AUSTRALIA’S ADAM SCOTT and American Justin Thomas topped the leaderboard at 10-under par on Friday when darkness halted play in the second round of the weather-disrupted Genesis Open.
Scott and Thomas both posted five-under par 66s on Friday, and each was five-under for the second round when darkness fell on another rainy day at Riviera Country Club, where organizers were scrambling to get the tournament back on track for a Sunday finish after a seven-hour weather delay on Thursday.
Tournament host Tiger Woods made little headway on the marathon day, struggling with the putter in a one-under first round and still one-under, tied for 55th, through 12 holes of the second.
“It was a tough day,” Woods said. “I’m stiff right now. It got pretty chilly towards the end, the ball wasn’t going very far.”
Woods strung together four birdies in a row in the middle of his first round, but his troubles on the greens kept him from building any momentum.
“I putted awful today,” said Woods, whose 44-foot eagle putt at his 10th hole in the second round was an anomaly on a day when he hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation in the first round but had four three-putt bogeys.
No sooner had the eagle enlivened his round than he had two straight bogeys before play ended.
“I didn’t hit it that bad, felt like I controlled it well enough and just a terrible day on the greens,” he said.
Despite the long day in tough conditions, Woods noted that plenty of players — more than 70 — were under par.
“You have to go get it, and JT did it and I just wasn’t able to do it,” Woods said, lauding playing partner Thomas.
“He made tough conditions look easy,” Woods said.
Thomas totalled 14 birdies in his day’s 30 holes — seven in the first round and seven through 12 holes in the second.
“I’m just proud of myself the way I fought out there today,” he said.
- Awesome ace -
Thomas and Scott were one stroke clear of J.B. Holmes, who led after a first-round 63 highlighted by a hole in one at the par-three sixth.
“It was awesome to see that,” Holmes said of the ace, which landed past the hole and spun back some 20 feet. “I wanted to get it past the hole because I knew how much they were coming back. Hit it exactly how I wanted it and it went in.”
At nine-under with nine to play, Holmes was two strokes in front of Luke List, who was seven under with three to play, and American Jordan Spieth — who was seven-under and due to tee off in the second round on Saturday along with half the field.
Spieth added two more birdies to a bogey-free 64 as he played the last six holes of his first round on Friday morning before having the afternoon off.
Scott, no stranger to disruptive weather at Riviera where he won the title in a 2005 edition shortened to 36 holes, said maintaining momentum amid the starts and stops was tricky.
He played 25 holes without a bogey before dropping a shot at his eighth hole of the second round — the 17th, but fired back-to-back birdies before play was halted.
“I just got the momentum going and I kept it going,” Scott said. “I wasn’t really in much trouble, but I up-and-downed it when I had to.”
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy finished the day on three under, while Seamus Power is on one under as it stands.
You can view the leaderboard here.
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Hardly world beaters, especially going forward
@COYBIG: two evenly matched teams tomorrow so
I think travelling to Georgia will affect them. It’s a long journey. We have a chance.
@prop joe: good pt. I had not considered that. I think we will beat them.
Havent lost to these since 92. No Bale wine rate since 2012 is 9%.
Believe
Coybig
We will beat this shower tomorrow COYBIG! The welsh think the only have to turn up to beat us!
Whats the team photo about?
@Jane: It’s something Wales have been doing for a couple of years now as a bit of a joke, they deliberately take terrible team photos. Go back through all their qualifiers and you’ll see some with one player kneeling and the rest standing, and the opposite. Leaving gaps like that etc. No idea what it’s about.
@Eanna Costello: I’d never noticed it before, thanks
@Eanna Costello: I think they did one bad photo by mistake and just kept it going then for a laugh
@Jane:
More examples here. It’s gas really.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2017/1008/910725-the-wonders-of-the-wales-team-photo-what-is-going-on/
Seems like you guys think you have this in the bag already.
To put some perspective here – Wales have lost 3 games since 2013 when Bale wasn’t playing. Two of those were friendlies when other players including Ramsey were also not available, and the other one was after we’d already qualified for the Euros.
We haven’t lost a game since the 2016 Euros Semi final, we’ve kept a clean sheet for the last 3 games which we won, and tomorrow night we’re playing at home.
So despite the dismissive remarks above, Wales may pull off a huge upset.
@Saul Hamilton Evans: “not world beaters” “evenly matched” “we have a chance”. How is that us thinking its in the bag or dismissive of Wales? I think nearly all Irish fans thinks Wales are favourites but as said above, we go to Cardiff with a chance.
@Paul P O’Sullivan: is focain bómán é.
He’s a clown