2 teams share 2nd-round lead at Zurich Classic
AVONDALE, La. – Tony Finau and Cameron Champ shot a 4-under 68 in alternate-shot play Friday for a share of the Zurich Classic lead with the Norwegian duo of Viktor Hovland and Kris Ventura.
“I know we’re having a good time with this format up to this point,” Finau said about the lone team event on the PGA Tour. “We’ve both played some really solid golf, and we find ourselves at the top of the leaderboard.
“We’ll do what we’ve been doing the last couple days, which is enjoy each other’s company and not add any bonus pressure when it comes to teammate golf.”
Hovland and Ventura had a 69 to match Finau and Champ at 13-under 131. The teams will play best ball Saturday, and close with an alternate-shot round Sunday.
“Just having fun, and obviously we don’t get to do this very often,” Ventura said. “We’re playing some good golf, and the course we both like, so it’s just one of those things where we’re comfortable playing out here.”
It was an eventful day in windy conditions at the TPC Louisiana, highlighted by two aces.
Nick Watney, the Zurich winner in 2007 when it was a traditional individual event, made a hole-in-one on the 14th hole from 224 yards.
Later, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell aced the 217-yard 17th, eliciting a roar from what is normally one of the rowdiest spectator areas on the course. McDowell then sent a cooler loaded with cans of beer and wine to the media center.
McDowell and Matt Wallace bogeyed four holes and shot 70, good enough to make the cut at 8 under. Watney and Charley Hoffman shot 74 to make the cut at 6 under.
Hovland and Ventura, also tied for the lead after the first round, birdied five holes. But they were left to rue a double bogey on 16, when Hovland hit their approach shot from a fairway bunker into the water short and left of the green.
“It was my fault,” Ventura said with a laugh. “We tried to hit the fairway with an iron (off of the tee) and I hit it in that bunker. I wasn’t the best teammate.”
Finau and Champ briefly surged to a two-shot lead after birdies on the par-4 10th and the par-5 11th. But they bogeyed the par-4 12th when Finau’s approach fell short of the right side of the green.
But Finau made up for it with a birdie putt of nearly 6 feet on 18.
“We knew today with the wind and just the format in general it was going to be a grind, and that’s what we did, especially coming down the last nine holes,” Finau said. “We just kind of grinded it out.”
LPGA Tour
LOS ANGELES – Jessica Korda rode out a series of big momentum shifts at historic Wilshire Country Club to hold onto the lead in the HUGEL Air Premia LA Open.
Six strokes ahead after three holes, tied with top-ranked Jin Young Ko at the turn and two shots back with three to play, Korda birdied the final two holes to take a one-stroke lead into the final round.
Korda shot a 3-under 68 to break the tournament 54-hole record at 16 under. She matched the event course record with a 64 on Wednesday and shot a bogey-free 65 on Thursday to break the 36hole scoring record at 13 under.
Ko shot a 66, making a 30-foot bogey putt on the par-3 18th after driving over the green and watching her second bang into the bank and roll back to her feet.
Korda matched Ko with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 15th, then hit to 3 feet for a birdie on the par-4 17th and to 2 feet on 18. She won the season-opening Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in January for her sixth LPGA Tour title.
Korda birdied the first three holes to open the six-stroke lead, hitting to a foot on Nos. 2 and 3. She parred the next five and bogeyed the par-4 ninth to fall into a tie with Ko. Korda also bogeyed Nos. 11 and 13 before rallying late.
European Tour
LAS PALMAS, Spain – Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen shot 9 under for a course record 61 to take the lead of the Gran Canaria Open after two rounds.
Olesen hit an eagle on a par-5 hole to go with seven birdies on an error-free day at the Meloneras Golf Course on Spain’s Canary Islands.
Sam Horsfield and Connor Syme also shot a record 61 for the round. Horsfield is four shots back, and Syme six shots off the pace. Rhys Enoch and Wil Besseling are one shot behind Olesen, followed by Matthias Schwab, Robin Roussel and Maximilian Kieffer at two back.