ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Latest on the PGA Championship, golf’s final major of the year (all times local):
1:20 p.m.
Emiliano Grillo has back-to-back birdies at the PGA Championship to join the logjam at 6 under that includes Tiger Woods, who came within a whisker of holing his pitch shot for birdie at No. 4.
If Bellerive is offering any defense, it’s the thick fescue and bluegrass rough that became saturated by Friday’s rain. And that’s where Woods drove his tee shot at the fourth before hacking his approach shot shy of the bunkers guarding the right front of the green.
With another perfect lie in the zoysia fairway, Woods’s pitch shot danced to the right and nearly rolled into the cup before settling about a foot away for a tap-in par.
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12:45 p.m.
Tiger Woods has birdied the first two holes of his third round at the PGA Championship, and now will try to string a few more together to chase down second-round leader Gary Woodland.
Woods is now 6 under, four shots off the lead.
He got off to a bogey-double bogey start on Thursday at Bellerive, and it looked as if Woods’s comeback tour had hit a wall. But he fought back to shoot even-par 70, then worked around the rain that suspended play Friday to shoot a second-round 66.
Woods is trying to join Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus as five-time PGA winners.
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11:55 a.m.
Justin Rose is among the players at the PGA Championship who finished their rounds Friday and knew they’d make the cut, allowing them to sleep in a bit on Saturday.
Rest he did, too. Rose said he didn’t watch any of the early coverage on television.
The Englishman will be 4 under when he begins his round off the first tee at 12:32 p.m. He’s in a group with Zach Johnson and Emiliano Grillo that is six shots off the lead.
Rose had some back spasms last week at Firestone, but he says “from Wednesday afternoon I’ve been feeling perfectly fine.”
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11:20 a.m.
The third round is underway at the PGA Championship, and among those headed out at Bellerive is Daniel Berger — an incredible turnaround given where he was after his opening nine holes.
Berger was 6 over before playing his last 27 holes in 8-under par.
“I just stopped trying at one point. It’s funny how things work out,” said Berger, who was tied for the lead entering the final round of the U.S. Open before finishing in a tie for sixth.
“The last 27 holes I just kind of freewheeled it,” he said, “so that was kind of good.”
Especially considering Berger has been dealing with a wrist injury.
“It sucks,” he said, “because I’ve never been hurt before, and it’s just kind of been lingering and there’s not really a point in the season I can take a break. Just been trying to play through it.”
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10:50 a.m.
The second round has wrapped up at the PGA Championship, where Gary Woodland leads at 10 under and it took even-par 140 just to make the record-low 36-hole cut.
The previous low for the PGA was 1-over 141 at Atlanta Athletic Club in 2001.
Some big names missed playing the rest of the weekend, too. Matt Kuchar, Sergio Garcia and Bryson DeChambeau were in a large group at 1 over. Masters champion Patrick Reed was 3 over and Phil Mickelson was in the group at 4 over.
Eighty players made the cut, including some relative surprises. Ben Kern was the lone club pro to make the cut, while 55-year-old Vijay Singh and Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk made it through.
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10:25 a.m.
Julian Suri has surged into contention at the PGA Championship with an eagle at the par-5 17th taking him to 5 under, an impressive showing for the former Duke standout.
Suri’s father, Jagan, is the great grandson of Buchi Babu Naidu, one of the early pioneers of cricket in India. Jagan Suri moved to the U.S. in his teens and spent time as a professional tennis player, and now works in business development of golf courses.
Julian Suri played tennis and golf when he was young, but he clearly showed a preference for the latter. He won last year on the European Tour and has been second time this year.
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9:50 a.m.
Phil Mickelson will fail to automatically qualify for the Ryder Cup for the first time since 1993 after a 1-over 71 left him 4 over for the PGA Championship and well outside the cut line.
He still could be among Jim Furyk’s four captain’s choices.
Mickelson is 18-20-7 in the Ryder Cup, but he played well two years ago at Hazeltine National, when the Americans routed the Europeans 17-11 to win back the cup.
Bryson DeChambeau was just outside the top eight that automatically qualify for the team. He missed a short putt at his final hole Saturday to keep from playing the weekend.
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9:35 a.m.
The approach that guys will take between the second and third rounds at the PGA Championship will vary widely depending on when they finish Saturday morning and when they tee off again.
Some will have less than an hour between their rounds.
Then there’s Rickie Fowler, who concluded his 3-under 67 to get to 8 under for the tournament and within two shots of the lead. Fowler said he plans to return to the house he’s renting down the road from Bellerive, where he can change out of some wet clothes and catch some rest.
“Put some fresh clothing on and then yeah, get here like we normally would,” said Fowler, the first-round leader. “But it’s still going to be a long day.”
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9:15 a.m.
Sungjae Im probably should stop aiming for the greens at the PGA Championship.
The 20-year-old South Korean was right on the cut line Saturday in his second round when he chipped in for birdie on consecutive holes. That got Im to 2 under for the championship, which would be good enough not only to play the weekend but get within eight shots of the lead.
Im became the second-youngest player to win a Web.com Tour event when he triumphed in his debut in the Bahamas earlier this year. He also has a couple of second-place finishes on the tour.
The youngest champion in Web.com Tour history? Jason Day.
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8:45 a.m.
Tony Finau has matched the PGA Championship record for birdies in a round with 10.
If only he didn’t also have three bogeys and a triple on his card.
Finau wound up with a 4-under 66 on Saturday to get back to even for the championship. His birdie display came while playing with Jim Furyk, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain who could have to decide whether to include Finau on his roster next month in France.
The birdie record for the PGA was set by Gary Player. Anthony Kim has the record for birdies in a major championship with 11 during the 2011 Masters.
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8 a.m.
Tiger Woods bounced back from his first bogey of the second round with a birdie at the short par-4 11th, getting him back to 4 under in the PGA Championship.
Meanwhile, the topsy-turvy round of Tony Finau presses on.
Finau began his second round Friday with five straight birdies, made a triple bogey, then had two more birdies. He added a bogey to finish off his front nine, and another birdie on the back nine has the U.S. Ryder Cup hopeful at even-par for the championship.
He’s played 12 holes and has made just one par on the round.
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7:15 a.m.
Haotong Li did not resume his second round at the PGA Championship, withdrawing with a wrist injury after his round was suspended by rain. He had completed the 11th hold.
Li opened with a 1-over 71 and was 3 over for the championship.
The course is playing soft with no wind and pristine greens, and that could mean record low scores this weekend. Tiger Woods already has another birdie at the eighth to reach 4 under, and first-round leader Rickie Fowler has his first birdie of the day to get to 8 under.
He’s two shots back of Gary Woodland, who already completed his second round.
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7 a.m.
Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and the rest of the players that were still on the course when play was suspended at the PGA Championship have resumed their second rounds at soggy Bellerive.
All of them are chasing Gary Woodland, whose 66 before the rain rolled through Friday left him 10 under for the championship. Kevin Kisner also played early and was a shot back.
They got to sleep in Saturday while 78 players yet to finish their second rounds had to be in position by 7 a.m. There will be a 30-minute break once they finish, then the third round will start with groups of three heading off the first and 10th tees.
That will mean a long day for guys like Woods, who could play more than 28 holes Saturday. He was 3 under and in the fairway at the eighth when the sirens stopped play.
