homa (F), R Gerard (5), R Hitsatune (10)
Irish
-1 T McKibbin (F)
Level R McIlroy (9)
+ 2 S Lowry (10)
+ 3 P Harrington (13)
+ 4 S Power (12)
McIlroy (level) and Scheffler (-4) both make birdies at the short par four, eighth.
Ben Griffin (-6) holes a cross-green raker for an eagle on the 15th, having birdied the 14th. McIlroy (+1) with a gorgeous chip from the rough to about that five feet mark for birdie.
Right shall we talk about the cut mark. Most pundits were confident that +2 would be around for the weekend but it now looks like it could be +1. Matt Fitzpatrick (-4) is going nicely through nine holes. Rahm (-2) is also progressing steadily.
Alex Smalley (-7) birdies 10, he’s 11 Top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour.
McIlroy (+2) nudges the eagle chip about five feet past the hole. Schauffele (+3) shows him how it’s done but the chip-in is for par. McIlroy (+1) makes his birdie. Two under through seven for today’s round.
McIlroy (+2) stripes a fairway finder off the par five, seventh and it does exactly that and then hits a baby fade with a four-iron, water right, that just runs through the back but it’s ‘chippable-inable’ for eagle. You heard it here first.
Lowry (+2) makes bogey. That’s a ridiculous break.
Donald (-3) makes double bogey on the 18th. Lowry (+1) draws outrageous bad luck in landing in another player’s pitch-mark on a fairway. Two thirds of the ball is submerged and he can only move the ball a short distance. Because it’s another player’s he doesn’t get relief. He’s livid and slams the club into the offending club mark. That’s so unlucky. McIlroy (+2) tidies up for par.
To celebrate the leader. Ask you parents millennials.
McIlroy’s (+2) putt grabs the right edge. That’s four clutch putts in a row. He needs to tidy up his approach play. Harrington (+2) bogeys the 18th, his ninth. Power (+4) doubles the seventh. Shane Lowry (+1) had birdied seven, a nice up and down from 35 feet.
McIlroy (+2) goes long with a gap wedge at the fifth following a brilliant tee shot. He chips from the back apron and it runs four feet past.
Padraig Harrington (+1), the 2008 PGA champion is one under for his round, two birdies and a bogey through eight holes, having started on the 10th.
For the wildlife lovers.
Rio Hisatsune (-6) who won the Open de France on the DP World Tour in September 2023, has birdied the 15th. He’s now two behind Vegas.
McKibbin (-1) bogeys the ninth, his final hole. That’ll hurt a little bit but it’s a level par, 71 and a fine round for the young Holywood golfer. He is the leading Irishman. European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald (-5) has hit it in the water on 18.
HUGE from McIlroy (+2), seven feet down the hill, with a three foot curve and he holes it for par. Seamus Power (+2) is one over for his second round through six holes. Vegas (-8, 70) stabs a 20-incher over the corner of the hole on 18. That’s a double bogey for the leader. The chasing pack will be greatly encouraged.
McIlroy (+2) extricates his ball from the rough, comes up short of the green and the chip is a little flighty. Shane Lowry (+2) has just given a shot back at the par three, sixth. One birdie, one bogey. Vegas was in trouble at the 18th, needed a ruling. It’s a question of his many shots he will drop. Scheffler (-3) rolls in a birdie putt on three. He’s trending in the right way.
Can’t find that Copperhead snake. John O’Sullivan here and I’m back for the next two and a half hours. McIlroy (+2) grabs a birdie on two but then pulls his tee shot on the third into the shin high rough, lush and cloying as it might say in a brochure.
McIlroy (+3) and Schauffele (+1) are safely off the first tee, McIlroy carrying his ball over 300 yards and stopping shot of the bunker. Scheffler, who is -2, drive sends the spectators on the left side of the fairway scrambling as he fails to find the fairway.
McIlroy (+3) finds sand with his second shot on the first hole and pitches out to six feet.
Scheffler and McIlroy welcomed at the first tee. McIlroy must take off straight away and that will come with his first shot with the driver, the club that misbehaved in his first round.
The projected cutline is +1. Lowry and Power are both on it, Lowry after one hole and Power through three holes. Harrington is below it on +2 after four holes with McKibbin keeping it together with one birdie and a string of pars for -2 with four holes to play.
De Chambeau gets the crowd hollering again with a birdie at the 17th. That brings the American to -4, still six shots of Vegas’s -10 lead but moving in the right direction. It is his fourth birdie of the day with just one bogey on his card.
Can’t take our eyes off the most chilled man on the course. Vegas has opened up a four shot lead with a birdie on 14 for -10. The closest to him are Pavon and Thorbjornsen on -6. Harrington, starting on the 10th hole has gone birdie, par bogey for his first three holes and is +2, Power still on +1. McKibbin is holding steady at -2 through 13 holes.
Well, that was a disappointing end to what was shaping up to be a very good round for JJ Spaun. His three-putt bogey on 18 has dropped him down to -3. He signs for a 68 to add to yesterday’s 71.
Shane Lowry (+2) is teeing off around now. Harrington is +1 with two holes played and Seamus Power (+1) made par at his first hole. The projected cut line is +1
Vegas has just rolled in a bridie at 13 to take a 3-shot lead with -9. The Venezuelan looks the most relaxed man on the course. Meanwhile Rory McIlroy (+3) has just crossed into the practice area knowing he has a mountain to climb.
