Cold? Day is fired up
Co-leader Streb fires 63, but defending champ birdies 7 of 8 holes to stay in hunt
SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — On the scale of illness and injury to overcome when entering a major golf championship, Jason Day this week fell somewhere between the sniffles and a mangled body part.
“Tiger (Woods) won the U.S. Open on a broken leg,” Day said with a grin late Friday evening at Baltusrol Golf Club. “I have a cold. It’s not the same.”
Day was enough under the weather after playing in Canada last week that he didn’t practice for the 98th PGA Championship until Wednesday. He never had seen the golf course before. He had no idea what kind of game he could produce.
There’s the lesson: Beware of the great player with low expectations.
After giving himself a heated tongue lashing upon making a double-bogey on the seventh hole Friday, Day went on a stunning tear. The defending PGA champ made seven birdies in an eight-hole stretch from Nos. 8 through 15 and shot 5-under-par 65 to be tied for third at 7 under with Emiliano Grillo.
They are two shots behind Robert Streb, who made eight birdies in becoming the 28th player to notch a 63 in majors history, and Jimmy Walker (66). At 9-under 131, the pair tied the 36-hole record for the PGA Championship.
The weekend is set up for a cattle drive of a finish. Ten players are five shots or closer to the lead, including Henrik Stenson (67), coming off his British Open triumph, alone in fifth at 6 under. Two-time major winner Martin Kaymer (69) is among a Jason Day reacts to his shot on the 18th green during the PGA Championship on Friday. three-man group at 5 under.
As the world’s topranked player, Day was a heavy favorite to contend, but his expectations were altered by the illness he picked up from his children. That now seems unfortunate for the rest of the field.
“A lot of the expectation came down,” Day said. “I think being able to kind of voice where I’m at mentally and physically with my health takes a lot of expectations off my shoulders and lets everyone know that I don’t have a lot of expectation coming to the week.”
In his first round at Baltusrol, Day shot a respectable 68, but he seemed to be going in the wrong direction in the second round when he butchered the 478-yard seventh by needing four shots around the green after hitting his approach into a green-side bunker.
He walked off the green chattering under his breath.
“A few swear words inside my head,” Day said.
Few recover like Day did. It started with a birdie at No. 8 as Day punched a low shot from 86 yards to 3 feet from the pin.
What Day failed to do was make a birdie at either of the closing par-5s. He has only pars on each so far.
“I’m just trying to save them for the weekend,” Day said with a smile.
Streb, a 29-year-old from Oklahoma whose lone PGA Tour victory came in the 2015 McGladrey Classic, didn’t seem like a prime candidate to tie for the lowest score in a major. He has a 71.39 scoring average this season and has a best finish of a tie for 18th in the Farmers Insurance Open.
But starting on the 10th hole, Streb spread out the eight birdies, never making more than two in a row. When Streb birdied No. 7 by making a 42-foot putt, he had a chance to shoot the all-time majors low of 62 if he birdied the final two. It didn’t happen when he missed a 14-footer at No. 8. He finished by making a 20-foot putt for birdie on the par-3 ninth.
“Happy to be a part of the 63 club,” Streb said.
It was the third 63 shot in a major in the last 16 days. Stenson and Phil Mickelson did it in the British Open.
The tournament came to an end for a couple of big names, the most startling being reigning U.S. Open champion and world No. 2 Dustin Johnson, who missed the 2-over cut by seven shots.
No. 4 Rory McIlroy struggled badly on the greens and missed by a stroke at 3 over.