Showing posts with label Tejay van Garderen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tejay van Garderen. Show all posts

7/28/2016

McIlroy Unable to Match Walker Pace

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Rory McIlroy lies nine shots off the clubhouse lead after carding a four-over 74 in the first round of the US PGA Championship at Baltusrol.

The Northern Irishman started the final major of 2016 at the 10th hole and had three bogeys in his opening seven holes and no birdies during his round.

Jimmy Walker set the early pace with a five-under 65, while defending champion Jason Day shot 70.

Masters champion Danny Willett is among the late starters in New Jersey.

The Englishman is playing, in line with PGA tradition, with the two other major winners of this year, American Dustin Johnson, who won the US Open, and Open champion Henrik Stenson of Sweden.

McIlroy, the world number four, said before his opening round that the Baltusrol layout gave him a good chance of securing a third US PGA Championship, after winning the title in 2012 and 2014.

Playing alongside Australian Day and American Phil Mickelson, who pushed Stenson close at The Open earlier this month, McIlroy missed two birdie putts in his first two holes.

A duffed chip and miss from six feet led to his first bogey on the 13th and he dropped shots on the 14th and 16th after hitting his ball into greenside bunkers on both holes.

McIlroy missed a five-foot chance for birdie on the par-five 17th and a wild drive on the 18th, the only other par-five hole on the course, led to a par.

Day, who had only one practice round after catching a bug off his son and then spending Tuesday night in hospital after his wife suffered an allergic reaction, had three birdies and a bogey in his two-under round.

Mickelson, who briefly joined McIlroy at four over, battled back to one over with three birdies in five holes.


7/26/2016

Harrington Happy About Rio


Padraig Harrington is thrilled to be going and dreams of gold.

“I’m really looking forward to Rio. My whole family are going,” the 44-year-old Irishman said after a long session on the practice putting green on a sizzling hot and stormy Baltusrol, where the PGA Championship begins on Thursday.

“We’re busy getting our tickets organized for the second week that we’re there. It’s a big deal for us.”

Harrington, winner of the 2008 PGA Championship and two British Open titles (2007, 2008), accepted the honor of playing for Ireland after the withdrawals of four-times major champion Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell citing concerns over the Zika virus.

Later Shane Lowery also withdrew over Zika worries, opening the door for 297th-ranked Seamus Power to join Harrington in the 60-man Rio field as golf returns to the Olympic programme after an absence of 112 years.

World number one Jason Day of Australia, the defending PGA champion, and Americans Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth, ranked second and third, respectively, also bowed out from Rio consideration due to health concerns.

The mosquito-borne Zika virus, which the World Health Organization says is spreading rapidly in the Americas, can cause crippling defects in babies and has been linked to the neurological disorder Guillain-Barre in adults.

“I’m going down there to try and win. No doubt about it, I believe I can win,” said Harrington, who has slipped to 150th in the world rankings.

Harrington, like others who played at the Open at Royal Troon, are returning for the season’s final major with just one tournament week in between them in a tour season condensed to make room for the Olympic tournament.

Some players, including world number eight Adam Scott of Australia and South Africa’s world number 15 Louis Oosthuizen, said they opted out of the Rio Games for scheduling reasons.

Harrington said he had planned to play two majors and the Olympics this summer. “I wanted to do my preparation for all three and if I played well in one of those three would have a good chance of winning,” he said.

“It didn’t happen at the (British) Open. I’ve won three majors and I’m happy to take either,” he said about this week’s PGA or next month’s Summer Olympics.

“I could understand if you haven’t won a major, making that more of a priority. But I think an Olympic gold would add a lot to my career.”