Key events
A good number of pundits identified Bryson DeChambeau as this week’s winner. But yesterday it didn’t quite happen for the reigning US Open champion and Masters nearly man. A level-par round of 71 that was, by his own widescreen standards, a little nondescript … though he still managed to hit one of the two shots of the day (the other we’ll mention in a minute) at the 227-yard par-three 17th: an 8-iron punched to three inches. So close to an ace, and what power. So here’s an indication of how well Jordan Spieth played the 10th back there; Bryson is currently 50 yards short of the green in his first two strokes of the day. It’s a long old track all right.
Jordan Spieth’s dream of joining Rory et al in the Career Slam club looks kaput for another 12 months after yesterday’s 76. Too far gone already, the 2015 Masters and US Open champion and 2017 Open winner has his work cut out simply making the cut. That’s right, yes? Well, let’s just hang on a minute, because he’s come out on the front foot swinging haymakers. Having split the 10th fairway with his opening drive, he’s just launched a fairway wood straight at the flag, from 283 yards to eight feet. In goes the eagle putt, and all of a sudden he’s back up the standings at +3. It’s still the longest of long shots, but you know Jordan, no situation is considered irretrievable. Here’s to some more of his trademark swashbuckle.
The first significant move of the day has been made by Tyrrell Hatton. The entertainingly volatile Englishman has kept a lid on things so far this week, and you’d be in a good mood too had you birdied the last yesterday. His approach at 18 was one of the strokes of the day, and has clearly buoyed him going into round two. Consecutive birdies to start, at 10 and 11, a 15-foot birdie putt followed by another from 20 feet, and Hatton moves into a tie for second. Heading in the other direction: Cam Davis, with bogey at 3, and Aaron Rai with bogey at 1.
-7: Vegas
-5: Hatton (2*), Gerard
-4: Davis (4),Jaeger, Smalley, Fox, Donald
-3: Scott (2*), Rai (1), Campos, Thorbjornsen, Bradley, R Højgaard, MacIntyre, Fitzpatrick, Echavarria, Poston, Hisatsune, Noren
The first yelp recorded by today’s blog is emitted by Ludvig Åberg. The young Swede didn’t bring his Å-game yesterday – the air-mailing of a couple of greens never a great sign – and yet he still managed to battle his way to a 70, his putter digging him out once or twice. But his first shot of the day doesn’t augur well, a drive at 10 carved into the trees down the right. His playing partners Patrick Reed (+1) and Jordan Spieth (+5) split the fairway.
Preamble
It’s a star-studded leaderboard. Just not studded with the stars we expected. Here’s how the top of it looks …
-7: Vegas
-5: Davis, Gerard
-4: Rai, Jaeger, Smalley, Fox, Donald
-3: Campos, Thorbjornsen, Hatton, Bradley, R Højgaard, MacIntyre, Fitzpatrick, Echavarria, Poston, Hisatsune, Noren
… and here are today’s tee times (USA unless stated, all times BST). It’s on!
Starting at hole 1
12.00 Adam Hadwin (Can), Keith Mitchell, Bob Sowards
12.11 Eric Cole, Cameron Davis (Aus), Eric Steger
12.22 Brian Bergstol, Jacob Bridgeman, Austin Eckroat
12.33 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Niklas Noergaard (Den), JJ Spaun
12.44 Dean Burmester (Rsa), Patrick Rodgers, Nick Taylor (Can)
12.55 Joe Highsmith, Aaron Rai (Eng), Cameron Young
13.06 Tom Hoge, Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Taylor Pendrith (Can)
13.17 Patton Kizzire, Matt McCarty, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Den)
13.28 Richard Bland (Eng), Tyler Collet, Jimmy Walker
13.39 Jason Dufner, Shaun Micheel, Michael Thorbjornsen
13.50 Rafael Campos (Pur), Ryan Lenahan, Matt Wallace (Eng)
14.01 Brian Campbell, Elvis Smylie (Aus), Jhonattan Vegas (Ven)
14.12 Larkin Gross, Johnny Keefer, Chun-An Yu (Tai)
17.30 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Justin B Hicks, John Parry (Eng)
17.41 Andre Chi, Patrick Fishburn, Seamus Power (Irl)
17.52 Max McGreevy, Sepp Straka (Aut), Alex Smalley
18.03 Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka, Shane Lowry (Irl)
18.14 Jason Day (Aus), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Phil Mickelson
18.25 Patrick Cantlay, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Jon Rahm (Spa)
18.36 Corey Conners (Can), Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
18.47 Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler
18.58 Tony Finau, Max Greyserman, Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den)
19.09 Keegan Bradley, Maverick McNealy, Andrew Novak
19.20 Akshay Bhatia, Sam Burns, Denny McCarthy
19.31 John Catlin, Jesse Droemer, Garrick Higgo (Rsa)
19.42 Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra (Spa), Justin Lower, Rupe Taylor
Starting at hole 10
12.05 Michael Kartrude, Jake Knapp, Sami Valimaki (Fin)
12.16 Michael Block, Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Erik van Rooyen (Rsa)
12.27 Lucas Glover, Max Homa, Joaquin Niemann (Chi)
12.38 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Adam Scott (Aus), Will Zalatoris
12.49 Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas
13.00 Ludvig Aberg (Swe), Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth
13.11 Wyndham Clark, Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
13.22 Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland (Nor), Gary Woodland
13.33 Daniel Berger, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Russell Henley
13.44 Brian Harman, Justin Rose (Eng), Cameron Smith (Aus)
13.55 Brandon Bingaman, Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Davis Riley
14.06 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Tom McKibbin (NIrl)
14.17 Beau Hossler, Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Timothy Wiseman
17.25 Luke Donald (Eng), Padraig Harrington (Irl), Martin Kaymer (Ger)
17.36 Taylor Moore, David Puig (Spa), John Somers
17.47 Nic Ishee, Kurt Kitayama, Alexander Noren (Swe)
17.58 Ryo Hisatsune (Jpn), Tom Johnson, JT Poston
18.09 Bud Cauley, Nicolas Echavarria (Col), Davis Thompson
18.20 Thomas Detry (Bel), Harris English, Michael Kim
18.31 Stephan Jaeger (Ger), Chris Kirk, Robert MacIntyre (Sco)
18.42 Laurie Canter (Eng), Thorbjoern Olesen (Den), Karl Vilips (Aus)
18.53 Rico Hoey (Phi), Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Sam Stevens
19.04 Robert Gates, Ben Griffin, Lee Hodges
19.15 Nick Dunlap, Harry Hall (Eng), Thriston Lawrence (Rsa)
19.26 Ryan Gerard, Greg Koch, Marco Penge (Eng)
19.37 Dylan Newman, Victor Perez (Fra), Daniel van Tonder (Rsa)
