The post Lee Westwood in position for first win in over four years appeared first on Golf.

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AARHUS, Denmark (AP) — Lee Westwood moved in sight of his first win in more than four years after taking a one-stroke lead in the Made In Denmark event after a 5-under 67 in the third round on Saturday.

The 45-year-old Westwood, a former world No. 1, will be a vice-captain for Europe at the Ryder Cup in Paris this month and his impressive performance this week looks like ending two fellow Englishmen’s hopes of getting in the team.

Matthew Fitzpatrick and Eddie Pepperell need to win to stand a chance of snatching the final automatic place in the Europe team via the world points list but they are off the leaderboard at Silkeborg Ry Golf Club.

Fitzpatrick shot 67 and was 10 under overall, six strokes behind Westwood.

Pepperell is surely out of contention after a 74 that dropped him into a tie for 61st place, 13 shots off the lead.

It means Thorbjorn Olesen, who occupies the final Ryder Cup qualifying spot, is set to make the team for the first time ahead of Fitzpatrick and Pepperell. The Dane, who shot 67 in the third round, was on 7 under overall.

The last of Westwood’s 23 wins on the European Tour came at the Malaysian Open in April 2014.

He made five straight birdies from the 10th hole and was 18 under heading to the 18th tee. An errant tee shot led to a double-bogey 6 but Westwood ended the day in the lead after Jonathan Thomson, the first-round leader, also made 6 at the last for a 68.

Thomson was in a tie for second place with Belgium’s Thomas Detry and England’s Steven Brown, who shot 63 for the lowest round of the week.

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The post Justin Rose leads Dell Technologies Championship appeared first on Golf.

The post Justin Rose leads Dell Technologies Championship appeared first on Golf.

NORTON, Mass. (AP) — Justin Rose missed the cut in the FedEx Cup playoffs opener and decided to make the most of it. He stayed home in the Bahamas for six days, opting out of the pro-am and not arriving to the Dell Technologies Championship until the evening for the opening round Friday.

And then he was off and running at the TPC Boston.

On a breezy day that kept scoring unusually high, Rose putted for birdie on all but two holes and made his six birdies count by keeping bogeys off his card. Three birdies over his last four holes gave him a 6-under 65 and a one-shot lead.

“Just keeping the card clean made the birdies really count for something,” Rose said. “To birdie three of the last four made a good day a very good day.”

Russell Knox and Abraham Ancer were one shot behind with strong finishes of their own.

Ancer, the first Mexican to reach the second stage of the FedEx Cup playoffs, finished on the front nine with four birdies over his last six holes. Knox was a bit more dynamic. He was in the middle of the pack until he holed a wedge from 109 yards for eagle on No. 15, hit a 6-iron on the par-3 16th that tumbled out of the right collar and rolled down the slope to 2 feet, and then finished with a 15-foot birdie putt.

“The round was just good in four holes,” Knox said. “I have had one of those bang-bang runs in a while. I was just playing OK, and all of a sudden got a little spark.”

Tiger Woods was more about spinning his wheels.

In his first time back at the TPC Boston in five years, Woods nearly hit the wrong club off the 10th tee to start his round, but only because his caddie had the head covers on the wrong metals leaving the range. Not that it mattered. Woods went back for his 3-wood and pumped that left into a hazard to start with a bogey. He also had a new putter that resembles the one with which he won his 14 majors.

That only kept his score from being higher. He wound up with a 72, the 10th time in his last 11 tournaments he didn’t break par in the opening round.

“I putted beautifully today, I really did,” Woods said. “I hit a lot of good putts, and just have to give myself more looks out of them. I didn’t hit the ball close enough.”

Keegan Bradley put last week behind him quickly. He played in the final group at The Northern Trust and shot 78, and then he answered with a 67 to join Beau Hossler, Gary Woodland and Chris Kirk.

Dustin Johnson and Rafa Cabrera Bello were among those at 68.

The missed cut didn’t bother Rose too much. He still only slipped to No. 6 in the FedEx Cup, and the time at home allowed him to reflect on the last year. Starting at The Northern Trust a year ago, Rose ran off 10 straight top 10s, and he completed a 12-month cycle with 18 top 10s in 24 tournaments.

