Day leads, Woods slips in New Jersey
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2010 The Barclays | Round Two | 28 Aug 2010
22-year-old Queenslander Jason Day has taken the outright lead at the halfway stage of the Barclays Championship at the Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus in New Jersey.
A second consecutive round of 67 assisted by three late birdies on day two took Day to the lead and when day two drew to a close he led by one over Kevin Streelman and Vaughn Taylor.
Day continues to play with a cloud hanging over his health. There had been a suspicion it was a sinus issue and he might need surgery but he confirmed today that is becoming increasingly unlikely.
“My health is okay,” said Day after his round. "I’m starting to feel a lot better. I went and saw the ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) specialist. He said I don’t have to have surgery. He suggested he might have Mono instead of – I’ve seen like eight doctors. I can’t get a straight answer.
“But, yeah, so apparently he goes I think you’ve got Mono. So I tested positive two out of the four panels for Mono. So I don’t know if that determines that I have like a minute case of Mono. But we’ll see. I’ve been feeling pretty good. I jumped off the antibiotics finally after about three and a half months of that course. And then everything is turning around, which is nice.”
Day caused some concern for Australian golf fans when he suggested he won’t be coming to play in Australia this year. “What’s going to happen is that I’m most likely going to have to miss the HSBC and Australian Masters and Australian tournaments just due to I need to rest and try and get on top of this health thing, because I can’t keep playing the way it has been.”
Day’s fellow Queenslander, John Senden, shared the lead with his younger colleague with just two holes to play but a double bogey at the 17th saw him slip to 6 under. Senden bladed his bunker shot at that hole and was unable to get up and down from behind the green.
Senden had actually moved to 9 under and held the lead outright early in his round after five birdies in his first eight holes. A dropped shot at the 12th followed by the double at the 16th saw him drop back to 6 under.
Adam Scott is yet another Queenslander well positioned at the halfway mark. Scott added an even par round of 71 to his opening 66 and at 5 under he is in 7th position.
Michael Sim is well enough placed in 20th position and five from the lead, Robert Allenby and Marc Leishman are 28th, Greg Chalmers and Stuart Appleby 41st, and Aaron Baddeley and Matt Jones rounding out the Australians to make the cut.
Geoff Ogilvy, Steve Elkington and Nathan Green missed the cut and for Green it means his FedEx Cup Playoff journey is over.
Tiger Woods appeared as if he might continue the form improvement he displayed yesterday when he birdied two holes early in his round but four bogeys in his final nine holes would see him slip to 14th at 4 under.
“I hit the ball just as good today as I did yesterday, said Woods. “But I didn’t putt well at all. I didn’t have the speed at all on the greens. I was leaving it way short or blowing it by the hole. I couldn’t figure out the speed. When the greens get this bumpy, you have to hit pure putts and I wasn’t hitting the ball – wasn’t rolling the ball good enough for them to go in.”
Phil Mickelson failed again to take advantage of the opportunity to take the number one position in world golf when he missed the cut.
