XANDER REPEATS 63, LEADS BY 5 SHOTS
Playing up to his status as one of the top players in the world, Xander Schauffele shot his second straight 7-under 63 on Friday to take a five-stroke lead in the Travelers Championship.
The Olympic champion who hails from San Diego shot a 31 on the front nine at TPC River Highlands at Cromwell, Conn., with four birdies, then had a 32 on the back, making birdies on 11, 14 and 17.
He has hit 33 of 36 greens in regulation and is the only player in the tournament without a bogey.
His closest call came close at the par-3 16th, where he hit his tee shot found the rough behind a greenside bunker.
“It plays really interesting with the wind swirling through there,” Schauffele said. “It was my least committed swing of the week and just really happy to get up and down there and save par.“
Kevin Kisner (64), Nick Hardy (64), defending champion Harris English (65), Cam Davis (66) and Patrick Cantlay (67) were tied for second at 9 under.
First-round leaders Rory McIlroy and J.T. Poston followed opening 62s with 70s to drop six strokes back.
“Five shots is not insurmountable but I’m a going to need (Schauffele) to slow down a little bit,” Kisner said.
McIlroy, who was still leading by a stroke at 13 under before getting into trouble on the 12th hole, hitting his tee shot left and out of bounds into the woods, finishing with a quadruple bogey.
Chun’s lead up to 6
In Gee Chun shot a 3-under 69 to increase her lead to six strokes halfway through the Women’s PGA Championship.
Chun led by five after the first round, equaling the biggest 18hole advantage in the history of women’s major championships. The Congressional Country Club course in Bethesda, Md., was a bit more forgiving in the second round, and she began with three birdies in the first five holes. Bogeys on Nos. 7 and 8, however, kept her from opening a even bigger lead,
Lydia Ko (67) and Jennifer Kupcho (68) were second. Kupcho took the first major of the season in early April in the California desert and won a playoff Sunday in Michigan for her second LPGA Tour title.
Lexi Thompson matched Ko
with a 67 of her own, highlighted by an eagle when she holed out a wedge from 102 yards on the par-4 17th. U.S. Women’s Open champ Minjee Lee (68) was with Thompson at 3 under.
Ryder Cup redux
Padraig Harrington and Steve Stricker are going at it again on a big stage, and this time they have more say over the outcome at the U.S. Senior Open.
The two Ryder Cup captains from Whistling Straits last September will be in the final group going into the weekend at Saucon Valley in Bethlehem, Pa., after Harrington birdied three of his last six holes for a 6-under 65 to take a one-shot lead.
Stricker, whose U.S. team of stars throttled Europe in the Ryder Cup, did some nifty work of his own to overcome a sloppy start. He birdied his last three holes for a 69.
Harrington was at 6-under 136 going into a weekend that will not include Bernhard Langer for the first time since the German great was still in his 40s.
The 64-year-old Langer needed a birdie on his final hole to have any chance of making the cut. He made bogey for a 75 and missed by two shots. It was the first time in 65 senior majors that Langer failed to qualify for the weekend.
Jay Haas, the 68-year-old who on Thursday became the fifth player in U.S. Senior Open history to shoot his age with a 67, had to settle for Tom Watson’s age Friday. That was a 72, and it was good enough to keep him in the mix.
Elsewhere
The DP World Tour announced that it has fined the European golfers who played earlier this month in the first LIV Golf Invitational Series tournament earlier this month in England, and banned them from playing in three upcoming tournaments, all of which are co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour.
Any DP World Tour golfer who played in the LIV event without receiving permission will be fined around $123,000 and will be banned from playing in the Scottish Open, Barbasol Championship and the Barracuda Championship.
• Li Haotong kept his onestroke lead at the BMW International Open and Ryan Fox has moved up to second with a strong round of 8-under 64 in Munich.