8/17/2013

Padraig Misses Wyndham Cut

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Padraig Harrington missed the cut at The Wyndham Championship after a second round 74 left him at 7 over at Sedgefield Country Club.

Patrick Reed leads, a PGA TOUR rookie, shot a 6-under 64 on Friday to take a one-stroke lead with an 11-under 129 total. Players are trying to improve their positions in the final event before the FedExCup Playoffs begin next week.

"I don't mind her having all the attention," Reed said. "Less attention for me, which means I can just focus more on my game."

Reed had six birdies in a bogey-free round that was a stroke shy of matching his best of the year.

John Huh had the best round of the day -- a 62 -- to move to 10 under. John Deere winner Jordan Spieth was 9 under after a 66. Spieth also is a PGA TOUR rookie, and Huh is in his second year.

Charlie Wi, Bob Estes, Rory Sabbatini, Brian Harman, Jim Herman and first-round co-leader Ross Fisher were 7 under.

Wi had a 65, Estes, Harman, Herman and Sabbatini shot 66, and Fisher had a 69.

Organizers moved up the third-round tee times Saturday to try to dodge a threat of rain, with players going off in threesomes at the first and 10th tees.

Reed, the 23-year-old former college player at Georgia and Augusta State, had top-10 finishes in his last two tournaments. He could have built an even bigger lead in this one, but missed a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-3 seventh.

He closed his round with birdies on the eighth and ninth holes, sinking a 10-foot putt to applause from the gallery and walking off the green with his arm around Justine's shoulder.

She began caddying for him last summer before a Monday qualifying tournament in Houston. During a humid, 100-degree day in Texas, she had no trouble lugging around a bag full of rain gear, he said.

"I told her to read putts for me that day, and she just has a knack for reading greens extremely well," Reed said. "It's basically like my coach being out there with me. She knows just as much about the golf swing. She knows why I hit it left or right or anything like that, so I mean, if ever I get out of whack, she can fix me immediately."

Reed certainly has a history on Donald Ross-designed courses in North Carolina. He reached the semifinals of the 2008 U.S. Amateur on Ross' No. 2 course at Pinehurst, and the first cut he made on the TOUR came at this Sedgefield Country Club course two years ago after receiving a sponsor's exemption.

"That's why I love this event," Reed said.

Huh, a 23-year-old who was the youngest player on TOUR to win last year, came on strong late with birdies on his final three holes, including an 11-foot birdie putt on the ninth that closed his best round of the year.

Did he see this coming?

"Not 62. It was more like, maybe, 64," he said, laughing. "I drove the ball great since (the) Masters, actually. It's been a long time, but I was able to put everything together and I'm really pleased with it."

A breakout rookie year on TOUR continued for the 20-year-old Spieth, who was 19 last month when he became the youngest winner in eight decades with his victory in the John Deere Classic.

He had a boom-or-bust day at Sedgefield with seven birdies and three bogeys. After starting on the back nine, he birdied four of his final six holes and heard chants of "Spiethy" from the gallery.

"I wish they had said `Spieth' instead of `Spiethy,' but you can't pick your nickname," Spieth said, laughing. "It's great. It's kind of weird, kind of new to have people kind of cheering for me. ... All it does is help carry momentum, positive momentum, and hopefully, I'll have a lot of people be yelling at my back tomorrow."

The field is littered with players trying to either hold on to their FedExCup Playoffs position or force their way into The Barclays in New Jersey next week. The top 125 on the points list qualify for the postseason.

Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey, who arrived at No. 137, moved to 3 under after his 69. Fisher, at No. 162, kept himself in position to challenge for a playoff spot, and so did Herman, No. 149.


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8/16/2013

Harrington Hits 73 at Wyndam

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Pádraig Harrington could only record a three-over-par 73 in his first round of the $5.3 million Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro in North Carolina.

The Dubliner is hoping for a good showing this weekend to boost his FedExCup play-off position. He currently sits 129th in the FedExCup standings, four places outside of the qualification places for the play-offs, which begin with The Barclays next week.

Chris Stroud’s late decision to play looked like a very good one after he grabbed an early one-shot lead in the opening round. The American journeyman’s long game was poor, by his own admission, but he putted brilliantly to post eight birdies in a six-under-par 64 on an unusually mild summer’s morning at Sedgefield Country Club.

The 31-year-old Stroud led by one stroke from fellow Americans Andrew Svoboda and Robert Garrigus, and Australian Matt Jones, with half the field back in the clubhouse.

“I didn’t play that great today (but) I’m in the lead. It’s a weird deal,” said Stroud, who is ranked 48th in the PGA Tour’s FedExCup points list heading into the play-offs, which start next week.

“It’s a crazy game. I only had one or two really good drives and four or five iron shots (but) kept myself in position and made a lot of good putts – not a bunch of 30-footers, just a lot from eight-to-20 feet.”

Stroud made his first start as a tour pro in Greensboro, on a sponsor’s invitation in 2004, and has been a regular visitor ever since, though he was planning to skip the event this year.

However, he missed the cut by one stroke at last week’s PGA Championship and then decided to enter Greensboro, where he has never finished better than 57th.

