Dufner shoots 63 for lead at Quail Hollow
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jason Dufner’s golf game was going nowhere, so he changed everything from his swing coach to his equipment to his caddie. It didn’t get any better.
He at least is starting to see signs of things coming together after an 8-under-par 63 on Friday in the Wells Fargo Championship, matching his career-low score on the PGA Tour and giving him a oneshot lead going into the weekend at Quail Hollow Club.
Dufner considers it the best two rounds he has put together since the 2017 Memorial Tournament, which also was the last time he had a 36-hole lead.
“See how it goes being in the heat of it on Saturday and Sunday,” said Dufner, who was at 11-under 131. “I’ve been there before. It’s been a while, but I kind of know what to expect. It will be a good challenge to see where I’m at, what I’m doing.”
Joel Dahmen, who had shared the first-round lead with Rory McIlroy, made his first bogey of the week on his final hole of the second round — from the middle of the fairway, no less — but still shot his second straight 66 and was tied for second with Max Homa, who birdie his last two holes for a 63.
Like Dufner, Homa knows about coping with bad results, having missed the cut in 14 of 17 events played in 2017.
Dufner shot a 63 in competition for the first time since his winning performance at the 2013 PGA Championship. He missed the cut 11 times last year, when he fell from 41st to 124th in the World Golf Ranking. He turned 42 in March and realizes he doesn’t have many years left to compete at a high level.
“I’m searching for things,” Dufner said, “that are going to make me a better player.”
The weekend at the Wells Fargo Championship will not feature Phil Mickelson for the first time since he started playing the event in 2004. The 48-yearold five-time major champion shot 41 on the front nine and wound up with a 76 to miss the 1-over cut by four shots.
McIlroy was stride for stride with Dufner until he dropped three shots over his last two holes. McIlroy made a double bogey with a fat shot out of a bunker and a pitch too strong over the green at No. 8, then went over the green on No. 9 for a bogey and a 70.
Even so, he was five behind and in the mix for a third title at Quail Hollow. He was at 6-under 136, tied for fourth with 2018 Masters winner Patrick Reed (69), who is looking for his first top-10 finish this year.
“I stood up here last night talking about that I got the most out of it yesterday, and today it was the complete opposite. I turned a 66 into a 70,” McIlroy said. “Golf — it’s a funny game, and these things happen.”
Jason Day (69), trying to repeat as the tournament winner, was another stroke back in sixth with second-ranked Justin Rose (67), Pat Perez (68) and Seamus Power (68).
All four former Baylor School golfers on the PGA Tour were in the field, and three are headed to the weekend.
Harris English and Keith Mitchell were among those tied for 47th at par, but they made it there in different fashion — English with his second straight 71 and Mitchell after a second-round 74 that included three birdies, four bogeys and a double. Mitchell gave himself ample cushion with an opening 68 that had him tied for third on Thursday.
Luke List (68) made the cut on the number and was tied for 62nd. Stephan Jaeger struggled to a 78, ending his tournament at 12 over.
Yang passes this test
SHENZHEN, China — Kuang Yang felt underprepared heading into his first European Tour event, perhaps because until just recently he was busy preparing for midterm exams — at high school.
It didn’t stop him making the cut in historic fashion at the China Open.
Kuang sank a 20-foot par putt on the 18th hole at Genzon Country Club to shoot a second straight 1-under 71 and make it to the weekend on the number. He became the youngest person to make the cut at a regular European Tour event — outside the majors — at 14 years, six months and 12 days old.
He is less than a month older than compatriot Guan Tianlang was when he famously made the cut at the 2013 Masters.
Kuang qualified for the China Open by winning the China Junior Match Play Championship in December, and he has been playing in China-based events in the PGA Tour Series.
Among the 45 Chinese golfers competing in Shenzhen this week was one younger than Kuang. Ma Bingwen, 13, shot 78-79 and missed the cut.
China’s Wu Ashen has a two-stroke lead at 13-under 131 after a second-round 65. He won the tournament in 2015.
Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen (68) was second, a shot ahead of Spain’s Jorge Campillo (69), who won the Trophee Hassan II tournament Sunday in Morocco.
Wind causes trouble
DALY CITY, Calif. — So Yeon Ryu shot a 2-under 70 in challenging conditions to take a one-stroke lead over follow South Korean golfer Sei Young Kim and Ryann O’Toole of the United States halfway through the LPGA Mediheal Championship.
Tied for the first-round lead with Eun-Hee Ji and Anne van Dam after a 67, Ryu chipped in for birdie from the fringe on the par-3 12th at Lake Merced Golf Club, but she gave back the stroke with a bogey on the par-4 16th after advancing a chip from deep rough only to the fringe.
Ryu was at 7-under 137 on the tree-lined course with tricky greens made tougher with shifting wind. She has six LPGA Tour victories, including two majors — the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open and the 2017 ANA Inspiration.
O’Toole birdied three of her last three holes in the afternoon in a bogey-free 65, matching the best score the first two days. Kim had a bogey-free 66, playing through back pain and closing with a birdie on the par-5 ninth.
Tied for fourth at 5 under were South Korea’s Ji (72), He Yong Choi (65), Na Yeon Choi (67) and Inbee Park (69) plus England’s Charley Hull (70).
Stormy start in Texas
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Ken Tanigawa birdied the first three holes for a share of the lead with Tim Petrovic when first-round play in the PGA Tour Champions’ Insperity Invitational was suspended.
Play in the 50-and-older tournament at The Woodlands Country Club was stopped at 12:17 p.m. because of lightning and called off for the day at 2:55. Petrovic had completed six holes.
Glen Day, Mike Goodes, Kent Jones, Shaun Micheel, Corey Pavin and Jerry Smith were a stroke back. Goodes, Pavin and Smith played seven holes, Jones and Micheel five and Day two.
Chattanooga’s Gibby Gilbert III was among those in the field who did not begin the first round.