Aug 27, 2005 5 min read

CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) – Justin Rose kept his driver in the bag for most of his round Friday, and it turned out to be a wise choice. The 25-year-old Englishman shot a 7-under 63 to take a four-stroke lead after two rounds of the Buick Championship.

Bogey-free through 36 holes, Rose played himself into contention for his first PGA Tour win, moving to 12-under 128, his lowest two-round total of the year.

Former British Open champ and first-round co-leader Ben Curtis (68) and Kevin Sutherland (67) are tied for second at 8 under. Dean Wilson (66) and Chris Smith (67) are five strokes off the lead.

Rose, who has won four times in international play, has not finished better than third on the PGA Tour. He’ll be paired with Curtis, with whom he shared the second-round lead in last year’s Memorial.

Sutherland had to scramble to stay in contention. He began one stroke back at 5 under and birdied three of his first five holes. But he stumbled on his ninth, 10 and 12th hole and slipped on the leaderboard. He finished with a flourish, however, making birdie on his last three holes to finish with a score of 3 under.

Joey Sindelar had the best round of the day with an 8-under 62, and he needed it to stay around for the weekend after a forgettable 5-over 75.

U.S. Amateur

ARDMORE, Pa. – Austin Eaton III won three of his last four holes and beat U.S. Walker Cup team member Anthony Kim 4 and 2 to advance to the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club.

In other quarterfinals, Italy’s Edoardo Molinari advanced with a 6 and 4 win over South Africa’s Dawie Van Der Walt; J.C. Deacon defeated Mark Leon 2 and 1 in an all-Canadian match; and Dillon Dougherty beat Kent State senior Ryan Yip 4 and 2 to round out Saturday’s semifinalists.

Eaton, a 36-year-old homebuilder who won the 2004 Mid-Amateur title, chipped out of a bunker to within 6 feet and won the 11th hole with a par. He went on to win the 13th, 15th and 16th, finishing with three birdies, a bogey and 12 pars against Kim.

Eaton will face Molinari in one of Saturday’s semifinals.

The 24-year-old Molinari, who finished tied for 60th at the British Open, said he felt he took control against Van Der Walt after making a 15-foot birdie putt at the 10th to go 3-up.

Saturday’s other semifinal match will pit Deacon against Dougherty, a senior from Northwestern.

Deacon, who will be a fifth-year senior at UNLV, beat Leon, a Penn State senior, despite six bogeys and just two birdies.

He lost the 345-yard, par-4, seventh after hitting seven shots, but still led 1-up. He made few mistakes in the round, but capitalized on Leon’s errors.

Dougherty, a native of Woodland, Calif., who caddied for Tiger Woods at Stanford, defeated Yip 4 and 2. He got an early lead on the 4th hole, and recorded four birdies, including three on the back nine.

The semifinals are set to begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, with the 36-hole final scheduled for Sunday. The two finalists receive invitations to next year’s U.S. Open and Masters. The winner also gets a trip to the British Open.

Wendy’s Championship

DUBLIN, Ohio – Soo-Yun Kang overcame a triple-bogey to shoot her second consecutive 6-under-par 66 and forge a tie for the lead with defending champion Catriona Matthew in the Wendy’s Championship for Children.

For the second day in a row, the field took advantage of soft greens to put up record low scores. The cut of 3-under 141 matched the lowest in LPGA history. Fourteen players broke par through 36 holes but won’t play on the weekend.

Kang, who got first tour victory last week at the Safeway, and Matthew, who also put up a second 66, were at 132, a shot ahead of Karrie Webb, who had a 66 of her own.

Annika Sorenstam, finding her stride after a two-week layoff without golf, was four strokes back after a 67.

BMW Open

NORD-EICHENRIED, Germany – European Ryder Cup player Luke Donald birdied the final hole for a second-round 65 to tie Brett Rumford for a share of the lead in the BMW International Open.

Chasing his first title of the year, Donald missed a 20-foot eagle attempt on the final hole that would have given him the outright lead. Instead he made birdie to drop to 7 under on the day and 12 under for the tournament.

The Tradition

ALOHA, Ore. – Gil Morgan used an eagle, six birdies and an adventurous par on the last hole to take a two-stroke lead after two rounds of The Tradition.

Morgan finished with an 8-under 64 for a two-round total of 11-under 133 in the final major of the year on the Champions Tour.

Tom Jenkins was two shots back at 9-under 135 after a 69. Mark McNulty had a 65 and was tied at 8 under with Loren Roberts (69).

Morgan is a two-time champion in the event, winning in 1997 and ’98 when it was played at Desert Mountain in Arizona. He has 23 victories on the Champions Tour, as well as seven titles on the PGA Tour.

McNulty won the Bank of America Championship in June, besting Tom Purtzer on the second playoff hole. It was his fourth Champions Tour victory, following three wins last year as a rookie.

McNulty played at par following his eagle, and was especially cautious on the par-4 17th.

“Two-putted the green and got out of there, thank you very much,” he said. “That’s a bit of a swine of a hole.”

In the final round of the event at the Reserve last year, Craig Stadler closed with four straight birdies for a one-shot victory and his second win in a major on the Champions Tour. Stadler wrapped up the second round this year at 4 under after a second-round 68.

The Tradition was played 14 years in Arizona before Oregon native Peter Jacobsen lobbied to relocate it in 2003.

Jacobsen had staged the Fred Meyer Challenge, a popular pro-am, in Oregon for the 17 years before the Tradition. His sports management firm runs the tournament sponsored by Oregon window and door maker Jeld-Wen.