European Tour:
Jonas Blixt and Cameron Smith posted a 10-under 62 in Friday’s four-ball format to move into the lead at the Zurich Classic, which is in its first year of a new team format.
Blixt and Smith have a twoday total of 15-under 129 to lead by one over Patrick Reed and Patrick Cantlay in Avondale, La. The K.J Choi-Charlie Wi and Troy Merritt-Robert Streb pairings are tied for third at 13 under.
The four-ball format has each member of a two-man team playing his own ball throughout a round, with only the best score on each hole recorded. The same format will be used Sunday. The first and third rounds have an alternate-shot format.
The change from the alternate-shot approach produced much lower scores Friday.
Those extraordinary low scores caused the two firstround leaders to fall off the pace a bit.
Jordan Spieth and Ryan Palmer had posted a 66 in the first round to share the lead with the Ryan Ruffels-Kyle Stanley duo.
Both teams posted a 66 again Friday and fell into a six-way tie for fifth place.
Two of the higher-profile teams in this new format weren’t able to advance to Saturday’s third round. Justin Rose and Henrik Stetson ended up at 6 under to miss the cut by one shot. Jason Day and Rickie Fowler also missed the cut at 5 under.
“I think the format is a unique format,” Day said. “Missing the cut is not what we wanted, but walking away from this, I think they’re heading in the right direction with regards to a different format that adds more flavor to the PGA Tour.”
On Thursday, the event produced the first penalty for slow play since 1995.
PGA Tour officials said Miguel Angel Carballo and Brian Campbell were penalized one shot on the 14th hole of the opening round for their second bad time. They opened with a 74 in foursomes.
They were on the clock when Carballo went over his allotted time on the 12th hole. Then, Campbell had a bad time on the 14th hole.
Typically, a player receives a warning after the first bad time and a one-shot penalty after his second.
Because they were a team in foursomes, however, rules specify that a “player” includes his partners.
Until Thursday, the last time a PGA Tour player was penalized one shot for pace of play was Glen Day in the third round of the 1995 Honda Classic.
Haru Nomura shot a 6-under 65 for a tworound total of 133 and a oneshot lead in the North Texas LPGA Shootout in Irving.
Ariya Jutanugarn is second
LPGA Tour:
following a 67 with Suzann Pettersen another shot behind. Moriya Jutanugarn, Ariya’s older sister, is fourth at 136 with two-time tournament winner Inbee Park and Marina Alex.
Lexi Thompson, playing in her first tournament since a rules violation cost her a likely victory in the season’s first major three weeks ago, shot a 72 after birdieing three of the first five holes. She is nine shots behind at 142.
First-round leader M.J. Hur also shot a 72 and trails by four strokes.
Pablo Larrazabal shot a 6-under 66 to take a three-stroke lead halfway through the China Open in Beijing.
Dylan Frittelli had the lowest score of the round with a 63 and was tied for second at 11 under.