An unkind cut for McDowell as he loses his tour card
GRAEME McDOWELL was the highest profile casualty at the Wyndham Championship where a missed cut late on Friday cost him his playing card on the PGA Tour.
McDowell, 38, put up a dogged fight with two birdies and an eagle in five holes on the back nine to give himself a chance of surviving until the weekend.
But a missed birdie chance on the 17th was followed by a bogey on the 18th which left him two shots outside the mark – it was his sixth missed cut in seven events.
McDowell won the US Open in 2010, was runner-up in 2012 and was a PGA Tour winner as recently as November 2015.
Once ranked as high as four in the world, the fourtime Ryder Cup star has slipped outside the top 100.
Seamus Power’s prospects of holding on to his card suffered a significant blow as he fell back in the third round yesterday at the Sedgefield Country Club after a decent start.
Needing to finish in the top 125 on the money list, Power had a nightmare back nine in the final counting event as he dropped six shots. It sent Power tumbling back from five under for the tournament to one over after shooting a 74 and dropped him to a projected 129th in the overall standings. He will need something special today.
Pádraig Harrington will have a medical exemption for nine events next year but he too will lose his full tour privileges as, needing a top-three finish, he is well down the field after a 76 yesterday.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Marcel Siem set his sights on emulating compatriots Bernhard Langer and Martin Kaymer after reaching the semi-finals of the Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Play.
Siem recovered from two down with four to play to beat England’s Robert Rock on the 19th at Bad Griesbach Golf Resort.
Siem said of the prospect of matching Langer and Kaymer by winning a home European Tour event: ‘It’s shivers already. There’s a lot of golf to play still. It would be fantastic to win on home soil. It would be very special for me.’
Siem will face Sweden’s Johan Carlsson in the last four. The other semi-final will see Spain’s Adrian Otaegui take on compatriot Alejandro Canizares, who beat Ireland’s Paul Dunne at the 21st hole in the last 16.
The United States retained their three-point lead over Europe after the foursomes on day two of the Solheim Cup in Iowa, taking a 7 1/2 to 4 1/2 lead into the fourballs.