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Thomas Bjorn and Shane Lowry tied for lead at PGA Championship
Dane made level-par round after course record on Thursday
Adam Scott makes cut at Crown Plaza Invitational
It’s tight at the top after day two of the PGA Championship at Wentworth, England, with overnight pace-setter Thomas Bjorn tied for the lead at 10-under-par with Ireland’s Shane Lowry.
The Dane scored eight birdies and an eagle on Thursday to card a course record 62 but a level-par round on a soggy Friday allowed Lowry to draw level atop the leaderboard.
It could have been worse for Bjorn, who dropped two shots on the front nine as the rain lashed down before recovering with two birdies on 15 and 18.
“Those were tough conditions for everybody out there today,” the 43 year old Dane told European Tour website upon returning to the clubhouse. “Especially on the front nine it was extremely difficult to get into a rhythm.
“We played those first four holes in I don’t know how long, and we had a couple of rulings in front of us. It was just impossible to find a good rhythm and Retief (Goosen) left us with a back injury after five holes, so we got caught in a two-ball.
“It just seems like all day we were waiting and waiting for a long time on a lot of these shots. It was a tough ask today so I was pretty pleased with the way I finished the round.”
World number 142 Lowry took advantage of Bjorn’s difficulties with a 2-under-par round of 70 to draw level with the Dane.
“I was good out there today,” Lowry told reporters upon completing his round, “I was mentally there and really enjoyed it.”
“It was tough for the front nine with the rain and stuff but it was a nice back nine and I managed to take advantage of it.”
The lowest round of the day was a five-under-par carded by Luke Donald, moving the Englishman into a tie for third place with Spain’s Rafa Cabrera-Bello.
The Englishman told reporters he planned to treat himself to a Friday night curry to celebrate drawing himself back into contention.
Another man pleased with his second round showing after a tough week was world No. 10, Rory McIlroy.
The Northern Irishman split from his fiance, tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, earlier in the week, but registered a one-under par round after recovering from an awful 38-shot (three-over-par) front nine to join Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti in a tie for fifth at five-under-par.
Stenson could replace Adam Scott atop the world rankings this weekend this if he scores a significantly higher finish at Wentworth than Scott does at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth Texas.
Scott battled back from a poor opening round and nervy front nine on day two to make the Colonial cut at one-under-par.
The Australian is six shots behind leader Brice Garnett, however, who leads the way on seven-under-par.
Chris Stroud and Rober Streb are a shot behind Garnett in a tie for second going into the weekend while Bo van Pelt, Dustin Johnson, Aaron Baddeley, Chad Campbell, Jimmy Walker, Tim Clark and Brian Davis are all tied for fourth on five-under-par.