Streb and Walker lead, McIlroy misses cut, Stenson and Day lurk at US PGA Championship
ByReuters
Updated 30/07/2016 at 09:13 GMT
Unheralded Robert Streb fired a record-equalling 63 to share a two-shot lead with Jimmy Walker after the second round of the PGA Championship on Friday, with heavyweights Jason Day and Henrik Stenson lurking nearby.
Robert Streb - 2016 US PGA Championship
Image credit: Reuters
Streb, who has one PGA Tour victory, rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt on his last hole, the ninth at Baltusrol, for the 30th round of 63 ever shot in a major championship.
He joined fellow American Walker (66) at nine-under 131.
Players just missing the cut included former world number ones Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland (74-69) and Luke Donald of England (72-71), while U.S. Open winner Dustin Johnson (77-72) tied for 142nd in a 156-man field that included 20 teaching pros.
Eighty-six players made the cut, which fell at two-over 142.
Among players squeezing in on the number were former U.S. Open winner Justin Rose of England (70-72), former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel (73-69) and his fellow South African, four-times major winner Ernie Els (73-69).
"Most of the year has been a big struggle," said 29-year old Streb, who won the McGladrey Classic two years ago but has missed nine cuts this year including the Masters, U.S. Open, Open and The Players.
"Felt like I kind of found something with my golf swing the last two weeks. Starting hitting it kind of solid ... and obviously made a bunch of putts today."
Walker, winless this season after winning three tournaments in 2014 and two more last year, also emerged from nowhere, after finding his putting stroke, notwithstanding his sole bogey of the day on the par-five 18th.
Walker and Streb will seek to make a year of four first-time major winners, following England's Danny Willett at the Masters, U.S. Open winner Dustin Johnson and Stenson at the British Open.
"I'm sure I'll be excited, nervous," said Walker about starting the third round in the lead. "It's more like, man, this is going to be fun."
Looming large two strokes behind are defending champion Day, and 23-year-old Emiliano Grillo of Argentina, with Stenson three back at rain-softened Baltusrol.
Day came alive after an early double-bogey, roaring back with seven birdies in his next eight holes on his way to a 65, while Grillo birdied four holes on his first nine in shooting 67.
"I kind of gave myself a little bit of a kick in the bum, especially with the double bogey on seven," said Australian Day.
"It was pretty receptive out there today. I think you could be a little bit aggressive, but also play it safe on some of the holes that you needed to. If you had the putter rolling you could get a score going."
Sweden's Stenson, who fired a sensational final-round 63 to outduel Phil Mickelson at Royal Troon two weeks ago and set a British Open scoring record of 20-under, posted his second successive 67 for fifth place.
The second round began ominously when pouring rain led to a 41-minute suspension of play a little more than an hour after the first tee shots of the day.
That downpour followed an inch (2.54 cm) of rain overnight that drenched the layout and made the tricky Baltusrol greens more receptive for approach shots.
But the sun broke through and the course dried as the day wore on, setting up a flurry of good scores that set the stage for a tension-filled battle over the last 36 holes of the year's final major championship.
Leaderboad after 36 holes
T1 Jimmy Walker -9 65 66
T1 Robert Streb -9 68 63
T3 Emiliano Grillo -7 66 67
T3 Jason Day -7 68 65
5 Henrik Stenson -6 67 67
T6 Martin Kaymer -5 66 69
T6 Patrick Reed -5 70 65
T6 Brooks Koepka -5 68 67
T9 Hideki Matsuyama -4 69 67
T9 Harris English -4 67 69
