Leader Dustin Johnson, history-maker Jordan Spieth and a desperate Tiger Woods will all be looking up at the skies with the second round of The Open getting under way at St Andrews yesterday.
Birdies were aplenty during Thursday’s opening chapter at the “home of golf,” but conditions gradually worsened during the day and the full blast of the looming bad weather hit the fabled Fife links course yesterday, with the possibility of continuing today.
Johnson for one, seeking his first major title, was happy that he produced his opening seven-under 65 when the going was good.
Photo: AP
“Everybody knows the weather Friday and Saturday is going to be very difficult, so today I thought was very important to get off to a good start and try to make as many birdies as you can today, because the next couple days it’s going to be very difficult,” he said.
It was a packed leaderboard stacked up behind him.
Standing one back of him was a six-strong group consisting of home favorite Paul Lawrie, Australian shotmaker Jason Day, South African veteran Retief Goosen, Danny Willett of England and Americans Robert Streb and Zach Johnson.
Even more pertinately, among those on 67 is the man who has taken the golfing world by storm this year, 21-year-old Texan Jordan Spieth.
The world No. 2 played alongside Johnson on Thursday for his first competitive round at St Andrews and he dealt admirably with the challenge.
In the absence of injured world No. 1 Rory McIlroy, his clash with Johnson is the one that is making headlines as the rivalry to watch.
Spieth said of Johnson that he had been impressed by “somebody who’s splitting bunkers at about 380 yards and just two-putting for birdie on five or six of the holes when there’s only two par-5s.”
“I don’t have that in the bag, so I’ve got to make up for it with ball-striking,” Spieth said. “I’ve played enough golf with him to where I believe in my skill set that I can still trump that crazy ability that he has.”
Phil Mickelson (70), England’s top hope Justin Rose (71) and last week’s Scottish Open winner Rickie Fowler (72) were positioned to apply some pressure on the leader.
Tiger Woods needed a minor miracle to avoid missing back-to-back cuts in major tournaments for the first time in his career.
The 14-time major winner struggled to an opening 76 and there was nothing in his game to suggest that he will fare any better in tougher weather conditions.
Play resumed at 10am yesterday in the second round following a three-and-a-half-hour delay caused by torrential rain.
The bad weather sweeping in off the North Sea had been widely forecast and it arrived on time just as the first players took to the tee for round two in the early morning.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS