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Streb shoots 63 to share lead as Day charges

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SPRINGFIEL­D, New Jersey: Unheralded Robert Streb matched the record-low round in major golf history Friday with an astonishin­g seven-under par 63 to seize a share of the lead after the second round of the PGA Championsh­ip.

Top-ranked defending champion Jason Day’s amazing run of seven birdies in eight holes to grab a share of third was overshadow­ed by a 29-year-old American on a rainsoaked Baltusrol layout soggy enough to surrender low scores in a wild afternoon of shot making.

Back-nine starter Streb made a lone bogey and eight birdies, the last of them on a curling 21-foot putt at the par-three ninth to make history and match compatriot Jimmy Walker for the 36-hole lead at nine-under 131.

“I was pretty excited about it,” Streb said. “I was waiting on it to break, waiting on it to break and it finally turned there at the end.

“It was a great round. Happy to be part of that 63 club.”

Streb’s 63 was the 30th shot at a major but he was the 28th player to achieve the feat, Fiji’s Vijay Singh and Australian Greg Norman having done it twice. British Open champion Henrik Stenson and runner-up Phil Mickelson each did it two weeks ago at Royal Troon.

Baltusrol has surrendere­d the most 63s of any major course with four, including two of only four in US Open history, the 63s of Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf in the first round in 1980, and another by Thomas Bjorn at the 2005 PGA Championsh­ip.

Streb, whose lone US PGA victory came in the 2014 McGladrey Classic, has gone 27 US PGA events without a top-10 showing since placing 10th at the 2015 PGA Championsh­ip, although he was fourth at this year’s European Tour Nedbank Challenge in South Africa.

Streb missed the cut in all three prior majors this year but played the round of his life to put himself in contention for a major title.

“The ball-striking and putting has been a little difficult this year,” he said. “Just been trying to hang on by a thread. Obviously it’s coming together this week, which is nice.”

Australia’s Day fired a 65 to stand two strokes adrift on 133 along with Argentine rookie Emiliano Grillo, who shot 67.

Day, who battled illness and fatigue in round one, became annoyed at a doubleboge­y on the seventh hole and responded with short birdie putts at eight and nine, 18-foot birdie putts at 10 and 13 around a 10-footer at the par-3 12th.

Then came a stunning 37-footer at 14 and a fivefooter on 15 for good measure, although he failed to take advantage of the par-5 17th and 18th or he might have shot 63, or better.

“That double bogey kicked me in the bum a little bit,” Day said. “A little disappoint­ed I didn’t birdie either of the par5s. But I’m saving them for the weekend.

Morning showers dumped an inch of rain on the 7,428-yard layout and halted play for 41 minutes as groundskee­pers cleared pud- dles from greens and standing water from fairways. Balls held on saturated greens and made up for the lack of fairway roll. “It was much softer,” Walker said. “If you were in the fairway you could do anything you wanted with the golf ball.” Sweden’s Stenson was alone in fifth after his second consecutiv­e 67 with two-time major winner Martin Kaymer of Germany sharing sixth on 135 with Americans Patrick Reed and Brooks Koepka. Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama eagled the second hole on his way to a 67 to share ninth with Welshman Jamie Donaldson and Americans Rickie Fowler and Harris English. Fourth-ranked Rory McIlroy fired a 69 but could not overcome a bogey-less first-round 74 and the four-time major champion missed the cut on 142 by a stroke.

US left-hander Mickelson, who opened with a triple bogey after a tee shot that went over a fence and onto a street, birdied the last to make the cut on the number.

Second-ranked Dustin Johnson, who won the US Open last month, fired a 72 to finish on 149. Only 10 players had worse 36-hole totals.

The PGA of America apologized after a rules blunder that impacted the first backnine starters, including Japan’s Yuta Ikeda, who shot 67 to stand on 137.

The location guide sheet given Ikeda’s group showed a hole cut on the left side of the green when it had actually been put on the right side, a blunder not caught until the group had played approaches at the 10th, which Ikeda bogeyed.

Also on 137 was Jordan Spieth, whose shot from a gravel path at the seventh hole aroused ire for television viewers over possible rules violation, although a PGA of America statement said there was no violation.

 ??  ?? NICE FORM: Robert Streb of the United States plays his shot from the fifth tee during the second round of the 2016 PGA Championsh­ip at Baltusrol Golf Club on Friday in Springfiel­d, New Jersey. (AFP)
NICE FORM: Robert Streb of the United States plays his shot from the fifth tee during the second round of the 2016 PGA Championsh­ip at Baltusrol Golf Club on Friday in Springfiel­d, New Jersey. (AFP)
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