Completing rounds with negative rewards more than ever in this edition of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, and three golfers positioned themselves as co-leaders this Friday: the american Scottie Scheffler, the canadian Corey Conners and Norwegian Victor Hovland, all with a -5. A better version of Jon Rahm (-2, +4 overall) heand allowed to pass the cut and compete on weekends.
Triple tie in the lead
Scheffler started his run with two “birdies” and was penalized with a “bogey” at age seven. A poor putt on the 18th green prevented him from setting up a solo leader. “I feel like I had a good day, I didn’t make as many birdies as I would have liked, but I got quite a few.“, commented Scottie at the end, aware that he could leave Rochester world number one.
Four birdies helped Scottie Scheffler down Oak Hill. @ROLEX | #ROLEX pic.twitter.com/1imXnNvbS3
– PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 19, 2023
Conners’ work on the green catapulted him to the top of the leaderboard, his long putts at two, thirteen and fifteen becoming birdies. The Canadian dreams of his first “major” and has just won the Texas Open in April. Hovland, who is also seeking his first major title, finished with a birdie in the 18th with a 10-foot putt.
Two laps later and Hovland heads for the clubhouse tied for the lead at -5.
Who rides with Viktor? #PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/Ve46le0PAA
– PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 19, 2023
The best card of the day was signed by the American Brooks Koepka with 66 hits, fixing his first round and positioning himself in the group of favorites at three headed impacts and with -2 in total.
Rahm recovers his best version and passes the cut
Rahm said Thursday before leaving Oak Hill that he wouldn’t rule anything out if he managed to take several good shots on Friday. The first of them came in number two, with his first “birdie” of the day, in a hole where he bogeyed in the first round. He greatly improved his accuracy by finding the ‘fairways’ on the second nine holes, allowing him to better deal with the attack on the ‘green’, he was also much more reliable in putting. So came three consecutive “birdies” at thirteen, fourteen and fifteen.
“RAHMBO”
Exploited this approach for his first birdie of the day.#PGAChamp pic.twitter.com/mNP1qMWVrU
– PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 19, 2023
It was precisely this exit from the fifteen-year-old ‘tee’ that showed he was ‘another Rahm’, he left the ball just two meters from the flag and hit the ‘putt’ for his third ‘birdie’ consecutive. And he faced the most decisive moment, that of facing the three holes of 16, 17 and 18 which made him sink in the rankings on Thursday. This Friday closing wasn’t that problematic but he couldn’t scratch more shots on the court with a ‘bogey’ and two pair.
Rahm achieved the goal he set for Friday, making the cut and make a run under par which will position it closer to the top positions. They were eight strokes short of Thursday to sign a two-under par for the course and a +4 to the ranking.
The day started with picking up Thursday’s pending matches, and it soon became apparent that the break was not good for Eric Cole, leader in the night. He made a double ‘bogey’ on his return to the field which caused him to fall several positions, and already on his second lap, many errors and +4 after nine holeslosing any option to remain among the favorites.
A preview of the standings ahead of the weekend @PGAChampionship:
T1. Scottie Scheffler-5
T1. Corey Conners
T1. Victor Hovland
T4. Justin Suh-3
T4. Bryson De Chambeau
T6. Brooks Koepka-2
T6. Callum Tarren
T8. Taylor Pendrith-1
T8. Justin Rose— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 20, 2023
Together with Rahm, he also passed the cut a Pablo Larrazabal who had the path immersed in basque since his optimal 69 strokes on Thursday it rose to 75 on Friday, product of five “bogeys”, to also stay with +4. they were less lucky Adrian Otaegui and Adri Arnausalready out of this PGA Championship after signing 70 and 76 shotsrespectively.
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