The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Sheboygan, Wisconsin—The second round of the PGA Championship offered a little bit of everything last Friday (last Saturday in Manila), except a conclusion.
On one side of the golf course, Jordan Spieth was piling up enough birdies to momentarily tie for the lead at Whistling Straits. On the other side, with far less attention, Hiroshi Iwata ran off five birdies and an eagle and tied the major championship record with a 63.
Dustin Johnson was losing ground in the rough and in the bunkers, falling out of the lead with three bogeys in a four-hole stretch. John Daly lost his cool and then lost a 6-iron when he heaved it in Lake Michigan.
And that was before a wicked storm, which packed gusts of up to 48 miles per hour, suspended the second round.
Filipino-Australian Jason Day ran off three straight birdies and was tied for the lead with Matt Jones at 9-under par when players were taken off the course. The storm was severe enough to topple the main scoreboard at the entrance and rip flags off the poles atop some of the grandstands.
The round was to resume at 7 a.m. (local time)
Justin Rose pulled within one shot of the lead with back-to-back birdies. He headed to the 18th tee, feeling good about being able to finish.
“I opened my big mouth to the boys playing with us,” Rose said. “I said, ‘The end is in sight.’ And 30 seconds later, they blew the horn. So my name is mud all over here.”
Tiger Woods, for all his struggles in the majors this year, can, at least, say he made it to the weekend in three of them. He made the cut at the Masters. He missed the cut two Saturdays ago at the wind-delayed British Open. There was still hope at the PGA Championship, though he was 4 over with five holes to play, two shots away from the projected cut.
The leaderboard was as clouded as the sky over Whistling Straits.
Seven players had at least a share of the lead at some point last Friday, when a strong breeze in the morning gave way to steamy sunshine and virtually no wind until the storms moved in. When players were evacuated from the course, 11 players were separated by three shots.
David Lingmerth of Sweden made only four pars in his wild round of 70 and was the clubhouse leader at 7-under 137. One shot behind was a group that included Spieth, the Masters and US Open champion who is very much in the picture to join Woods and Ben Hogan as the only players to win three majors in one year.
Scott Piercy (70) and Brendan Steele (69) joined Spieth at 6-under 138. AP