Vegas now has a two shot lead (-8) through 12 holes with Pavon (-6) the closest chaser. De Chambeau at -3 through 14 holes is causing all sorts of noise at the 15th, his approach racing across the green and narrowly missing the flag.
Seamus Power (+1) is due on the course shortly. Tee time start is 5.41 which is roughly 10 minutes from now.
I’m off to find that snake that was crawling across the 10th fairway. Apparently it’s a copperhead. What could go wrong? Johnny Watterson is going to take you through the next few hours and I’ll be back then.
McKibbin (-2) has just completed the second of the three holes that comprise the green mile in par. He’s on the 18th tee, his ninth hole.
DeChambeau (-1) watches a shot go on the second, his 11th hole after some tree trouble off the tee.
Spaun (-5) moves closer to the leader Vegas with a birdie on 14. The leader shouts mud, mud, mud, as he misses the green right. Mud on ball has been an issue for many at Quail Hollow.
Marshal kicks snake crossing fairway. About eight feet, the snake that is. In golf news Pavon (-5) grabs another birdie on the 12th, De Chambeau (-2) lips out for birdie on the first, his 10th.
DeChambeau (-2) nudges his drive 340 yards down the first (his 10th), his pitch finishes about eight feet from the hole; he’ll have that for birdie.
Thorbjornsen (-4) drops a shot on nine, all down to a poor tee shot. McKibbin (-2) picks up another shot, holing a five-footer on the par five, 15th. The Holywood native is about to enter ‘The Green Mile.’ Can he emerge unscathed?
DeChambeau (-2) makes par. Hovland (-2) gives up the birdie he wrangled on 17 with a bogey on the 18th. Homa (-4) burns the edge of the hole with a birdie putt on the fifth, his 14th.
The prognosis is that the cut will be two over par. That’s the opinion of the cognoscenti. VIVA, VIVA Johnny Vegas. Been waiting all afternoon to type that. Vegas (-7) gets back to where he started the day after a birdie on the seventh.
Scott (-2) has dropped a couple of shots, Hovland (-3) is in trouble off the tee on the 18th. DeChambeau (-2) has squeezed his drive out 332 yards. He is going in with a wedge. Others are hitting five iron. The American spins it back off the green. Hovland takes a divot the size of a flying carpet with his third shot. He’ll have 20 feet for par.
Hovland (-3) recovered from his chipping nightmare on 12 for a double bogey with three birdies as he stands on the 19th tee, his ninth. Homa (-5) with five birdies and an eagle through 12 holes having started on the 10th, is in a bit of trouble at the par three fourth. Bogey trouble. And that’s exactly what transpires. Homa (-4) makes his first mistake.
Davies (-4) slips up on 11 to drop a shot, Hatton (-2) is still muttering two holes after his triple bogey. DeChambeau (-2) reduces the 16th to a drive and wedge, all 530 yards of it, the first hole in a stretch of holes from 16 to 18 known as the Green Mile.
The name came from a caller to a local radio show in Charlotte, North Carolina about 20 years ago.
He referred to the title of the 1999 Tom Hanks film where prisoners condemned to death would walk on green floor tiles that would lead them to the electric chair in a Louisiana jail.
Quail’s Green Mile consists of the 529-yard par-4 16th hole (which was stretched and moved to a perch above the water in 2013), the 223-yard par-3 17th (with water short, left and long thanks to Arnie’s redesign in 1985), and the 494-yard, par-4 18th hole (pinched narrow by a Tom Fazio-created creek snaking along the left side).
France’s Mathieu Pavon (-4) has racked up four birdies through his first eight holes and is just a couple of shots behind Vegas.
McKibbin (-1) has started with four pars, beginning on the 10th. The 18th is set to take a chunk out of another player’s round, this time Morikawa (-2), who had to take a penalty drop and ends up with a double bogey: he goes from four to two under.
The two Englishmen Rai (-4) and Hatton (-2) are having serious issues. Rai’s are of a slightly lesser variety as he makes a bogey on the eighth. Hatton makes triple bogey on the 18th, his ninth. He drove into the water, took a penalty drop, hit it into more lush rough and eventually ended up with a triple bogey dropping him from a shot out of the lead to a couple under and undoing some excellent play on the front nine. He won’t be philosophical about it.
Collin Morikawa (-4) has made an excellent start to Friday, three birdies in the first eight holes, starting on the 10th. Max Homa’s (-4) progress is even more stellar. The American has rattled off four birdies and an eagle on the 14th to the turn, having started on 10.
Rai (-5, 7 holes) had started the day with bogeys at the first and second but three birdies, the latest of which came at the seventh. Rai was second on the opening day in terms of iron shot approaches to greens. The Wolverhampton golfer is a relatively short hitter but his accuracy is helping him to plot his way around Quail Hollow.
The leader, Vegas, has dropped a shot at the second, missed the green with his approach and failed to get up and down; he had seven feet for par. Hatton (-5) is making a move three birdies and a bogey in his first eight holes, the latest a nice nine-footer.
Davies is through nine holes (-5) level par for his round, one birdie and one bogey.
Everyone is chasing Jhonattan Vegas, the Venezuelan birdied five of the last six holes for a stunning, seven under 64, and a two-shot lead over American Ryan Gerard and Australia’s Cam Davies. They in turn are one shot clear of Adam Scott, English duo Tyrell Hatton and Aaron Rai and American Michael Thorbjornsen.
