D. Johnson builds lead in Mexico Championship
MEXICO CITY – Tiger Woods delivered the shot that had the gallery buzzing. Dustin Johnson produced the golf that left everyone chasing him.
Johnson made it through another round at the Mexico Championship without a bogey, and he was so efficient Friday that he putted for birdie on every hole, one of them from just on the fringe.
It added to a 4-under 67 and a twoshot lead over Rory McIlroy and Matt Kuchar going into the weekend.
“Just hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens,” Johnson said.
The memorable moments belonged to everyone else, not all of them good.
Woods started to figure out Chapultepec Golf Club a little better in his second full round and made a collection of medium-length birdie putts for a 66 that got him back in the game, though still six shots behind.
He would have liked one more, especially with the shot he hit at the end of his round.
From a bunker right of the ninth fairway, a tree in his path, Woods sliced a 9-iron from about 130 yards that caught the left side of the green with so much spin that it zipped sideways at the pin and rolled 10 feet by.
He settled for a par.
“The ball was sitting down just enough where I didn’t think I could clear that tree,” Woods said.
“I ended up going back to the 9-iron and realized, ‘Geez, I’ve really got to slice this thing.’ So I opened up and gave it as much of a cut motion as I possibly could. And it worked out.”
Johnson was at 11-under 131 on a course where he won two years ago, when he was No. 1 in the world and playing the best golf of his career.
PGA Tour
RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – D.J. Trahan birdied the final hole at windy Coco Beach Golf and Country Club for a 5-under 67 and a share of the second-round lead with Nate Lashley in the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open.
Trahan had seven birdies and two bogeys in his morning round.
“When the wind’s blowing like this and a lot of these holes are crosswinds, you really have to pick your lines and just commit and make good, solid swings,” Trahan said. “I felt really good and I was also really committed to each and every shot.”
The 38-year-old player won the last of his two PGA Tour titles in 2008.
“Mentally and physically I’m on the upside of things,” Trahan said.
LPGA Tour
CHONBURI, Thailand – South Korean golfer Jenny Shin snatched the lead at the LPGA Thailand with a birdie on the last hole of the second round at Siam Country Club Pattaya.
Shin bogeyed the sixth hole but sunk five birdies in the rest of the round, including the par-5 18th. Her round of 4under 68 put her at 11 under overall and one shot ahead of the field.
Three players were tied for second: Lizette Salas of the United States (68), Minjee Lee of Australia (69), and firstround leader Eun-Hee Ji of South Korea (71).
Shin said she was feeling the heat and thought she could’ve played better.