Who made the cut at the Travelers Championship, Women’s PGA and Senior US Open?
All three professional golf competitions enter the weekend with the leaderboards well under par at the midway point of their respective tournaments.
KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
South Korean In Gee Chun is at the top of the leaderboard after two strong rounds of golf, after going 8-under-par on Thursday and tying a record for the largest 18-hole lead at a major. Her second day was also solid and her 3-under-par round on Friday puts her in first place with a six-shot lead over Lydia Ko and Jennifer Kupcho.
The anecdote of the day came from Emma Talley (US) who hit her foot with the putter after a short missed putt on the sixth hole and damaged her club. She continued using the putter until the last four holes, when she was forced to use her 58-degree wedge on the greens. She finished the round at 6-over par and didn’t make the cut. “Obviously you want to shed light when you’re out here. If they didn’t see what happened, they’d probably think I snapped it over my leg,” she said
On Saturday the 68 players who made the cut will try to reduce the considerable distance with the leader. Currently 24 players start the weekend under par, who will be competing for the $1.35 million the winner will take home on Sunday at the Congressional Blue Course in Bethesda, Maryland.
Senior US Open
Irish eyes are smiling for Irish tour veteran Padraig Harrington, who is leading after two rounds at Saucon Valley. Harrington broke a driver while warming up Friday, but still managed to post a 6-under-par 65 to take a one stroke lead over 2019 champion Steve Stricker.
Another big name making the cut in Pennsylvania is Miguel Angel Jimenez from Spain, who has come in second place twice in the U.S. Senior Open. Jimenez shot a 7-under 64, the low round of the championship which improved his position to 22nd place. Defending champion Jim Furyk, a Pennsylvania native, just made the cut at 5-over par.
Joining Harrington in the last group on Saturday is Steve Stricker, who captained against the Irishman last year at the 2021 Ryder Cup. Stricker grinded it out on Friday and was happy to be just one shot back at the midway point. “I was just trying to right the ship there. It can get going sideways in a U.S. Open pretty quickly. So just try to hit the fairways, good amount of greens,” Stricker said.
Travelers Championship
Rory McIlroy shot an 8-under par 62 on Thursday and was the crowd’s favorite to be in first place going into the weekend, but the fatigue of playing four tournaments in four weeks might have caught up to the Northern Irishman. His even par round on Friday puts him six shots behind Olympic Gold medalist Xander Schauffele, who shot a 7-under 63 again on Friday to take a five-stroke lead.
Schauffele is five shots ahead of Patrick Cantlay, Harris English, Cam Davis, Nick Hardy and Kevin Kisner. English, the defending champion, is competing in his third tournament since hip surgery in February. “The toughest thing is walking and playing. I mean, I feel like back home I can go hit a bunch of balls on the range, but up and down these hills and being on your feet for five or six hours is the toughest part. It’s getting better and better, and I feel like the more I play competitive rounds out here, it’s just going to get stronger,” he said.
The story of the day was McIlroy, who showed the best and worst of his game. He had 7 birdies, 8 pars, 1 bogey, 1 double bogey and a snowman (8) on the Par-4 number 12 for a 39 on the back nine. “For whatever reason I haven’t been comfortable with my fairway woods the last couple weeks,” he said. “I made a good putt for 6 on 15 and then birdied 16. Yeah, I should be closer to the lead. Feel like I let a lot of guys into the golf tournament because of it. But, you know, it’s still only two rounds. There are two rounds left and a lot of golf left.”