“I played pretty well in the PGA and I told my caddie I’m playing too well to go home and just sit and get rusty,” said Stroud, whose best PGA Tour finish was a playoff loss at the Travelers Championship in June.

“This is the nicest weather I’ve seen here, I’m happy to be here and it’s a great golf course that’s even better with new greens.”

Stroud acknowledged he would have to improve his overall game to have a chance of winning on Sunday, so he headed off to the practice range to work on his flaws.

Some of the bigger names in the field also had plenty to work on after struggling to go low in the opening round. Fijian Vijay Singh shot a 70 and South African Ernie Els carded a 71.


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8/15/2013

Rory Confirms Trip Downunder

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Rory McIlroy has revealed he will end his season contesting the Australian Open in Sydney.

McIlroy confirmed his appearance after finishing in a share of eighth place in the defence of his PGA Championship title at Oak Hill.

The Australian Open will be staged at the Royal Sydney course from November 28 to December 1.

"It is pretty much locked in place I will be playing the Australian Open in Sydney," he said.

"It's been a couple of years since I last competed in an Australian Open. I competed in 2006 when I was still an amateur and then a year later after just turning pro.

"Both were in Sydney and I've always enjoyed myself in Sydney so I am very much looking forward to returning to Royal Sydney."

On his last Australian Open appearance in 2007 McIlroy finished well down the field in a share of 59th with scores of 74, 74, 76 and 77.

McIlroy is no stranger to the 2000 Olympic Games host city as earlier this year his girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki contested the Sydney International and the pair were photographed atop Sydney Tower. McIlroy has the photograph on his Twitter page.

There had been suggestions McIlroy was all set to compete in last year's Australian Open for a reported $1 million appearance fee.

However, both Golf Australia and his Dublin-based Horizon Sports manager, Conor Ridge, denied the rumour.

But while McIlroy has not tasted success since then he was still expected to command the million-dollar appearance fee to tee up on the Royal Sydney course.

McIlroy said he has also accepted an invitation a week later to play in the Tiger Woods hosted World Challenge from December 5-8 at the Sherwood Country Club course in suburban Los Angeles.

"It will be a great two weeks to finish up my year so I'm looking forward to competing in both events," he said.

McIlroy admitted after his best finish this year in the Majors he had left the Rochester course with the same feelings experienced last year in Ohio in finishing eighth in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational a week before capturing a second Major Championship victory.

"I feel just like I did in leaving the Bridgestone last year as my game is pretty much in great shape.

"There's still enough golf ahead of me this year to turn it into very good year," he said.

"I have four very big weeks coming up to try and finish off the PGA Tour season well.

"I've also got a few events out in Asia, the Australian Open and Tiger's event so I've got plenty of opportunity to round off my year on a good note."

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Harrington Hoping Fedex Delivers

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Padraig Harrington hopes history can repeat itself at the Wyndham Championship this week.

The Dubliner sits 129th in the FedExCup standings, four places outside the qualification places for the play-offs, which begin with The Barclays next week.

Harrington was in almost exactly the same position two years ago when he arrived in Greensboro in 130th place, and a tie for 47th was enough to lift him into 124th.

He made the second play-off tournament too, and is optimistic he will continue his record of always having qualified for the play-offs.

"I need to have a good week. I'm thinking top 25 should be good enough. So that's the goal," he said.

"Well, the goal is to go out there and win, and if I can't win, finish in the top 25 and give myself a chance of playing in the first FedExCup event and trying to move on from there.

"There's certainly a distraction in it. There's a lot of thinking and talking, what you need to do. You kind of prepare for this week very much as an isolated week."

Harrington, who missed the cut at the US PGA Championship last week, feels he is playing better than his results suggest.

He said: "It's just been an odd year. I haven't really scored very well. I can't put everything together in a given week. So you have to have patience and accept that this is going to happen every so often and try and be patient to wait for it to turn around, and hopefully it turns around this week. But I'm very happy with the state of my game at the moment and where it's going, and if it doesn't happen this week, I'm sure it will happen over the next number of weeks."

Harrington is not the only big-name player battling to make it into next week's field. Vijay Singh, David Toms, Trevor Immelman, Ben Curtis, Davis Love III and YE Yang are all outside the top 125.

Defending Wyndham champion Sergio Garcia does not have to worry about such matters but he is trying to become the first player since Sam Snead in the 1950s to win the title back to back.

"The only thing I can do is go out there, hopefully play well like I know I can do," he said.


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8/12/2013

Happy McIlroy at Oak Hill

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Rory McIlroy was in a positive frame of mind despite failing to climb into contention in the final round of the US PGA Championship.

The defending champion needed to shoot a low score after starting six shots off the pace but after a bright start blew any chance he had by taking seven at the par-four fifth.

A decent approach spun back into the water and then he pitched his fourth shot over the back of the green, but still managed to shoot a level-par 70.

"I actually didn't hit a bad shot, 168 yards to the pin, hit nine iron, pitched it just in the place where you can't pitch it I guess," he said.

"Obviously it was disappointing but I fought back well. I was four-under at that point and had just missed a short putt on the fourth to get to five.

"After doing that I just wanted to post as good a finish as I could.

"I saw a lot of great signs out there today. Hopefully I can just bring that through to the next few weeks and have a strong finish to the season."



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