South Africa’s Ernie Els grabbed a share of the halfway lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Friday — he just wasn’t quite sure how he did it.
“It has been kind of weird ... [I’m] a little surprised that I’m in the lead,” Els said after a three-under 69 for seven-under 137.
“But we’re there,” he added. “It should be an interesting weekend.”
Els wasn’t the only player a bit surprised to find himself in the four-man leading group.
Davis Love didn’t make a par until his 10th hole. He finished with six bogeys and seven birdies and his one-under 71 was good enough for a share of the lead.
Ben Curtis rebounded from a bogey-bogey start to card a 67 and DJ Trahan posted a 68 to join the leaders, who were one shot in front of Phil Mickelson (67), South African Retief Goosen (67) and Kevin Na (70).
Els got a break — sort of — at the sixth, where he saved par by chipping out of shallow water.
“That was a big break, because if that ball was another yard left it would have been into the deep end,” Els said, who took his shoes off and waded in to play the shot. “The ball was lying there and I could play it, so I chipped it out of the water, and then hit a four-iron just right of the green and up-and-down for par. That was big.”
Another up-and-down at seven, from a plugged lie in a bunker, kept things going and he gained momentum with four birdies in five holes from the eighth.
Love’s seven birdies included two from off the green — when he holed out a chip and a bunker shot.
“If you would have said Wednesday night whenever I was leaving the course, ‘You’ll be seven-under after two days and right at the top of the leaderboard,’ I’d have taken it,” Love said, who needs a victory in the next two weeks go get into the Masters. “It’s right where you want to be. You want to be in the hunt.”
Mickelson’s round was a wild ride that included finding water twice off the tee and holing out from a fairway.
“I have a tendency to have up-and-down rounds like that,” Mickelson said. “But it’s fun. I enjoy trying to create shots and hit shots and take on some of these pins and make birdies, and unfortunately, I tend to make a few mistakes at times.”
Putting was key including putts for bogey after he drove into the water the third and sixth.
“Those bogey putts were every bit as important as some of the other stuff,” Mickelson said.
Mickelson didn’t need his putter at the eighth, where his wedge from 136 yards landed short of the hole and went in for an eagle.
“You don’t expect that to happen,” he said. “You try to hit good shots and have birdie putts, but when one falls like that, it’s just a bonus.”
■ANDALUCIAN OPEN
REUTERS, MALAGA, SPAIN
South African Louis Oosthuizen and European Tour rookie Sam Hutsby powered two strokes clear of the field after shooting seven-under 63s in the Andalucian Open second round on Friday.
The pair held the halfway lead on 10-under 130, two ahead of last year’s winner Soren Kjeldsen of Denmark.
Briton Hutsby, who turned professional in September, was the first to hit the top thanks to a stunning run of five birdies in six holes on his front nine, but he confessed to a twinge of disappointment later.
“I have 63 stamped on my clubs and ball because it is my career best,” he told reporters. “I had a chance to change that to 62 today.”
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
Italian defender Marco Curto has been banned for 10 matches for racially abusing South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan while playing for Como 1907 against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a pre-season friendly in July. Curto, who is on loan from Como to Serie B club Cesena, would serve half of the punishment immediately with the other half suspended for two years. “The player Marco Curto was found responsible for discriminatory behavior and sanctioned with a 10-match suspension,” a FIFA spokesperson said. “The player is ordered to render community services and undergo training and education with an organization approved by FIFA.” Wolves said the club would
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as