Two tied for lead at Texas Open
SAN ANTONIO — Zach Johnson was going nowhere early in the Valero Texas Open when it all changed with one putt in Thursday’s opening round — an eight-footer for par on the 13th hole that kept him at 2 under.
He followed with a big drive, a hybrid shot that put the ball 12 feet away from the cup, and an eagle putt that had him well on his way.
Johnson kept right on going Friday with a 7-under 65 that gave him a share of the 36-hole lead with Ryan Moore at TPC San Antonio’s Oaks Course.
“You just never know. That’s the beauty of this game,” said Johnson, a 12-time winner on the PGA Tour whose most recent victory was the 2015 British Open. “I felt like I was hitting some solid shots and wasn’t getting rewarded, and you’ve just got to stay in it. You’ve got to persevere, grind it out, fight for pars. You just never know.”
Moore, a five-time PGA Tour winner who is winless since the 2016 John Deere Classic, had three birdies over his last five holes for a 67 and joined twotime Texas Open champion Johnson at 9-under 135. They had a one-shot lead over Andrew Landry (67) and Grayson Murray (69).
Ben Crane (66), David Hearn (68) and Martin Laird (65) were tied for fifth at 6 under, and Keegan Bradley (71), Chesson Hadley (71), Billy Horschel (71), Chris Kirk (66) and Denny McCarthy (67) were the group tied for eighth at 5 under.
All four Baylor School graduates on the PGA Tour were at the event, with Harris English (72) tied for 18th at 3 under and Keith Mitchell (72) tied for 25th at 2 under. Luke List (74) missed the cut by a stroke, and Stephan Jaeger (71) was another stroke back.
Sergio Garcia, who consulted Greg Norman on the design of the course, had a short stay in his first time at the Texas Open since 2010. At one point Friday, when he shot a 72, he became so frustrated he threw his driver into the shrubs.
Garcia missed the cut by a stroke, marking the first time since 2010 he missed the cut in successive starts. Garcia’s previous start before this week was at the Masters, where he had a disastrous hole in the first round and was never a threat to repeat as champion.
Johnson began the second round in San Antonio with five birdies in a six-hole stretch on the back nine, a sixth birdie on the par-4 first hole and then an eagle on the short par-4 fifth, where he holed out from a greenside bunker.
Moore thought he had wasted a good birdie opportunity on the par-5 14th hole when he left his 50-foot eagle putt about six feet short. But he made that, holed a similar putt from eight feet away for birdie on the next hole and sank a 15-foot putt on the 17th.
“That was a huge momentum putt there,” Moore said of the 14th. “It was a tough putt from down there with a lot of wind. That green is pretty exposed.”
Because 80 players made the cut, there will be a 54-hole cut after the third round.
LPGA in L.A.
LOS ANGELES — Moriya Jutanugarn took a one-stroke lead into the weekend at the HUGEL-JTBC L.A. Open in her latest bid to join younger sister Ariya as an LPGA Tour winner.
She shot a bogey-free 5-under 66 at Wilshire Country Club to get to 8-under 134. The 23-yearold from Thailand started fast with birdies on the par-5 second, par-4 third and par-3 fourth, then added birdies on the par-4 11th and par-5 13th.
Marina Alex (68) was a shot back in second, with So Yeon Ryu (65) another stroke behind
in third.
Ariya Jutanugarn (71), a seven-time winner on tour, was tied for 20th.
Brooke Henderson, the 20-year-old Canadian star whose win last weekend in Hawaii was the sixth of her LPGA Tour career, shot a 79 and missed the 4-over cut by three strokes.
Allen-Daly on top
RIDGEDALE, Mo. — Michael Allen and John Daly took the second-round lead on a cool and
breezy day at the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf.
Allen and Daly teamed up for an 8-under 46 on the Top of the Rock par-3 course with wind gusting to 15 mph and the temperature only in the high 50s at Big Cedar Lodge. They had three birdies on the front nine in alternate-shot play and added five more on the back in better-ball play to get to 13 under.
On Thursday, Allen and Daly opened with a 66 on the regulation Buffalo Ridge course. They will rotate to the 13-hole Mountain Top par-3 course today, then return to Top of the Rock for the final round Sunday.
Three teams were a stroke back and tied for second: 2017 tournament winners Carlos Franco and Vijay Singh, Bernhard Langer and Tom Lehman, and Paul Broadhurst and Kirk Triplett. Franco and Singh shot a 7-under 32 in better-ball play at Mountain Top, while Langer-Lehman and Broadhurst-Tripplet each shot a 6-under 48 at Top of the Rock.
Quiros up by one
RABAT, Morocco — Alvaro Quiros shot a 2-under 70 in windy conditions to push into a one-shot lead after two rounds of the Trophee Hassan II.
Quiros fought the elements, making seven birdies and five bogeys to move to 7 under overall and take the outright lead in the European Tour event. He was one clear of Andrew Dodt, who moved into contention with a 4-under 68 at the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam’s Red Course.
Erik van Rooyen (71) was another shot back in third, and Bradley Dredge (73), who shared the first-round lead with Quiros, was tied for fourth with Austin Connelly (71) at 4 under.