Singh tops WGC leaderboard; Wie misses another cut
AKRON, Ohio (AP) – Without the world’s No. 1 player around, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson brought some star power Friday to the final World Golf Championship of the year. Singh twice escaped from the trees on his closing holes at Firestone and renewed his affair with a belly putter on his way to a 4-under 66 at the Bridgestone Invitational, putting his name atop the leaderboard for the first time in more than four months.
He was one shot ahead of Mickelson, who made another great escape at the end of the second round, this time holing a 20-foot par putt to finish off a 66 that put him in the final group with Singh.
Both have three majors – two Masters and a PGA for Mickelson, two PGAs and a Masters for Singh – along with some history. They got into a heated argument during a rain delay at Augusta National over the length of Mickelson’s metal spikes. A year later when they played two rounds together in Phoenix, Singh asked that Mickelson’s driver be tested to make sure it was legal.
Both have more pressing concerns this week, mainly getting their games back in order with the PGA Championship looming.
Reno-Tahoe Open
RENO, Nev. – Michelle Wie failed in her eighth attempt to make the cut on the PGA Tour, shooting a second-round 80 at the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open. Parker McLachlin tied the course record with a 62 to take a four-stroke lead over 1987 Masters winner Larry Mize and three others.
Wie shot a 1-over 73 Thursday as she attempted to become the first woman since World War II to make the cut on the PGA Tour. But a quintuple-bogey 9 Friday helped push her to 9-over 153 at the par-72 Montreux Golf & Country Club.
“I feel my game is a lot better. Obviously the score doesn’t show it, but I know what I need to work on,” Wie said. “I gave it my best today and I felt like I did a lot of good things and hopefully that outshines the ones I made mistakes on.”
The 18-year-old, who was making her first PGA appearance since January 2007, had two bogeys and one birdie through her first nine holes and was within striking distance of the even-par cut line at the 7,472-yard mountain course.
But she had a double bogey on her 13th hole of the day after she hit her second shot over the green into heavy rough on the 518-yard, par-5 No. 4. The quintuple-bogey 9 came four holes later on the 464-yard, par-4 eighth, when she had to take two penalty strokes.
Copyright Associated Press 2008