“I felt like last week kind of snapped the streak in a way, and kind of enabled me to let that go,” Rose said. “It’s been a great run. I’m proud of that consistency. But I now feel I can … put that nice run behind me and just start fresh now with fresh goals for the rest of the season.”

The TPC Boston is a good place for Rose to feel like it’s a fresh start. He played the course for the first time in 2003, the inaugural year of the tournament. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was the tournament director. Rose shot 63 his first competitive round.

Knox and Ancer are different sides of the FedEx Cup equation. They can’t afford anything but great golf.

Knox missed the cut last week and dropped to No. 93. Only the top 70 advance to next week outside Philadelphia. Ancer also missed the cut and fell to No. 92.

Both took a big step toward extending their seasons.

“I’ve got to make a good jump on it,” Ancer said. “Came in with no expectations, just play like I’ve been playing all year, and that will take care of itself.”

Cabrera Bello found himself in a precarious spot last week when he tied for 60th. It was his last chance for world ranking points to apply to the Ryder Cup standings, and the Spaniard didn’t get any. He could have flown to Denmark, where points still apply, but that would mean a chance at missing out on the top 70 in the FedEx Cup.

“I decided to stay here, play the best I can,” he said. “I feel that if I have a good week here, it might not count directly in points, but it counts indirectly, because of captain’s decision. That’s my goal.”

European captain Thomas Bjorn makes four captain’s picks Wednesday.

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The post Brandt Snedeker maintains lead through 36 holes at Wyndham Championship appeared first on Golf.

The post Brandt Snedeker maintains lead through 36 holes at Wyndham Championship appeared first on Golf.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Brandt Snedeker couldn’t block out the buzz that surrounded his first-round 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.

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.”

By the time Snedeker teed off Friday afternoon, that low score had held up for a one-stroke lead. It temporarily slipped away when he had three bogeys on the front nine.

He reclaimed the lead late in his round with some nifty putting. He sank two putts longer than 30 feet, one for eagle on the par-5 15th and another for birdie on the par-4 16th, and wrapped up with the best two-round score at this tournament since Carl Pettersson’s 125 a decade ago.

“When I finally convinced myself to hit a few putts, they started going in,” Snedeker said. “Over 72 holes, you’re going to have stretches where balls don’t go in the hole, you’ve got to be able to kind of overcome, be patient, wait for the long ones to fall, and luckily I made a couple coming down the stretch.”

Points, who has made only one cut since January and failed to reach the weekend in 19 of his 24 tournaments this season, had a strong front nine with three birdies and an eagle on the par-5 fifth hole, where he sank a 40-foot putt. He has finished in the top 20 at this tournament twice since 2014, and after starting far off the bubble at No. 214 on the points list, could play his way into the playoffs this weekend.

“Basically, I know this is possibly my last event of the year, so I haven’t been grinding really hard,” Points said. “It seems to be paying off.”

Pan, a 26-year-old from Taiwan, had birdies on three of his final four holes to climb the leaderboard. He sank a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 17 and an 8-footer on the 18th to match the best round of his young career. He also shot 64s last year at the Travelers Championship and the RSM Classic.

“I love this course,” Pan said, adding that his “trajectory tends to be lower than compared to other guys, so I think I have an advantage here.”

Among the other highlights: Brian Gay had the day’s best round, a 63 tarnished only by a bogey on his final hole on which he missed a 4-foot par putt. And Mitchell opened with five consecutive birdies to briefly raise the possibility of a second sub-60 score in two days, before slipping back later in his round.

“It’s definitely a different feeling,” Mitchell said. “But it’s a feeling you try to get comfortable with because you want to be in that zone.”

A key subplot at Sedgefield every year is the push by bubble players to earn postseason spots. The top 125 players on the points list make the field for the Northern Trust in New Jersey, and everyone from No. 122 to No. 132 is playing this weekend.

Bill Haas, who at No. 150 is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time, made the cut at 3 under. Garcia, at No. 131, also is trying to make it for the 12th straight year. Johnathan Byrd — who at No. 183 probably needs to win or finish alone in second place to earn enough points to qualify — remains in the mix at 8 under.

“It’s kind of an easy mentality in a sense,” Byrd said. “Just got to play amazing or go home, or go to the (Web.com Tour) finals.”

