TWO LEADING AFTER TWO ROUNDS IN MEMORIAL
Joaquin Niemann made an 8-foot birdie putt on his final hole to share the lead with Kyle Stanley in the Memorial.
Tiger Woods hit the ball well enough to be up there with them at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, except for missing five putts inside 7 feet.
Niemann is a 19-year-old from Chile in just his fifth pro start, and he already had a pair of top 10s on the PGA Tour. On a soft course yielding low scores, he made seven birdies to join Stanley (66) at 11-under 133.
They were two shots ahead of Byeong Hun An (67). Jason Day, a resident of nearby Columbus who has never finished better than 15th at the Memorial, had another 68 and was three back.
Woods energized the crowd with a brilliant eagle on the par-5 11th at Muirfield Village, a place where he’s won five times.
Woods’ wedge shot from 97 yards out hit past the hole before spinning backward and rolling in. He raised his arms in triumph, pitched his club to the caddie and acknowledged the roar from the gallery.
He carded a 67 for the day, but it should have been better.
“I missed a lot of shor t putts, which is, you know, something I don’t normally do, which is just frustrating,” he said.
Woods was at 5 under, six shots behind the co-leaders.
He was concerned about his repaired back, after tightness affected his game in the opening round. Despite a 90-weather delay after he eagled the 11th, he finished feeling fine.
“It’s weird to say, but this is my first delay this year,” he said. “Coming back out of it I was a little worried how my back was going to feel. I was hoping the delay wouldn’t be that long. I was pacing back and forth trying keep it loose, keep myself warm. There are things I don’t know yet. This is new.”
U.S. Women’s Open: Sarah Jane Smith extended her lead at the U.S. Women’s Open to four strokes after a second straight 5-under 67 Friday at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala.
The Australian got her round in before a 2-hour, 49-minute weather delay. The second round will be completed today with the low 60 scorers plus ties making the cut.
Smith opened the day in a three-way tie atop the leaderboard with Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn and Korean Jeongeun Lee. She’s at 10-under 134 heading into the weekend after failing to make the cut in five of her previous six U.S. Women’s Open tries.
Jutanugarn had an opening birdie to move to 6 under through eight holes. Lee fell back to 2 under with a second- day 75. Korean-born Su-Hyun Oh shot 68 and is also 6 under.
Canadian Brooke Henderson withdrew before Friday’s round for personal reasons. The USGA said in a statement Henderson left to be with her family in Ottawa.
LPGA Tour: Brittany Lincicome is set to join an elite group — female professionals playing in a PGA Tour event. Lincicome said she was asked to play in the Barbasol Championship in Kentucky on July 19-22.
Other female pros who have played in a PGA Tour event include Michelle Wie, Babe Zaharias, Annika Sorenstam and Suzy Whaley.
European Tour: Martin Kaymer returned to form in spectacular style to claim the halfway lead at the Italian Open. The German, who had missed the cut in three of his past four global events, carded eight birdies in a flawless second-round 63 at Gardagolf.
That took him to 11 under par, a shot clear of Spain’s Rafa Cabrera Bello, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, home favorite Francesco Molinari, Belgian Thomas Pieters and England’s Danny Willett on a congested leaderboard.