AUSSIES SCOTT, DAY PLAY FOR LYLE
ST. LOUIS: Australian contenders Adam Scott and Jason Day are battling in part to win the 100th PGA Championship in tribute to fellow Aussie golfer Jarrod Lyle, who died Wednesday of leukemia.
And they’re doing a pretty good job.
Scott, the 2013 Masters champion, fired Saturday’s ( Sunday in Manila) low round, a five- under- par 65, to stand second on 10- under 200, two strokes behind US leader Brooks Koepka after 54 holes at Bellerive Country Club.
World number 10 Day, the 2015 PGA Championship winner, shares sixth in a pack on 202 with four other major champions, including Tiger Woods.
“There are going to be about 10 of us looking for that round of the year,” Scott said. “Someone will go out and do it and I’m glad I’m in that position that it could be me.”
But the golfer most on their minds this week is their friend Lyle, who battled blood cancer for years, twice thinking he had beaten it only for it to return, leaving behind a wife and two children.
“It would be more than twice the thrill for me,” Scott said of what a win would mean Sunday. “But I think no matter who wins tomorrow, if that person has met Jarrod Lyle, they will have felt something with him passing.”
The Aussies feel it especially hard. Day was in tears talking about Lyle on Thursday after his opening round.
“It’s hard because you sit there and you know him and he’s a buddy of yours, and he’s not there anymore. He’s never going to come back,” Day said. “That’s the hardest thing to sort of come by.
“I lived across the street from him when we first started out in Orlando. He’s a good buddy of mine. It’s obviously heartbreaking.”
Being away from others touched by the loss in Australia makes it tougher.
“It has been such a difficult thing for us to get our heads around because we’ve been removed from Jarrod and his family back in Australia and everything happening so suddenly,” Scott said.
“I don’t even really know if we have all really had time to reflect on it and let it sink in. But I think that a part of everyone is playing for Jarrod out here this week.”
Beyond that, the Aussies have some positives of their own to create.
Scott, ranked 76th, needed a special invitation from the PGA of America just to compete in his 70th consecutive major, last missing one at the 2001 US Open. And he has not been in the hunt at a major often since his green jacket win five years ago.
ST. LOUIS: Tiger Woods charged into
Woods, a 14-time major champion in his comeback season from under par 66 to share fourth on eight-under par 202 for 54 holes at Bellerive Country Club in the
The 42-year-old American, who
then closed with 10 consecutive pars, was three off the pace of Koepka, who took his second consecutive US Open triumph in
“I could’ve been a little bit closer but I’ve got a shot going into tomor-
I struggled to hit it as the greens were The 42-year-old former world num-
a storm-halted second-round 66 Saturday morning, then delighted thousands of spectators following his every shot
was just like turning back the hands of a clock,” said Stewart Cink, the 2009 British Open winner who played alongside Woods and
Woods hit 10- of- 14 fairways and reached 15 of 18 greens in regulation after a draining but par after 15 holes, two ahead of fellow American Gary Woodland and Australian Adam Scott, the
Koepka, who in June became the
Opens since Curtis Strange in 198889, could become only the fourth player to win the US Open and PGA Championship in the same year, following fellow Americans Gene Sarazen in 1922, Ben Hogan
But he will be tested by 51stranked Woods, who won his most recent major title at the 2008 US Open and has not won any event since the
Woods showed impressive form last month by leading the British Open in Sunday’s closing holes and excited the crowd with similar
Woods sank a 17-foot birdie putt yard approach at the second to four
- sponded with an 11-foot birdie putt at the par-3 sixth, a seven-footer for birdie at the par-4 seventh and a sixfoot birdie putt at the par-5 eighth, the crowds and buzz around him
At the 10th, Woods found the right rough and pitched to 10 feet then made a tension-packed putt to rescue par, a right fist-pump showing his joy at avoiding a third
Woods parred his way to the par-5 17th, where he reached the green in two, missed a 19-foot eagle putt and then missed a four-foot comeback
“The
first one
I ran
it too
far -
Woods, who has never won a major title when not leading after 54 holes, owns 79 career PGA titles, three shy of
Woods has been pressing to play for the US Ryder Cup team but must win the PGA to automatically qualify for the squad going to France next month to defend
Koepka charges to top Koepka, who missed the Masters with a left wrist injury, opened birdie-birdie to grab the lead after playing partner Woodland made bogey at the second, but Woodland
Koepka birdied the fifth then matched Woodland’s birdie at the par5 eighth to stay on top, stretching the margin with an 11-foot birdie putt at the ninth while Woodland made bo-