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The post Kyle Stanley tied for lead at Memorial appeared first on Golf.

The post Kyle Stanley tied for lead at Memorial appeared first on Golf.

DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Joaquin Niemann could figure out where Tiger Woods was on the golf course from the mass of people following him a few groups ahead, and he had a pretty good idea what he was doing from all the noise, at least before Woods put a putter in his hands.

“There was so many people,” Niemann said.

The few that stuck behind for the 19-year-old Chilean saw another good show.

In his fifth start as a pro, Niemann finished with two birdies over his last three holes for a 4-under 68 and a share of the lead with Kyle Stanley, who had a 66. He finished with an 8-foot birdie on the 18th hole.

Woods made Muirfield Village sound like a rock concert until storms arrived. He holed out with a sand wedge from 97 yards for eagle on the par-5 11th hole, and then his tee shot on the par-3 12th struck the flag waving in the wind and settled 6 feet behind the hole.

And then he sat out a weather delay that lasted just under 90 minutes, and he missed four putts under 7 feet the rest of the way.

“It could have been easily a nice little 62 or 63,” Woods said. “I turned it into a 67.”

And he was six shots behind with nearly two dozen players in front of him.

Stanley, who won the Quicken Loans National last summer, was atop the leaderboard for much of the day and was starting to pull away until a poor tee shot at No. 6 led to bogey. He finished with a par save from just off the ninth green and reached 11-under 133.

On the other side of the course was Niemann, the No. 1 amateur in the world and Latin American Amateur champion who wanted to play the Masters before turning pro. He looks his age when his braces shine every time he smiles. He plays beyond his years.

Already with a pair of top 10s on the PGA Tour, Niemann now finds himself in the last group going into the weekend at the tournament Jack Nicklaus built, and he doesn’t appear to be the least bit nervous about being there.

“It feels really nice to be on top of the leaderboard,” he said. “It does feel really nice for tomorrow.”

Byeong Hun An had a 67 and was two shots behind.

Among those three off the lead were Hideki Matsuyama (71), who earned his first PGA Tour title at the Memorial three years ago, and Jason Day, a former world No. 1 who is a member at Muirfield Village and has never come close to winning. Perhaps this is the year. Day had never been within five shots of the lead going into the weekend at the Memorial, and he’s not sure why.

“I think I just (stunk) on it for a long time,” Day said. “I don’t think there was anything, any reason why. I just didn’t really play well. But I’m hopeful I can change that because I feel different this year.

“I want to play well in front of my family,” he said. “Family and friends come out and I want them to be yelling in the crowd when I’m in contention.”

Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose each had a 66 and were in the group at 7-under 137, while Dustin Johnson was among those at 138, even though he has played the par 5s in just 1 under for the week.

Johnson and Rose each have a chance to get to No. 1 in the world. Justin Thomas, in his debut at No. 1, overcame a pair of early bogeys for a 69 and was at 3 under.

Woods was another shot behind, and it looked as though he was about to post his lowest score of the year. He made the turn in 33 with a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 9, and then he made a solid escape from the rough and trees on No. 11 before holing out for eagle.

He missed birdie chances of 6 feet, 4 feet and 7 feet, and then missed from 3 feet for par on the 17th that left him exasperated.

And hopeful.

“I missed a lot of short putts, which is something I don’t normally do, which is just frustrating,” he said. “I’ve got to clean that up come this weekend and hopefully, I can get it going. Hopefully I can play well like this on the weekend and I’ve got a great chance of winning this tournament.”

At least he has a chance.

Rory McIlroy made bogeys on both par 5s on the front nine as he tried to finish strong. He had to settle for a 70 and made the cut on the number. That was still better than Jordan Spieth, who finished bogey-bogey for a 72 and missed the cut by three shots.

Since his closing 64 at the Masters, Spieth has finished at least 12 shots behind the winner in his three tournaments and missed the cut in his final event before heading to Shinnecock Hills for the U.S. Open.

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The post Childhood rivals Scott McCarron and Kevin Sutherland tied for Senior PGA Championship lead appeared first on Golf.

