MALNATI LEADS; TIGER SURVIVES
Woods, McIlroy, Mickelson make cut, but aren’t in contention
Always-smiling Peter Malnati turns a 68 round into a one-shot lead at Wells Fargo; Woods, McIlroy, Mickelson managed to elude the cut.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Peter Malnati and Tiger Woods both had reason to celebrate on the ninth green at Quail Hollow at the end of their rounds.
Malnati was coming off two straight birdies to take the lead Friday in the Wells Fargo Championship when he put his 5-iron in a deep bunker to the right, with the green running away from him. He was trying to blast out to 15 feet, but he got the club too much under the ball and feared for the worst until it cleared the lip by inches.
Malnati emphatically wiped his hand across his brow, made the 6-foot par putt for a 3-under 68 and had a one-shot lead over Jason Day and Aaron Wise.
“Pretty scary when I hit it,” he said. “I got away with it, looked like a genius.”
Hours earlier, Woods stood over an 18-foot putt on No. 9, his final hole of another ordinary round that up until then featured no birdies. He finally made one, and stretched out both hands in mock celebration when it dropped.
“I’m on a hot streak right now. I made the last putt,” he said.
Never mind that it was the only putt he made longer than 5 feet. Or that he was nine shots out of the lead in a tie for 48th, his worst position through 36 holes in his last five tournaments. At least he was still playing on the weekend at Quail Hollow, where he had missed the cut his previous two trips. That putt made certain of it, though Woods made it the cut with one shot to spare.
Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson also had to sweat it out.
McIlroy, the only two-time winner at the Wells Fargo Championship, celebrated his 29th birthday on Friday by matching his worst score at Quail Hollow with a 76, including three bogeys over the last five holes.
He was in the same spot as Woods, nine shots out of the lead.
Mickelson wasn’t that wild — three bogeys, two birdies, another 72, and he made the cut with one shot to spare.
LPGA: At The Colony, Texas, France’s Celine Boutier shot a 1-under 70 to grab the lead among the 12 golfers who finished the rain-delayed first round of the LPGA Texas Classic.
After Thursday’s play was cancelled and Friday’s began following an 8½-hour delay because of rain, the tournament was cut from 72 holes to 36. All 144 golfers will play both rounds with the payout limited to the top 70 and ties. Half the field got on the course Friday.
Boutier, in her second year on tour after playing for Duke, had four birdies and three bogeys on the 6,475-yard Old American Golf Club course that’s hosting the event for the first time.