A birdie at Quail Hollow Club’s toughest hole will see Kiwi Ryan Fox start the third round inside the top 10, as the Aussies fell back on day two of the PGA Championship in Charlotte.
Fox was one of only 11 players to make birdie at the par-4 18th today, his second shot from 139 metres dancing around the cup before coming to rest just outside two feet from the hole.
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It was the ideal way to cap off an even-par round of 71 for the 2019 PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner, who enters the weekend in a tie for seventh.
Venezuelan Jhonattan Vegas maintained his two-shot lead with a round of one-under 70, Fox one of 15 players separated by just two strokes on a day in which 13 of the 18 holes played over their par.
Tied for second after a 66 in round one, Cam Davis made just one birdie in his round of three-over 74 to drop into a tie for 27th at two-under, level with fellow Aussie Adam Scott who tumbled down the leaderboard late with a double-bogey on 18.
Making his PGA Championship debut, Elvis Smylie was three-under for the championship thanks to early birdies at holes one and three but, like Scott, made double on 18 along with a bogey on 17 for a round of 73 to make the cut on the number at one-over.
After fighting back with four birdies early on the back nine, Min Woo Lee (72) dropped shots at both 17 and 18 to miss the cut, with 2015 champion Jason Day (75), Cameron Smith (71) and Karl Vilips (75) falling well short of the cutline.
Fox was the last player in the field courtesy of his victory at the PGA Tour’s ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic last weekend, the 38-year-old’s PGA Championship preparation limited to 18 holes on Wednesday.
He called upon memories of playing all four rounds at the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in an opening round of 67 and kept himself in the mix with three back-nine birdies at 10, 15 and 18 in round two.
Scott began round two with nine straight pars before also picking up three birdies on the back nine at holes 10, 14 and 15. Playing in his 25th PGA Championship, the 44-year-old was just four strokes off the lead when disaster struck on Quail Hollow’s infamous finisher.
He found the centre of the fairway with a 286-metre tee shot, but then turned his approach shot over, his ball bouncing into the creek that lines the left side of the green. After taking his penalty, Scott chipped down to three feet but then barely touched the right side of the hole with his bogey putt.
On a day in which he needed 30 putts compared to just 24 in round one, Davis’s highlight was the only hole in which he didn’t need any, chipping in for birdie from 53 feet at the long par-3 sixth hole.
Showing growing confidence in elite company, Smylie hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation for the round but endured a day of frustration on the greens. He converted birdie chances from nine and 10 feet on holes one and three but needed an additional 31 putts on the remaining 16 holes, five more than he took in the first round.