The post Childhood rivals Scott McCarron and Kevin Sutherland tied for Senior PGA Championship lead appeared first on Golf.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — Kevin Sutherland and Scott McCarron have been rivals since their junior golf days around Sacramento, California. The two old friends were back at it Friday at the top of the Senior PGA Championship leaderboard.

“It’s honestly, nothing new for us,” said Sutherland who played in the third-to-last group and birdied his last two holes for a 5-under 66 to match McCarron at 8 under.

McCarron had a 68 in the morning wave to emerge from a championship record group of six tied for the first-round lead.

Sutherland was last year’s Charles Schwab Cup winner with his only senior win coming in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, while McCarron has six PGA Tour Champions wins, including a major at the 2017 Senior Players Championship.

“We are both (Northern California) guys, played in high school, junior golf, on tour and it seems like a lot on the Champions Tour,” Sutherland said. “We were in the last group on Sundays a lot last year. Scott played so well and had an incredible year, and I had a great year, too.”

Sutherland’s lone PGA Tour victory came at McCarron’s expense in 2002 at La Costa in the Accenture Match Play Championship, when he beat McCarron 1 up in the 36-hole final. As youngsters they played on opposing high school teams located about an hour apart and met often in state tournaments as well as on the California junior circuit.

“It’s been happening for 30 years, wait 35 years now, I guess,” Sutherland said. “Playing together on a Saturday is a little different. We’re both still trying to get in position to win.”

Jerry Kelly shot a 65 to join Tim Petrovic (69), Chris Williams (68) and Joe Durant (67) at 7 under. Durant tied for second last week in the Regions Tradition, also a major championship.

McCarron feels like he is just starting to warm to the task this year. He had to replace his clubs, including a favored putter damaged beyond repair in air transit two months ago.

“I’ve been putting with a back-up putter I had, but it just didn’t feel quite right,” he said. “I changed last Sunday at the Regions Tradition and started putting better on Sunday. So I’m using this one again this week and seem to be putting pretty good with it.”

McCarron said the Harbor Shores course played a little tougher in light winds in the second round. He made six birdies and three bogeys.

“I would just like to have a couple of those bogeys back,” he said. “But we’re in a good position going into the weekend.”

McCarron came to the press center after his round and walked in on a press conference where course-designer Jack and Barbara Nicklaus were being honored by sponsoring KitchenAid with the establishment of a local college scholarship program in their name.

McCarron, who said he has idolized Nicklaus since his youth, played media and asked Nicklaus what he ate when he was near the lead going into the weekend of a major championship.

Nicklaus said if you play well one day, eat the same thing the next day.

“But no hamburgers, or you will play like hamburger,” he said.

Stuart Smith, the Reno, Neveda, club pro who was tied for the lead after the first round, missed the 36-hole cut with a second-round 83.

“I’ll take the 66, 83 and enjoy the 66 yesterday,” he said. “You put this one down to just plain old golf. It’s a nasty game we play sometimes. Glad I have a day job.”

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The post Justin Rose leads Fort Worth Invitational at Colonial by one shot appeared first on Golf.

The post Justin Rose leads Fort Worth Invitational at Colonial by one shot appeared first on Golf.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Justin Rose considered his first 15 holes in the second round at Colonial pretty flawless. The last three worked out OK, too, even with the only bogey for the leader of the Fort Worth Invitational.

“Last three holes got a bit scrappy,” Rose said after a 6-under 64 that got him to 10 under Friday at Hogan’s Alley.

After missing the green at the 422-yard seventh hole, the Englishman chipped in from 16 feet for a birdie. He missed the green again at the par-3 eighth for a bogey. Then after his tee shot into the rough and an approach that just cleared the water fronting his final hole, the world’s fifth-ranked player two-putted for a closing par.

That was good enough for one-stroke lead over Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo , whose 67 included six consecutive holes without a par. Defending U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka (63) and Satoshi Kodaira (67) were 7 under.

Rose, the 2013 U.S. Open champ who won the HSBC Champions in Shanghai in his season debut last October and has four top-10 finishes, said he played “about as good as” he has overall in a long time. Things really got going after caddie Mark Fulcher offered a few words when Rose was a bit frustrated about a couple of missed putts while starting the round with four consecutive pars.

“Fulch kind of said, ‘Come on, mate. Stay with me. Stay patient.’ I got rewarded with the very next hole making a 10-footer for birdie,” Rose said. “I made enough good putts on the back nine today where I have some confidence going into the weekend.”

