Andrew Loupe rolled in a birdie putt at his last hole to take a one-shot lead over Roberto Castro after two rounds of the Wells Fargo Championship on Friday.
Loupe, who shared the overnight lead, had four birdies and three bogeys in his one-under 71 at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina.
His eight-under total of 136 put him one in front of fellow American Roberto Castro, who had seven birdies and an eagle at the tough 18th in his six-under 66 for 137.
Chesson Hadley (67) and Mark Hubbard (68) shared third on 138, while five-time major champion Phil Mickelson and former Wells Fargo winner Rickie Fowler were in a group of six players on 139.
Defending champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland got off to a solid start, with three birdies and an eagle on the front nine, but he closed with back-to-back bogeys in a three-under 69 that left him six adrift in a big group on 142.
Loupe is in unfamiliar territory atop the leaderboard, having never been in that position through 36 holes of a PGA Tour event.
In search of a first tour title, he missed the cut at the Valero Texas Open and Zurich Classic in his last two starts.
“I thought I played solid,” said Loupe, whose finishing birdie came after a three-putt bogey at the eighth.
Mickelson bogeyed the ninth, his finishing hole, but he was delighted to pick up a shot at the difficult 18th among his three birdies in a two-under 70.
Fowler had five birdies and a bogey in his four-under 68. He and Mickelson were joined on 139 by Steve Wheatcroft, the overnight co-leader who ballooned to a 74, Brian Harman (70), Daniel Berger (71) and Scott Langley (69).
One day after Fowler and McIlroy had to dodge a ball thrown by a fan, another oddity occurred in the disqualification of Zac Blair for using a non-conforming club.
That club was his putter, which he bent when he hit himself in the head with it after missing a birdie attempt at the fifth hole.
“I am going to learn from this mishap and move on,” said Blair, who posted on Twitter a video of Woody Austin smacking his own head with his putter in 1997.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later