SPIETH SLIPS TO 69 BUT KEEPS ONE-SHOT EDGE IN TRAVELERS
Leader shoots 69 after first-round 63; Day (+2) misses cut.
Jordan Spieth played just well enough in the second round of the Travelers Championship to stay in the lead. Rory McIlroy played just well enough to stay in the tournament.
Spieth shot a 1-under 69 on Friday morning, then watched as a windy afternoon kept anyone from overtaking him.
The conditions also kept fourth-ranked Jason Day from making the cut for a second straight week. He bogeyed the 18th for a 70 to finish at 2 over. No. 3 McIlroy shot a 73, also closing with a bogey, but managed to just sneak into the weekend at even par.
Spieth, who began the day one shot ahead after a firstround 63, started on the back nine. The 23-year-old Texan had to recover from a double bogey on the par-5 13th hole after hitting his tee shot left and out of bounds. He also had four birdies and a bogey to reach 8 under.
“We’ve been kind of far behind in a lot of the events in making comeback runs,” said Spieth, the two-time major champion who tied for 35th last week in the U.S. Open. “But being able to be toward the front of the pack on a Saturday afternoon is a beautiful position to be in and one that we’ll certainly embrace. I’m going to try to have a lot of fun this weekend.”
Patrick Reed (66) and Troy Merritt (68) were tied for second. Both fought off wind gusts that exceeded 20 mph to hit 11 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens.
Monday qualifier Chase Seiffert made two eagles and finished with a 66 to reach 6 under with Wesley Bryan (67), Daniel Summerhays (68) and Boo Weekley (68).
The biggest drama of the afternoon was watching the world’s third- and fourthranked players try to make it to the weekend.
Day was close, until he hit his second shot at 18 into a greenside bunker. He failed to get up and down, missing a 6-footer for par.
McIlroy may have saved his tournament on the 13th. After hitting his first shot in the water and taking a drop, he hit his third shot to 17 feet and made par. LPGA Tour: Sung Hyun Park nearly matched the course record with an 8-under 63 to take the firstround lead in the NW Arkansas Championship in Rogers.
The South Korean, ranked eighth in the world in her first full LPGA season, had nine birdies and needed only 24 putts to take a two-shot lead over Mel Reid, Ally McDonald and So Yeon Ryu.
European Tour: Joakim Lagergren shot 66 and Joel Stalter 68 to share the midway
lead at the BMW International Open in Munich at 9 under, one stroke ahead of former champions Sergio Garcia (70) and Henrik Stenson (69).
Champions Tour: Paul Broadhurst has the lead after the first round of the American Family Insurance Championship in Madison, Wis. Broadhurst shot a 9-under 63 to lead Brian Henninger by two strokes. Host Steve Stricker is locked in a threeway tie for third at 6 under.
Obituary: Frank “Sandy” Tatum, the former USGA president known for difficult U.S. Open setups and a famous quote after the “Massacre at Winged Foot,” died Thursday. He was 96.
After the 1974 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, won by Hale Irwin at 7-over par, Tatum — then chairman of the championship committee — said: “We’re not trying to humiliate the best players in the world, we’re simply trying to identify them.”