The birdie at the 457-yard 14th hole was the first of three consecutive birdies for the 37-year-old South African, who has eight PGA Tour wins.

Grillo was at 10 under when he rolled in a 28-footer at No. 17, his fourth birdie in his first eight holes. But his ensuing tee shot went way right into a concrete ditch, and his ball floated with the flowing water before being snagged by a fan just before it dropped into a drainage area. After the penalty stroke and drop, Grillo hit into a greenside bunker and bogeyed.

“It’s a little bit on the downslope and it’s all concrete, so the ball was rolling,” Grillo said. “I was able to make some birdies in there. I got very unlucky on the first hole and No. 3 there.”

The second nine for Grillo started bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie.

Defending Colonial champion Kevin Kisner was even after a 68 on Friday. Jordan Spieth, one of the locals and No. 3 in the world, also shot 68 and is 3 under.

Aaron Wise, the 21-year-old rookie coming off his first PGA Tour victory a week ago at the Byron Nelson, missed the cut after a 73 left him 3 over — the same as Webb Simpson, who won The Players Championship this month.

After a 62 to take the first-round, Kevin Na struggled on the back nine for a 73. He went into weekend 5 under and in a logjam of nine players tied for sixth place. Tyrone Van Aswegen was alone in fifth after consecutive 67s.

Na was 10 under after a 5-foot putt at the ninth hole, a more traditional birdie than the 92-foot chip-in from the rough he had to end the first round. But Na then had bogey at the 631-yard 11th hole, and double bogey at the 440-yard 12th hole before a three-putt bogey on the par-3 13th.

Koepka, who said he has dislocated his left wrist twice in the last two months, was 7 under through 11 holes Friday — and that is how he finished.

“I probably could have snuck about two, three more,” he said. “But you know what, I’m pleased. If you had told me I was going to shoot 7 under before I teed off, I would’ve taken it.”

On his first two holes Thursday, his return to the PGA Tour after a course record-tying 9-under 63 on the final day at The Players Championship, Koepka had a bogey and then double bogey at a par 5. But he has 12 birdies and two bogeys in his last 32 holes, three weeks before the U.S. Open.

“I feel like I’ve been playing well. I just haven’t put four days together,” Koepka said. “But I feel like it’s trending in the right direction. I actually feel like exactly where I was last year at the same time. … Hopefully in a couple weeks’ time, it’ll be the same result.”

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The post Club pro Stuart Smith tied for lead in Senior PGA Championship appeared first on Golf.

The post Club pro Stuart Smith tied for lead in Senior PGA Championship appeared first on Golf.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Nevada club professional Stuart Smith admitted sleeping on the lead of the biggest tournament available to him might be a problem.

“I can’t say, ‘Oh, it won’t bother me.’ But to me, it’s fun,” Smith said after shooting a 5-under 66 on Thursday for a share of the first-round lead in the Senior PGA Championship.

Smith closed his morning round with a double bogey on the par-4 18th, and Scott McCarron, Tim Petrovic, Wes Short Jr., Barry Lane and Peter Lonard matched the 66 in the afternoon.

One of 41 club pros in the field at Harbor Shores for the senior major, Smith is the director of golf at Somersett Country Club in Reno.

“To see my name on the board out there, it’s not like I’m blind to the leaderboard, that was cool,” said Smith, who is playing in his fourth Senior PGA and third at Harbor Shores — where he has made the 36-hole cut the previous two times.

“All my members are taking pictures and I know at home my members are pulling up that screen and like I tell them, going to the middle and looking down. So it probably took them a while to find my name today.”

Petrovic, who was among the leaders in the Regions Tradition last week before a poor final round, said it was a little bit of a surprise when he heard Smith was at 7 under through 17 holes.

“There was a little bit of buzz, we were talking about it,” he said. “I heard somebody say 7 under and I said ’who is it? And we looked up, but we didn’t know who the player was. In a tournament like this, you know how it is, there’s always one guy, one smart-alec that shoots 7, 8 under in the first round.”

