Malnati leads by 1; Woods makes the cut
Peter Malnati and Tiger Woods both had reason to celebrate on the ninth green at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C., at the end of their rounds.
Malnati was coming off two straight birdies to take the lead Friday in the Wells Fargo Championship when he put his 5-iron in a deep bunker to the right, with the green running away from him. He was trying to blast out to 15 feet, but he got the club too much under the ball and feared for the worst until it cleared the lip by inches.
Malnati emphatically wiped his hand across his brow, made the 6-foot par putt for a 3-underpar 68. He’s at 7-under 135 through two rounds and has a one-shot lead over Jason Day and Aaron Wise.
“Pretty scary when I hit it,” he said. “I got away with it, looked like a genius.”
Hours earlier, Woods stood over an 18-foot putt on No. 9, his final hole of another ordinary round that until then featured no birdies. He finally made one, and stretched out both hands in mock celebration when it dropped.
“I’m on a hot streak right now. I made the last putt,” he said.
Never mind that it was the only putt he made longer than 5 feet. Or that he was nine shots out of the lead in a tie for 48th, his worst position through 36 holes in his last five tournaments. At least he still was playing on the weekend at Quail Hollow. That putt made certain of it, though Woods made the cut with one shot to spare.
Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson also had to sweat it out.
McIlroy, the only two-time winner at the Wells Fargo Championship, celebrated his 29th birthday by matching his worst score at Quail Hollow with a 76, including three bogeys over the last five holes.
Mickelson wasn’t that wild — three bogeys, two birdies, another 72, and he made the cut with one shot to spare.
PGA Tour Champions: Bernhard Langer played his best round in more than two years, shooting a course-record 9under 63 at The Woodlands (Texas) Country Club to take a three-stroke lead in the Insperity Invitational.
Seeking his first victory of the year after seven wins in 2017, Langer, 60, birdied the first two holes and turned in 32. He added birdies on five of the next seven holes to get to 9-under.
Scott Dunlap and Jeff Maggert each shot 66 and were three shots back. Defending champion John Daly opened with a 72.
LPGA Tour: France’s Celine Boutier shot a 1-under 70 to grab the lead among the 12 golfers who finished the rain-delayed first round of the LPGA Texas Classic in The Colony.
After Thursday’s play was canceled and Friday’s began following an 8½-hour delay because of rain, the tournament was cut from 72 holes to 36. All 144 golfers will play both rounds with the payout limited to the top 70 and ties. Half the field got on the course Friday.
South Korea’s Sung Hyun Park was 6-under through 14 holes.