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Sabbatini Leads with Woods One Back at Memorial
McIlroy Misses Third Straight Cut
Sabbatini Leads with Woods One Back at Memorial
DUBLIN, Ohio, June 1, 2012 (AFP) - Rory Sabbatini posted a second straight 69 on Friday to seize the halfway lead at The Memorial, with 14-time major champion Tiger Woods leading a group just one shot adrift.
Sabbatini had a 36-hole total of 139 on the rain-sodden par-72 Muirfield Village course.
Woods, a four-time winner of the tournament hosted by Jack Nicklaus, carded a 69 and was tied for second on 139 with Spencer Levin (72) and first-round leader Scott Stallings (73).
A victory come Sunday for Woods would be significant. It would tie him with tournament host Nicklaus for second on the all-time PGA Tour wins list with 73.
But Woods wasn't looking that far ahead.
"We've got a long way to go for that," said Woods. "Yeah, obviously it would be nice, but I've still got half a tournament to go."
Woods moved briskly up the leaderboard with three birdies in his first six holes. Some missed short putts kept the round from being even better, including a three-footer at the 11th that would have given him the lead at six-under par.
At the next hole, Woods was in trouble with a tee shot into the gallery.
After a poor chip, he finally reached the green in three, and took a double-bogey from 13 feet.
Woods, who has endured an erratic season, shook it off with back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16, had a birdie chance at 17 then drained a testing four-footer at the final hole to keep the pressure on Sabbatini.
"I missed a couple out there, but overall I knew in these conditions to shoot something in the 60s was going to be a pretty good effort," Woods said. "Pleased with my round."
Rory McIlroy couldn't say the same. Northern Ireland's world number two, who defends his US Open title in a fortnight, carded a seven-over par 79 and missed the cut -- his third early exit in as many starts.
McIlroy wasn't the only marquee name to miss the cut. Bubba Watson, winner of the Masters in April, and PGA Champion Keegan Bradley, also exited early.
A heavy storm prevented play for almost two hours on Friday, and South Africa's Sabbatini endured the wettest conditions in the afternoon.
After a bogey at the first, Sabbatini rebounded with a 12-foot birdie at the fourth.
A wayward drive at the par-four sixth led to another bogey, but a birdie at the ninth saw him make the turn at even par for the day.
At the par-five 11th, Sabbatini laid up, hit his third shot to 10 feet and rolled in the birdie putt.
He made back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 before saving par at 16 and again at 18 -- where his drive found the right rough but he managed to hit his approach to six feet.
"It's only halfway, so I'm happy to be where I am right now," Sabbatini said. "I've got two more days ahead of me, and I've just got to continue to focus on what I've been doing for the last two days."
Since winning his sixth PGA Tour title at the Honda Classic in March of last year, Sabbatini has posted only two top-10 finishes.
"It's definitely felt like things have been there but just really haven't been putting the numbers up," he said.
"Ultimately, golf is a game of numbers, so it doesn't matter how you hit it, it's how you score. So in that sense it's been frustrating, and it's great to finally see a little bit of reward for the work that we've put in."
McIlroy Misses Third Straight Cut
DUBLIN, OHIO, June 1, 2012 (AFP) - Rory McIlroy, his US Open title defence a fortnight away, missed the cut in his third straight tournament on Friday, heading for the exit early at the USPGA Tour's Memorial.
The 23-year-old star from Northern Ireland had regained the world number one ranking four weeks ago but has since missed the cut at the US tour's Players Championship and Europe's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
McIlroy's seven-over 79 included two double-bogeys -- a seven at the par-five 11th hole and a six at the par-four 14th.
"I hit some good shots," McIlroy said. "It just seems like every time I go out there, I make one or two big numbers and that sort of throws me.
"Just those big numbers at the beginning are killing me, and I just need to get those off the card and I'll be OK."
McIlroy had three bogeys and not a single birdie on the day, his six-over 150 well beyond the cut at 147.
The last time McIlroy missed three cuts in a row was in August 2008, when he failed to make the weekend at the Scandinavian Masters, Dutch Open and Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
He was just 19 years old then, and ranked 164th in the world.
Britain's Luke Donald, the current world number one, agreed with McIlroy's own assessment that there was no major problem with McIlroy's game -- which only makes it more frustrating.
"Just having watched Rory the last few days, he's not far away," Donald said. "He made a couple of careless errors and made some big numbers on a couple holes that was the difference this week. I'm sure once he posts that one good round, that one solid run of maybe a couple of rounds, this will be a blur and he'll forget about it quickly."
The dagger came at the 11th, where McIlroy acknowledged he made a mistake in trying to play back into the fairway after his second shot rolled down the bank of the creek.
The ball hit the bank and rolled back into the water, leaving him struggling for his double-bogey.
"I just wanted to chip it out in the middle of the fairway, and as soon as I hit it, it obviously just hit the bank in front of me and came back in the water," McIlroy said.
"Probably a bit of bad judgment because I thought I could just chip it back out. But if I had examined the line a little bit closer, I might have just taken a drop straight away."
McIlroy had already added next week's St. Jude Classic in Memphis to his schedule, saying he wanted to get more rounds in before the US Open tees off at Olympic Club in San Francisco on June 14.
"I don't feel like the scores are actually reflecting how I'm hitting the ball," he said. "I just need to keep working on it and try and string 18 good holes together, and then try and string two days together, and obviously three days and ultimately four."
The player acknowledged that he still has "a long way to go."
Leading second-round scores here on Friday in the USPGA Tour's $6.2 million Memorial tournament (USA unless noted, par-72):
138 - Rory Sabbatini (RSA) 69-69
139 - Spencer Levin 67-72, Scott Stallings 66-73, Tiger Woods 70-69
140 - Daniel Summerhays 69-71, Jim Furyk 72-68
141 - Troy Matteson 72-69, Jonathan Byrd 71-70, Trevor Immelman (RSA) 71-70, Aaron Baddeley (AUS) 69-72, Kyle Reifers 71-70
142 - Henrik Stenson (SWE) 74-68, Lucas Glover 74-68, Dustin Johnson 71-71, Adam Scott (AUS) 70-72, Rickie Fowler 71-71, Ryo Ishikawa (JPN) 72-70, Erik Compton 67-75, Greg Chalmers (AUS) 71-71, Andres Romero (ARG) 69-73, Bo Van Pelt 73-69, David Mathis 71-71
143 - Ryan Moore 70-73, Greg Owen (GBR) 72-71, Brandt Snedeker 69-74, Steve Stricker 73-70
144 - Ricky Barnes 72-72, Johnson Wagner 72-72, Stewart Cink 71-73, Matt Every 69-75, Jeff Overton 72-72, Brendon de Jonge (ZIM) 73-71, Luke Donald (GBR) 71-73