Smith, who birdied five consecutive holes starting at the seventh, played college golf at UCLA and knocked around the mini tours and South Africa for several years without ever gaining his tour card. He was college teammates with some of the players in the field, including Corey Pavin, Duffy Waldorf and Steve Pate, but said he no longer seeks the tour life.

“It’s just not me anymore,” he said. “So that’s why maybe I do have an advantage this week because it’s just fun to me. It’s like my wife said – just enjoy the ride.”

Petrovic had seven birdies in his round while McCarron and Lonard played bogey-free rounds. Short holed out from the fairway for eagle on the par 4 12th and made eagle on the par 5 ninth hole, his last hole of the day.

McCarron is the only one of the six leaders with a major on his resume. He won the Senior Players Championship last year, and played The Players Championship recently.

“It was a lot of fun being on that stage, of course being at The Players with the best players in the world playing one of the best golf courses in the world,” he said. “I think the preparation there and just being on that stage helped me going into last week in Alabama, and certainly this week.”

The top two money winners on the PGA Tour Champions are not in Benton Harbor. Defending champion Bernhard Langer is skipping the event to attend son Jason’s high school graduation, and Steve Stricker is playing the PGA Tour event in Texas.

Paul Goydos, a five-time senior winner including the 2016 Charles Schwab Cup Championship, and Chris Williams of South Africa shot 67. Joe Durant, David Toms, Kenny Perry, Jerry Pate and Fred Funk were among 15 players at 68.

Colin Montgomerie, who won the first of consecutive Senior PGA titles here in 2014, shot 69, and Miguel Angel Jimenez, coming off a win last week in the first major of the year at the Regions Tradition, opened with a 70.

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The post Marc Leishman sets 36-hole Byron Nelson record, leads by one shot appeared first on Golf.

The post Marc Leishman sets 36-hole Byron Nelson record, leads by one shot appeared first on Golf.

DALLAS (AP) — Wind or no, Marc Leishman likes his chances at the AT&T Byron Nelson after breaking the 36-hole record previously shared by Tiger Woods.

Hometown star Jordan Spieth really wants it to blow.

Leishman followed the best round of his PGA Tour career with a 5-under 66 at the new Trinity Forest course Friday, reaching the halfway point at 15-under 127 for a one-shot lead over 21-year-old rookie Aaron Wise — and keeping Spieth eight back on the links-style layout where the Dallas native is a member.

Maybe Spieth isn’t the only one who feels at home.

“This course has got a real Australian feel to it,” said Leishman, the 34-year-old Aussie who opened with a 10-under 61 . “Reminds me a lot of home. So that might have something to do with it.”

Winds were stronger on the treeless tract, but not until late in the morning rounds of Leishman and most of the others on the second-round leaderboard.

The wind didn’t bother Wise, who shot a bogey-free 63 in the afternoon. He will be in the final group for the third round two weeks after tying for second while playing with Wells Fargo winner Jason Day on Sunday.

“It makes this course play way different just because of how firm and fast it is,” Wise said. “You’re really out there with the wind. I just felt like we did a great job of managing it, leaving our ball in good spots.”

Brian Gay, another playing in calmer morning conditions, matched his tour low at 62 to reach 13 under. Kevin Na (65), Eric Axley (65) and Jimmy Walker are 11 under.

“I was telling my caddie it’s never this calm in Dallas three days in a row,” said Gay, who has played every Nelson except one since 2000. “Looks like it might start picking up now.”

That’s what Spieth figures he needs since he’s more familiar with wind and firmer greens on a course named for the 6,000 acres of thick trees surrounding the undulating layout a few miles south of downtown Dallas. The Nelson spent the past 35 years in suburban Irving.

Spieth, at 7-under 135 after matching Leishman’s 66, would feel a little better about making a run if the three-time major champion hadn’t missed two putts inside 3 feet for two of his three bogeys.

The first was from 15 inches early in the round when Spieth was lurking around the cut line. The second came on his final hole , the ninth, while ending a run of four straight birdies.

The forecast Saturday has wind gusts reaching 25 mph, and the player with the highest world ranking in the field at No. 3 is hoping for at least that. He’s trying to improve his best Nelson finish of a tie for 16th as a 16-year-old amateur in 2010.

