Gary Woodland on Friday birdied three of the final four holes for a six-under 65 and a one-stroke lead in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba.
Woodland played the first 36 holes without a bogey, following an opening 64 to get to 13-under 129 on Mayakoba’s Greg Norman-designed El Camaleon course. He won the last of his two tour titles in 2013.
“I haven’t been here since my rookie year, so it’s been since 2009,” Woodland said. “The golf course is in great shape. It sets up good for me. I can hit a lot of irons off the tees, lay back a little bit. The whole deal is to keep the ball in the fairway and then attack from there.”
Married last month, Woodland took last week off and worked with instructor Butch Harmon, after opening the new season in Malaysia and China.
“It was nice to have an off week last week,” Woodland said. “Went out and spent some time with Butch. After the wedding, kind of got a little rusty. Took some time off, but nice to get back in the swing of things. Very comfortable with where I’m at right now.”
Webb Simpson was second after his second straight 65.
Scott Piercy reached 11-under. He tied for third in the season opener at Silverado.
“Just kind of plodding along and trying to pick up birdies where I can and kind of keep the scorecard pretty clean,” Piercy said. “Felt pretty good. Just trying to pick up some marbles on the way and count them at the end of the week and see where we fall.”
First-round leader Chris Kirk followed his opening 63 with a 70 to drop into a tie for fourth at nine-under with local favorite Abraham Ancer (68), Russell Knox (65), Charles Howell III (64), Ben Martin (64), John Huh (66) and Adam Hadwin (66).
Marc Leishman eagled the par-five seventh and followed with a hole-in-one on the 134-yard, hitting a sand wedge for 134 yards. The Australian was seven-under after a 65.
“One-hopped past it and spun back into the hole,” Leishman said. “Same thing on eight. High sand wedge and landed about a yard past it and zipped back into the hole. It was first hole-in-one I’ve had on tour. I’ve had quite a few others just in practice rounds and that, but that’s always nice to see it drop in.”
Taiwan’s Pan Cheng-tsung finished tied for 39th on a four-under 138 total.
Defending champion Graeme McDowell rallied to make the cut by a stroke, following an opening 75 with a 65 to get to two-under.
Jim Furyk missed the cut, shooting 74-70 in his first event of the new season.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was