Snedeker follows 59 with 67 to stay in lead
Brandt Snedeker couldn’t block out the buzz that surrounded his firstround 11-under 59 at the Wyndham Championship. He refocused just in time to reclaim the lead.
Snedeker followed his historic opening score with a 67 on Friday to take a two-stroke lead into the weekend at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C.
A day after becoming the 10th player in PGA Tour history to break 60, Snedeker moved to 14-under 126 halfway through the final PGA Tour event before the playoffs.
“You hear people telling you every two seconds, ‘Mr. 59,’ or saying how cool it was to watch it,” Snedeker said. “So, yes, totally on your mind.”
D.A. Points shot a 64 to reach 12 under, one stroke ahead of C.T. Pan, who also had a 64. David Hearn, Peter Malnati, Keith Mitchell, Harris English, Brett Stegmaier and Sergio Garcia were 9 under.
Snedeker, the 2012 FedEx Cup champion, won this tournament in 2007 before it moved across town to the par-70 Sedgefield Country Club. He had the tour’s first 59 of the year during the first round.
But it wasn’t easy to follow a score like that. Of the nine previous players who have broken 60 on the tour,
six had to play the next day and only one has shot better than 65 in that round: Justin Thomas, who had a 64 in the second round of last year’s Sony Open.
“You can’t ignore it, you can’t try to forget about it,” Snedeker said. “Hardest thing is trying to get back into a rhythm . ... Now I’m better equipped for the next time I shoot 59 and play the next day.”
PGA CHAMPIONS >> Doug Garwood birdied the final three holes for an 8-under 64 and the first-round lead in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.
Garwood, 55, had nine birdies and a bogey, playing his final nine holes the front nine in 6-under 31 at En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott, N.Y.
“Drove it well, hit the irons well, pitched well, putted well, thought well,” Garwood said. “I got to a point I was just making birdies and I kind of lost track of how it was going. That’s always a good thing.”
He won the 2016 SAS Championship for his lone PGA Tour Champions title.
“I haven’t been playing great this year, but I’ve been working hard on my game and things I’ve been working on are paying off,” Garwood said.
Michael Bradley and Marco Dawson shot 65, Woody Austin and Clark Dennis followed at 66, and Bob Estes and Tom Gillis were at 67.
LPGA >> Sung Hyun Park shot a 9-under 63 for a share of the lead with Lizette Salas during the suspended second round of the Indy Women in Tech Championship in Indianapolis.
Salas, the first-round leader after a 62, had a 69 to match Park at 13 under at Brickyard Crossing in Indianapolis. Danielle Kang and Nasa Hataoka were two shots back. Kang shot 68, and Haraoka 69. PGA EUROPEAN >> England’s Paul Waring birdied four of the last seven holes for a 7-under 63 and a share of the Nordea Masters lead with Scotland’s Scott Jamison.
Jamison birdied the last three for a 65 to match Waring at 11-under 129 at Hills Golf Club in Gothenburg, Sweden.
U.S. AMATEUR >> Stanford senior Isaiah Salinda of South San Francisco and UCLA sophomore Devon Bling will meet in an allCalifornia match in the semifinals at Pebble Beach. Salinda edged Will Gordon of Davidson, N.C., 2 and 1.
“Things are just together in all parts of my game for the last month or so,” Salinda said. “I’m just getting mentally tougher. I’ve never been in this position before.”
Texas 18-year-old Cole Hammer and Norway’s Viktor Hovland, a junior at Oklahoma State, will meet in the other semifinal.
The winners today will advance to the 36-hole final Sunday.