T9 Rickie Fowler -4 68 68
T9 Jamie Donaldson -4 69 67
T13 Yuta Ikeda -3 70 67
T13 Jordan Spieth -3 70 67
T13 William McGirt -3 70 67
T13 Daniel Summerhays -3 70 67
T13 Zach Johnson -3 71 66
T13 Billy Hurley III -3 72 65
T13 Adam Scott -3 70 67
T13 Gregory Bourdy -3 69 68
T13 Hideto Tanihara -3 71 66
T22 John Senden -2 68 70
T22 Alexander Noren -2 70 68
T22 Webb Simpson -2 69 69
T22 Louis Oosthuizen -2 68 70
T22 Ryan Moore -2 71 67
T22 Jon Curran -2 69 69
T22 K.J. Choi -2 68 70
T22 David Lingmerth -2 68 70
T22 Branden Grace -2 70 68
T22 Paul Casey -2 69 69
T22 Scott Hend -2 68 70
T22 Andy Sullivan -2 67 71
T34 Andrew Johnston -1 70 69
T34 Steve Stricker -1 69 70
T34 Danny Lee -1 69 70
T34 Young-han Song -1 71 68
T34 Tyrrell Hatton -1 71 68
T34 Marcus Fraser -1 71 68
T34 Brandt Snedeker -1 73 66
T34 Lee Westwood -1 69 70
T34 Soren Kjeldsen -1 70 69
T34 Vaughn Taylor -1 68 71
T34 Kevin Na -1 71 68
T34 George Coetzee -1 72 67
T34 Ross Fisher -1 66 73
T34 Jhonattan Vegas -1 68 71
T48 Russell Henley E 68 72
T48 Marc Leishman E 71 69
T48 Russell Knox E 70 70
T48 Bubba Watson E 71 69
T48 Cameron Tringale E 72 68
T48 Kyle Reifers E 70 70
T48 Bradley Dredge E 69 71
T48 Brian Stuard E 70 70
T48 Daniel Berger E 71 69
T48 Aaron Baddeley E 70 70
T48 Kevin Kisner E 71 69
T48 James Hahn E 67 73
T48 Bill Haas E 70 70
T61 Rich Beem 1 69 72
T61 Francesco Molinari 1 71 70
T61 Jim Furyk 1 74 67
T61 Thomas Pieters 1 71 70
T61 Danny Willett 1 71 70
T61 Padraig Harrington 1 71 70
T61 Justin Thomas 1 69 72
T61 Keegan Bradley 1 73 68
T61 Phil Mickelson 1 71 70
T70 Colt Knost 2 69 73
T70 Ryan Palmer 2 71 71
T70 Billy Horschel 2 72 70
T70 Matthew Fitzpatrick 2 72 70
T70 Jason Dufner 2 71 71
T70 Kiradech Aphibarnrat 2 70 72
T70 Thongchai Jaidee 2 72 70
T70 Justin Rose 2 70 72
T70 Charl Schwartzel 2 73 69
T70 Joost Luiten 2 72 70
T70 Freddie Jacobson 2 71 71
T70 Patton Kizzire 2 71 71
T70 Jason Kokrak 2 70 72
T70 Ernie Els 2 73 69
T70 Rafa Cabrera Bello 2 72 70
T70 Matt Jones 2 74 68
T70 Roberto Castro 2 72 70
CUT Scott Piercy 3 72 71
CUT Y.E. Yang 3 72 71
CUT Luke Donald 3 72 71
CUT Chris Kirk 3 74 69
CUT Chris Wood 3 69 74
CUT Victor Dubuisson 3 69 74
CUT Rory McIlroy 3 74 69
CUT Ryan Helminen 3 72 71
CUT Smylie Kaufman 3 73 70
CUT Harold Varner III 4 72 72
CUT Thorbjorn Olesen 4 70 74
CUT Brendan Steele 4 71 73
CUT Byeong Hun An 4 72 72
CUT Si Woo Kim 4 71 73
CUT J.B. Holmes 4 75 69
CUT Vijay Singh 4 74 70
CUT Rikard Karlberg 4 72 72
CUT Rod Perry 4 73 71
CUT Zac Blair 4 73 71
CUT Kevin Chappell 5 72 73
CUT Gary Woodland 5 73 72
CUT Shane Lowry 5 72 73
CUT Sergio Garcia 5 71 74
CUT Ben Polland 5 72 73
CUT Bryce Molder 5 74 71
CUT Kevin Streelman 5 75 70
CUT Jason Bohn 5 71 74
CUT Matt Dobyns 5 73 72
CUT Darren Clarke 5 74 71
CUT Charley Hoffman 5 75 70
CUT Rich Berberian, Jr. 6 72 74
CUT Anirban Lahiri 6 73 73
CUT Matt Kuchar 6 74 72
CUT Bernd Wiesberger 6 75 71
CUT Peter Malnati 6 73 73
CUT Mark Brown 6 75 71
CUT Kristoffer Broberg 6 72 74
CUT Jonas Blixt 6 75 71
CUT Rob Labritz 7 71 76
CUT David Toms 7 74 73
CUT Tony Finau 7 77 70
CUT Soomin Lee 7 77 70
CUT Brian Gaffney 7 74 73
CUT John Daly 7 74 73
CUT Jamie Lovemark 7 71 76
CUT David Muttitt 7 73 74
CUT Michael Block 8 72 76
CUT Johan Kok 8 72 76
CUT Fabian Gomez 8 75 73
CUT Jim Herman 8 77 71
CUT K.T. Kim 8 77 71
CUT Jeunghun Wang 8 73 75
CUT Josh Speight 8 77 71
CUT Greg Chalmers 8 72 76
CUT Nicolas Colsaerts 8 72 76
CUT Joe Summerhays 9 76 73
CUT Troy Merritt 9 77 72
CUT Rocco Mediate 9 76 73
CUT Dustin Johnson 9 77 72
CUT Graeme McDowell 9 74 75
CUT Brandon Stone 10 79 71
CUT Mitch Lowe 10 74 76
CUT Tommy Sharp 10 77 73
CUT Omar Uresti 10 72 78
CUT Shaun Micheel 11 77 74
CUT Brad Ott 11 79 72
CUT Wyatt Worthington II 12 76 76
CUT James Morrison 14 78 76
CUT Rick Schuller 14 78 76
CUT Brad Lardon 17 83 74
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