Cantlay fights through wind for lead
LA QUINTA, Calif. – Patrick Cantlay fought through gusting wind on his back nine Friday to take a one-stroke lead into the weekend at The American Express in a bid to win for the third time in four starts.
Tied for the first-round lead with Lee Hodges after a 10-under 62 at La Quinta Country Club, Cantlay shot a 68 on PGA West’s Nicklaus Tournament Course to reach 14-under 130.
“I actually putted really well today and made nothing,” Cantlay said. “The greens were a little beat up and it was hard to make putts. But I rolled it really well and I rolled it how I wanted to, I just didn’t get any to go in.”
Tom Hoge was second after a 66 on PGA West’s Stadium Course.
“I really felt fortunate that we got through 17 holes without the wind really coming up,” Hoge said. “Just our last hole there it got gusting.”
Joseph Bramlett, playing in the last group off the 10th tee at La Quinta, bogeyed the final two holes in strong wind for a 67 to drop into a five-man tie for third at 12 under.
“We guessed on the whole back nine and a couple of them I guessed right and a couple of them I guessed wrong,” Bramlett said. “That’s just kind of golf.”
Will Zalatoris birdied his last seven holes on the Nicklaus layout for a 61 to also join Cameron Young (68), Lanto Griffin (65) and Greyson Sigg (67) at 12 under. Young played at Nicklaus, and Griffin and Sigg at the Stadium.
The fourth-ranked Cantlay won the BMW Championship and Tour Championship in his final two starts last year to take the Fedex Cup, then opened this year with a fourth-place finish – at 26 under – two weeks ago in Hawaii in the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Last year in the desert, the 29-yearold former UCLA player closed with a Stadium-record 61 to finish a shot behind winner Si Woo Kim. Cantlay will play the Stadium the final two days, with more wind expected Saturday.
“It’s a golf course that suits my game,” Cantlay said. “We’ll see how it plays tomorrow with the increased wind. … Controlling your golf ball will be a premium tomorrow and leaving your golf ball in the correct spot will be really key to scoring well.”
Hoge will play tree-lined La Quinta on Saturday.
LPGA Tour
ORLANDO, Fla. – Nelly Korda competed last month in the PNC Championship alongside her father, former Australian Open tennis champion Petr Korda, and said she did not have the offseason that many other players had.
It shows. The start of 2022 has been a continuation of the monster season she put together a year ago.
Korda, at 23 the No. 1 player in the women’s game, shot 6-under 66 at Lake Nona on Friday to take a one-shot lead over Gaby Lopez and Danielle Kang at the midway point of the Hilton Grand
Vacations Tournament of Champions.
Through two rounds, Korda is at 10under 134. Her older sister and the defending champion, 28-year-old Jessica Korda, is two shots back.
Nelly Korda is accustomed to success at Lake Nona, where 11 months ago she captured the Gainbridge LPGA, which has moved venues this season. Korda has played six competitive rounds at the course and never shot worse than 69. Friday’s effort was her lowest to date. She birded all four of the par 5s and finished with seven birdies, rolling in a 15footer at No. 18 for the lead. She is making the game appear pretty easy.
“I guess it’s very similar to the golf course I play at Concession,” Korda said of her club, which is roughly 2 hours away in Bradenton. “I kind of feel more at home here. I love the golf course, love the layout. I love that it’s a good challenge. The rough is pretty thick this year, too. So I kind of like to embrace those challenges.”
Lopez led after 18 holes and won this tournament two years ago. She overcame two late bogeys with a closing birdie of her own, chipping in at the par-4 18th for a 68. Given that it’s the first event of a new season, she said she can forgive the sloppy bogeys she made at the 15th and 17th holes.
Little was going to dampen Lopez’s mood in a grouping alongside one of her heroes, Annika Sorenstam, a 72-time LPGA winner and World Golf Hall of Fame member who is competing this week in the tournament’s 50-player celebrity division.
Sorenstam, a Lake Nona member, and former major league pitcher Mark Mulder, a former winner of the celebrity competition, have 68 points in the modified Stableford system, trailing former MLB right-hander Derek Lowe by a point.
European Tour
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Rory Mcilroy rolled in a 6-foot birdie putt at the last and was set to join Collin Morikawa in making the cut on the number in a brutal second round at the Abu Dhabi Championship that brought some of the best golfers to their knees.
Gusts of up to 40 mph (64 kph) off the coastline of the Persian Gulf caused havoc at Yas Links, with just five of the 93 players who completed their round shooting under par in conditions typically associated with the British Open.
Scott Jamieson ended the day where he started it – in the lead – despite a 2over 74 that was 11 shots worse than he hit on Thursday. Viktor Hovland remained in second place, still a stroke off the lead, after also shooting 74.
As for Mcilroy and Morikawa, the two star names in the field, they were both 3 over for the tournament and just glad to be on course to make the weekend.
Mcilroy reached the 18th tee below the projected cut and on course to finish a round without a birdie for the first time since the 2017 US Open. He avoided that by getting up and down from 43 yards to shoot a 75.