Woodland sets pace
Sirens blared across Bellerive, putting the second round of the PGA Championship on hold and ending a day of scoring rarely seen in a major.
Gary Woodland set the 36-hole record — for now, anyway — after a round where his driver wasn’t as reliable, he didn’t see many putts drop and he didn’t hit the ball quite as well as the day before.
“I can live with that,” he said Friday after a 4-under 66.
That put him at 10-under 130, breaking by one the PGA Championship record and tying the 36hole score for all majors.
And it was only good for a one-shot lead over Kevin Kisner.
There were two rounds of 63, one 64 and six 65s. And that was only half of the 156-man field.
Still to be determined was whether Woodland’s score even holds up as the lead. Storms arrived forcing a two-hour suspension, and the PGA of America declared the rest of the day a wash when rain pounded the course. Rickie Fowler had just birdied the 10th hole and was at 7 under.
Tiger Woods had three birdies through seven holes as he tried to get in range.
“I felt I was headed in the right direction,” said Woods, who was at 3 under. “Tomorrow is going to be a long day for a lot of us.”
The second round was to resume at 7 a.m. local time. The greens would be slightly smoother, the course slightly longer, the approach unchanged — see flag, aim at flag.
Perhaps it was easy for Woodland not to be overly impressed. He was playing with Kisner, who shot 29 on the back nine and was in the middle of the ninth fairway — his final hole — needing a birdie to become the first player to shoot 62 in the PGA Championship. He came up short of the green, chipped too strong and made bogey for a 64, leaving him one shot out of the lead Friday. /