Woodland on top, McIlroy in mix
First-round leader Rose loses grip midway, Woods nine off the pace
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIF.— Gary Woodland escaped from a divot to birdie his final hole Friday and take a two-shot lead into weekend play at the U.S. Open.
Woodland was at 9 under after two rounds, two ahead of Justin Rose and three ahead of Louis Oosthuizen. Rory McIlroy was another shot back, tied with Aaron Wise.
Woodland, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, hit his tee shot into a divot on his last hole, the ninth. He managed to get his second shot on the green, then made a long birdie putt to finish his round.
Woodland finished with a 6under 65 to tie the Open scoring mark at Pebble set by Tiger Woods in 2000 and matched by Rose on Thursday.
Woods was nine shots behind, and it felt like more. He made a birdie on his second hole, and then missed everything else the rest of the day. Outside of his lone birdie from10 feet on No.11, he didn’t make a putt longer than five feet.
Two-time defending champion Brooks Koepka started slowly and finished with two late birdies for another 69. He was five shots behind in his bid to match a 114-year record with a third straight U.S. Open title.
“At this point, there’s not a lot to worry about,” said Rose, the first-round leader. “If you’re one ahead, one behind, it’s a lot of golf to be played. But it’s the perfect spot after two days.”
For a short time, it looked as though it might be even better.
Conditions were roughly the same as the first round, with little wind and cool clouds so thick that condensation felt like a light mist. Rose started slowly, even dropped his putter when a 12-foot birdie chance brazed the edge of the cup, his fifth straight par to start the round.
He reached 8 under with a bold 7-iron into three feet for birdie on the par-4 second. He was four shots ahead, and his tee shot on No. 3 left him just 85 yards away from a front pin. And that’s when it turned.
Rose came up short of the green and had to scramble for par. Then, he was torn between driver or an iron off the fourth tee, never got settled and hit his iron over the edge of the cliff and into the ice plant.
That led to bogey, and it was all pars the rest of the way.
“I felt like the third hole, I lost a bit of momentum,” Rose said. “Great opportunity there. Was definitely a birdie opportunity, and then laid up in the hazard on No. 4. A bit of lapse of concentration there.”
But he didn’t overlook the good, and there was plenty of that, especially for par. The biggest two were his final two holes, when Rose got up-anddown from choppy rough short of the eighth green, and 50-foot lag up the slope on the ninth green to end on a good note.
“I made up one shot on the lead,” Jordan Spieth said after his seven-birdie round of 69. “It felt like more, but Rosey ... that’s the best I’ve seen somebody get up-and-down around the golf course for two rounds, maybe ever.”