Piercy heads a U.S. surge
Scott Piercy led a dominant American leaderboard yesterday at the PGA Tour’s CJ Cup in Jeju Island, South Korea, with a 7-under-par 65 to take a 1-stroke lead after two rounds.
Piercy was at 9-under 135, 1 shot ahead of Brooks Koepka, who also shot 65 and is playing in his first tournament since being voted PGA Tour Player of the Year. Fellow American Chez Reavie, who led by 1 stroke after the first round, was in third, 3 strokes behind Piercy.
Sweden’s Alex Noren (65) and Ian Poulter (69) of England were tied for fourth, 4 behind. Five Americans — Brian Harman with a round-of-theday 64, Ryan Armour (67), Gary Woodland (67), Jamie Lovemark (68) and Pat Perez (68), were tied for sixth, 5 strokes behind Piercy. Defending champion Justin Thomas shot 70 and was 8 shots off the lead at 1-under.
Champions: Quinn takes lead
Worcester native Fran Quinn and Scott Dunlap shot 5-under 67s to share the first-round lead in the PGA Tour Champions’ playoff-opening Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Va.
The top 72 players qualified for the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs opener. The top 54 will get spots next week in the Invesco QQQ Championship and the top 36 after that will advance to the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix.
Dunlap entered the week 29th in the standings. Quinn is 64th.
Jay Haas was a stroke back with Kent Jones, Stephen Ames, Woody Austin and Tim Petrovic. Vijay Singh and Miguel Angel Jimenez, second in the points standings, were at 69 with Joey Sindelar, Tom Gillis, Billy Mayfair, Lee Janzen, Glen Day and Gene Sauers.
Defending champion Bernhard Langer opened with a 70.
Europe: Rainy halt in play
Marc Warren helped his chances of retaining his European Tour card by moving into second place behind Ashley Chesters at the rain-hit Andalucia Valderrama Masters in Sotogrande, Spain. Bad weather interrupted play for a second day before darkness caused the round to be suspended with Chesters ahead at 5-under.
LPGA: Kim goes to front
Sei Young Kim led the LPGA Shanghai by 1 stroke at the halfway point after shooting a 5-under 67 in the second round. Kim made six birdies to move to a 10-under 134 total, 1 shot ahead of Danielle Kang (68) and firstround leader Ariya Jutanugarn (69).