Jim Furyk fired a four-under 66 to maintain his two-shot lead at the halfway stage of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Friday, while Tiger Woods is off to his worst start in four months.
Furyk reached 11-under 129 and has a two-shot lead over Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello, who shot a five-under 65 on Friday at the Firestone Country Club course.
“I thought it was key to get off to a nice start and see some putts go in,” Furyk said. “I made a good birdie putt at two, and saw some birdies go in on the front nine, good putt at nine, and off to the races.”
Cabrera-Bello is alone at nine-under 131. Former British Open champ Louis Oosthuizen also had a 65 in round two and is alone in third at eight under.
Jason Dufner shot a four-under 66, good for fourth at seven under par.
Seven-time winner Woods had a difficult day. He shot a two-over 72 and is tied for 44th, 13 shots back of Furyk.
Woods has had good success at this event for most of his career, but has stumbled on this course the last two times he played here and needs to get his putting turned around to avoid another dismal score at Firestone.
His two-over 142 is his highest 36-hole score since his three-over 145 start at the Masters.
“I was a decent putter over the years, but lately it’s been very streaky. I’m making everything or I make nothing.”
Reno-Tahoe Open
Reuters
Brazilian Alexandre Rocha moved into a two-point lead at the Reno-Tahoe Open in Nevada after Friday’s second round of the USPGA Tour’s only event played under the Modified Stableford scoring system.
The 34-year-old Rocha, searching for his maiden USPGA Tour win, produced seven birdies and an eagle, the latter worth five points, while making three bogeys to sit on 24 at the halfway stage.
Americans J.J Henry and John Mallinger were tied in second place on 22 points — the former boosted by an eagle on the par-five eighth.
That hole proved to be a turning point for the Fort Worth-based Henry, who had opened his round with back-to-back bogeys.
Mallinger said he believed the scoring system was assisting his game.
“This is a new format for me, I’ve never played it before and I’m just trying to get used to getting the score out of my mind and just playing golf. I think it’s actually helped me,” he said.
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
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