“If the wind really does pick up, which I really hope it does and the course can show some teeth, you’re looking at a potential winning score at under 20 under even though it took 15 for the first two,” said Spieth, who missed the cut in the final Nelson at the TPC Four Seasons last year. “Just dicey.”

Leishman made a 56-footer for birdie at the par-3 12th, his third hole, and separated from the pack with four birdies in five holes to start his back nine after his first missed fairway and only bogey came on the par-4 15th. Gay closed the gap with birdies on all six par-4s for a 29 on the back nine.

The previous 36-hole record for the Nelson was 12-under 128 at the par-70 Four Seasons. Woods did it twice along with four others. Wise matched the 128 and is at 14 under.

“I’m not disappointed that the wind’s forecast to get up,” said Leishman, a three-time PGA Tour winner. “With it down, I’ve done OK.”

As has fellow Aussie Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters winner who is trying to avoid sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open to maintain a major streak that goes back to 2001. He shot a bogey-free 65 and is among five players at 10 under a week after finishing tied for 11th at the Players Championship.

“Last week and the first two rounds this week, really promising for me,” said Scott, the 2008 Nelson winner. “I’ve got a lot to play for this weekend.”

Scott and Leishman played together the first two days and wouldn’t mind doing it again. Both made comparisons to courses from their homeland, with Leishman saying the most important similarity is contour around greens that can trick players into shooting for pins when they shouldn’t.

“You’re always trying to play it a little safer because you know how bad it is if you were to miss the green and then it runs off,” Leishman said. “That’s probably the big thing, the runoffs around the greens.”

Defending champion Billy Horschel shot 69 and was 5 under.

Hideki Matsuyama, the only other world top 10 besides Spieth in the field at No. 9, shot 63 to join him at 7 under. Sergio Garcia, the 2017 Masters champion and two-time Nelson winner, missed the cut at 1 under.

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The post Miguel Angel Jimenez, Gene Sauers tied for lead at Regions Tradition appeared first on Golf.

The post Miguel Angel Jimenez, Gene Sauers tied for lead at Regions Tradition appeared first on Golf.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Gene Sauers shot a 5-under 67 to move into a first-place tie with Miguel Angel Jimenez on Friday in the second round of the Regions Tradition, the first of five PGA Tour Champions majors.

Jimenez and Sauers were at 11-under 133. This was the first time either held or shared the lead after two rounds in a major.

Two-time defending champion Bernhard Langer was nine shots behind. He is trying to become the first to win three straight at the Tradition since it began in 1989.

Sauers completed his second straight bogey-free round. Jimenez had four birdies and a bogey for a 69 at Greystone Golf & Country Club, a day after matching the course record with a 64.

He had opened with a 66 and is seeking his second PGA Tour Champions victory. His first came at the 2016 U.S. Senior Open Championship.

Sauers had four birdies on the first seven holes.

“Then I kind of just slowed up a little bit, kind of put the brakes on for some reason,” he said. “Just the putting, I’ve got to get more confident in my putting. If I can do that, I’ll be right there on Sunday.”

Jimenez tied the course record with a 64 on Thursday, calling it “amazing.” He was solid in the second round as well not quite satisfied.

“I still feel like I left a lot of shots on the golf course,” he said.

Jerry Kelly, Kevin Sutherland and Scott McCarron are two strokes back going into the weekend. Kelly shot 69, McCarron 68 and Sutherland 66.

Sutherland and McCarron had eagles. Sutherland had a bogey-free round and eagled No. 8.

McCarron had his second eagle in as many days, this one on No. 13. He did finish with a bogey on the final hole from the bunker, saying it was a similar spot to Brandt Jobe’s. Both bogeyed No. 9 after starting on the 10th hole in a two-tee start.

“I tried to get really cute with it and really spin it hard and I just came up a little bit short,” he said. “But I made 5 — that’s probably what you’re going to make nine times out of 10 being where we hit it anyways.”

Scott Dunlap and Bob Estes had matching 66s and are tied with Joe Durant (69) four strokes back. Two-time champion Tom Lehman is in a group of six at 7 under, along with 2014 winner Kenny Perry.

Langer was at 2 under. He had two bogeys and two birdies on the first nine holes and made pars the rest of the way.

He was six back at the midpoint of last year’s Regions Tradition but won with a closing 64. This one would require an even bigger comeback.

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