Argentina’s Andres Romero fired his second consecutive seven-under-par 65 on Friday to grab a one-stroke lead after the second round of the US$3.5 million US PGA Tour Puerto Rico Open.
Romero, whose only PGA title came in 2008 at New Orleans, was on 14-under 130 after 36 holes, one shot ahead of American Scott Brown, with US rivals Peter Uihlein and Steve LeBrun on 132 and Argentina’s Fabian Gomez fifth on 133.
“I’m just playing well,” Romero said. “I’m just going to try to keep things going, stay calm the way I’ve been doing. That is the most important thing, just stay calm and try not to think about what might happen on the 72nd hole.”
Photo: AFP
With 65 of the tour’s top players at the World Golf Championships event at Doral in Miami this week, the Puerto Rico event offers a title chance to some of the PGA’s unheralded standouts.
Romero, who shared the lead with Australian Cameron Percy when the day began, birdied the par-five second, par-four third and par-five fifth holes, but a double bogey at the par-three eighth sent him tumbling back down the leaderboard.
The 31-year-old South American responded with starting the back nine with back-to-back birdies, added another at 13, then had back-to-back birdies at the par-five 15th and par-three 16th before closing with another birdie at the par-five 18th.
“What has helped me is going back to my old putter,” Romero said. “It has really been great for me. I had used that putter for a long time and then after a while I changed it.”
Brown birdied three of the last four holes after a bogey at 14 to fire a 63 and move into second place. He birdied the second and fifth, then eagled the par-four seventh before starting a run of three birdies in a row at the eighth.
Percy fired a 70 to stand five strokes off the pace.
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday said that she hoped she would be able to play tennis under the Belarusian flag after the International Olympic Committee lifted its ban on the country’s athletes competing in the Olympics. World No. 1 Sabalenka has had to compete under a neutral banner as a consequence of her country’s support for Russia following its ally’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The IOC earlier on Thursday lifted its ban on Belarusian athletes competing in the Olympics, although restrictions on Russian athletes remain in place. Asked whether the women’s tour would drop the ban on her representing her country, Sabalenka said:
China’s Wu Yize on Monday won the World Snooker Championship for the first time with a dramatic 18-17 victory over Shaun Murphy in the final. Wu held his nerve to seal his thrilling triumph in a tense last frame shoot-out at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. The 22-year-old is the second Chinese player to win the world title after Zhao Xintong beat Mark Williams to make history as the first Asian to lift the trophy last year. Wu is also the second-youngest player to be crowned world champion at the Crucible after Stephen Hendry, who was 21 when he won in 1990. “I have been trying
Real Madrid announced on Friday they had fined Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde 500,000 euros (US$588,000) each after a training ground clash that saw Valverde transported for medical care. The club did not impose any sporting sanctions on the two players, saying in a statement that the fine “thereby concludes the internal procedures” launched against them. Valverde is going to miss today’s Clasico against Barcelona as a result of the head injury he suffered during the altercation. The club said he would be out for up to two weeks. Tchouameni took part in training on Friday and could feature at Camp
RSS