Matsuyama, Kisner share lead in wet PGA
Chasing career slam, Spieth 11 shots back
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Hideki Matsuyama never looks satisfied with his shots or his score, no matter how good they look.
Perhaps it will take winning a major to change that.
Five days after the Japanese star closed with a 61 to win his second World Golf Championship, Matsuyama motored through a dampened Quail Hollow with a 7-under 64 that gave him a share of the lead with Kevin Kisner (67) in the PGA Championship.
They were at 8-under 134, all but ending the hopes of Jordan Spieth to get the career Grand Slam this year.
Heavy rain that suspended play Friday afternoon made Quail Hollow more vulnerable than it has been all week, only Spieth couldn’t take advantage. He made only one birdie, finished with a bogey, and shot 73 to finish 11 shots back.
“I kind of accept the fact that I’m essentially out of this tournament pending some form of crazy stuff the next couple of days,” Spieth said.
Kisner faced tougher, faster conditions in the morning and holed a 50foot eagle putt from short of the green on the par-5 seventh hole. When his round was over, Kisner had a five-shot lead over the players from his side of the draw.
It didn’t look as though anyone would get close.
“These guys going out this afternoon, they break 70, they’ve done a hell of a job,” Rory Mcilroy said after a 73 put him 10 shots back.
A light rain began falling not long after Mcilroy’s prediction.
Then, the storms rolled in with heavy rain that drenched the course and forced a rain delay of 1 hour, 43 minutes. And when the second round resumed, it felt like an entirely different golf course.
The second round was halted by darkness, leaving 26 players who had to return Saturday morning. That included Chris Stroud, who was 5 under and had five holes remaining.
Jason Day, who played a four-hole stretch in 5 under around the turn and before the storms, began smashing his driver without regard that it might run through the fairways and into the rough. He shot 66 and was two shots behind.
There were pitch marks on the putting surfaces. There were splotches of mud of the sides of golf balls. But the biggest difference was the rain took the fear out of putting on the fast, frightening greens and sent scores tumbling.
Francesco Molinari also shot a 64 and was at 5-under 137, along with Louis Oosthuizen, who had a 67.
Matsuyama, finishing his swing with one hand as tee shots found the fairway, already was playing great and putting even better. The storm delay did not stop him.
He ran off four straight birdies starting on No. 12 when he hit his approach 67-67 — 134 70-64 — 134 70-66 — 136 73-64 — 137 70-67 — 137 69-70 — 139 73-66 — 139 69-70 — 139 71-69 — 140
into 12 feet. That was the longest of his seven birdie putts, though he also made a 20-foot par putt on the ninth hole. When the round resumed, Matsuyama got up-and-down for birdie on the 15th, saved par from a bunker on the 16th and then drilled a 7-iron over the bunker to 7 feet for birdie on the par-3 17th.