Three-way tie at Bridgestone
AKRON, Ohio — Nobody has a better Saturday scoring average on the PGA Tour than Tiger Woods, and the Bridgestone Invitational would be a good time to keep that up.
Woods might not have a choice.
Neither will Rory McIlroy, Jason Day or anyone else wanting to keep pace.
Tommy Fleetwood took advantage of another soft day of good scoring at Firestone with a 7-under 63. So did PGA champion Justin Thomas, who was particularly sharp with his putter for a 64. They shared the lead with Ian Poulter, who had a head start with his career-low 62 and backed it up decently enough Friday with a 67. They all played early and finished at 11-under 129. No one could catch them, mainly because there was just enough breeze to cause just enough doubt.
Even so, 45 players from the 71-man field were under par, a rarity at Firestone. Woods got within four shots of the lead with a tee shot to within 2 feet on the par-3 12th hole. He went 1 over the rest of the way for a 68, leaving him five shots behind.
Fleetwood, the runner-up at the U.S. Open, was most pleased to see nothing higher than 4s on his scorecard. He made it look easy, except for a few times he was slightly out of position, and hit perhaps his best shot with a 6-iron to a back-left pin that settled three feet below the cup.
“My irons, I just tended to hit exactly where we were picking the spots and I holed a few putts,” Fleetwood said. “You’ve got days like that where it’s going well, and you’ve just got to make the most of them.”
Day, who threw away a chance to win at Firestone two years ago, did not make as many as he would have liked. He still had a 66 playing in the same group with Woods and joined Kyle Stanley (68) two shots behind the leaders.
McIlroy was another shot behind after finishing a day of frustration with two birdies. He was in position to make birdies, especially with a 380-yard drive he launched at the 482-yard eighth hole that left him only a sand wedge in. It came up short, rolled down a slope and left him 45 feet away. He blasted a 319-yard drive down the middle at the 10th, only to hit sand wedge just over the green and make bogey.
Former Baylor School player Luke List shot 68 Friday for a 133 total, four shots off the lead.
Jerry Smith leads 3M Championship
BLAINE, Minn. — Jerry Smith made three late birdies to shoot a bogey-free 8-under 64 on Friday and take a two-shot lead at the 3M Championship.
Kenny Perry, Lee Janzen, Peter Lonard and Glen Day were two strokes back. None of the four has won this season. Lonard, who was added to the field on Tuesday, made a hole-in-one on the 177-yard fourth. Janzen and Perry eagled the par-5 18th.
Straka, Jones share lead in Web.com event
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Sepp Straka and Kyle Jones share the lead with at 13-under-par 129 after the second round of the Web.com Tour’s KC Golf Classic.
Eric Axley (140) and Jonathan Hodge (142) missed the cut.