2018 British Open: Padraig Harrington believes experience, smarts will be rewarded at Carnoustie

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — Matthew Wolff was on the verge of building a big lead Friday at Mayakoba until a pair of late bogeys forced him to settle for a 3-under 68 and a two-shot lead over fast-closing Scottie Scheffler in the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. RELATED: Leaderboard | Aaron Wise finds ‘fresh start’ with long putter Wolff had no trouble making birdies on the day after he opened with a 10-birdie round of 61. He birdied all the par 5s at El Camaleon for the second straight day, the last one with a nifty pitch to 6 feet at No. 13 that took him to 15 under. But he found a greenside bunker on the tough par-4 16th, which played into a light wind, and failed to get up-and-down with a 35-yard sand shot. His 3-wood off the tee at the 18th went left into a bunker, and he missed a 12-foot par putt on his final hole. That dropped him to 13-under 129, still in the lead and looking to be in command of his game. The 16th and 18th are two of the three toughest holes on the course. “It was a hard finish, but I was really happy with how I played today,” Wolff said. “Felt like it was pretty difficult this afternoon, honestly. … Following a round like I had yesterday, it’s not always easy to come out and keep on making birdies and glad I proved to myself that I could do it. I put myself in a really good spot, so I’m excited for the week.” Scheffler, who has performed well in majors and in the Ryder Cup but hasn’t won on the PGA TOUR, was closer to the cut line than the lead until he ran off five straight birdies, the last one a 35-foot putt on the par-3 eighth. He finished with a par for a 64 and wound up within two shots of the lead. “I feel like I’m doing a good job of getting the ball in position and giving myself a lot of looks,” Scheffler said. “I feel like I burned a lot of edges the first couple days. Once those putts start falling a bit more, I think I’ll start scoring a bit better.” Carlos Ortiz of Mexico and defending champion Viktor Hovland of Norway each had 65 and were three shots behind. Hovland overcame a bizarre break on No. 1 after he made the turn when his approach took a wild bounce and went out-of-bounds, leading to double bogey. “I pushed it a little bit and literally landed four steps right of the pin, hits a sprinkler head and goes in the trees over the green,” Hovland said. “That’s a bad break, but it’s not like I sliced it OB or something like that. I knew I was playing good golf, so I just had to reset.” That he did, making five birdies the rest of the way. It doesn’t take much to get out of position, and the leading players all spoke of the importance of keeping the ball in play. Brooks Koepka was doing the same until the worst moment. He rallied to get inside the cut line only to pull his drive into the mangroves left of the 16th. He took a penalty drop and his next shot stayed just short of more trouble. He made triple bogey, had another 71 and missed the cut. Koepka hasn’t finished in the top 20 since July. Rickie Fowler got his mistakes out of the way early. He played the par 5s on the front nine with a bogey and a double bogey, and then failed to birdie the par-5 13th. He was just outside the cut until a birdie on the 17th for a 72 to make it on the number. The cut was at 4-under 138. Ten players were in a tie for fifth at 9-under 135, a group that included Justin Thomas. The surprise in that group might be Bill Haas, who is using a one-time exemption for career money to keep a full TOUR card this year. Haas, who won the FedExCup in 2011 and played on two Presidents Cup teams, has gone more than six years without a win and is No. 744 in the world. He opened with a 65 and had another bogey-free round of 67 to stay in the mix. “I’ve been grinding for seems like three years now on trying to figure out what’s going to be consistent and what’s going to help me get over that hump,” Haas said. “Right now I have a swing thought that seems to be working OK. And I want one to last for more than two days. I’d love for it to continue this way and hopefully have a nice few months.”

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AVONDALE, La. (AP) — Ryan Palmer and Jon Rahm shot a 3-under 69 in the alternate-shot final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans on Sunday and won the PGA TOUR’s only team event by three strokes over Sergio Garcia and Tommy Fleetwood. The victory was the fourth on the tour for the 42-year-old Palmer, but first in nearly a decade. Having last won in 2010 at the Sony Open in Hawaii, Palmer waved and gave a thumbs-up to TV cameras as he walked up the 18th fairway with a throng of fans applauding his and Rahm’s impending triumph. The 24-year-old Rahm won his third PGA TOUR title — one each in three straight seasons. He finished in the top 10 for the seventh time this year, including a tie for ninth at the Masters a couple weeks earlier. Palmer-Rahm finished with a 26-under 262 total at the TPC Louisiana, which had dried out considerably since heavy rains delayed the first round by more than seven hours and forced many players to play more than 18 holes on Friday and Saturday to get the event back on schedule. Opening the alternate-shot final round tied atop the leaderboard with Scott Stallings and Trey Mullinax, Palmer-Rahm surged to a two-stroke lead in just two holes after Stallings-Mullinax bogeyed the first hole and Rahm nearly holed out from the fringe to set up Palmer’s 1-foot birdie putt on the par-5 second. Palmer-Rahm never lost the lead after that, making birdies on 13 and 14 at virtually the same time Garcia-Fleetwood were making birdie on 17 and 18. From there, they just had to avoid mistakes — and did. The teams of Kyoung-Hoon Lee-Matt Every and Brian Gay-Rory Sabbatini tied for third, five shots behind.

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HAIKOU, CHINA—England’s William Harrold shot a 7-under-par 65 to share the 36-hole lead with towering American Joseph Winslow (69) at the PGA TOUR Series-China International Qualifying Tournament No. 2 at Mission Hills Haikou’s Sandbelt Trails Course. Chinese Taipei’s Chunkang “Jacob� Hung (74), the first-round leader, was third at 4-under, one ahead of Ireland’s Brian O’Donovan (73), a Mission Hills Shenzhen teaching pro, and the American trio of Jesse Speirs (71), Cody Paladino (70) and Kevin Techakanokboon (70). South Korea-based Argentine Martin Kim (69) is among a group at 2-under. Others in contention include Hong Kong’s Motin Yeung (72) and Japan’s Junya Kameshiro (68), in a tie for 13th at 1-under, while Malaysia’s Arie Irawan (69), moved to even-par and a share of 18th. The top-15 finishers will earn full cards and the next 25 and ties will be conditionally exempt for a Series that rewards the top-five money winners with places on the Web.com Tour, the path to the PGA TOUR. The 6-foot-5 Winslow carded his sixth birdie of the day at the par-5 18th to set the clubhouse lead. The 25-year-old bogeyed the par-5 first and doubled the par-4 17th, but in between birdied Nos. 3, 6, 7, 8 and 12 before closing his round with his 13th birdie in 36 holes. The 25-year-old native of Kansas is on track to earn a full card on the Tour but will be mindful of last month’s PGA TOUR Latinoamerica qualifier in Bogota, Colombia, when he started the final day in second place before a closing 80 left him 17th and with only conditional status for 2018 on that circuit. “I feel pretty good. I’ve had a couple of pretty solid rounds out there. Today was more gritty, while yesterday was pretty solid in general. it’s been fun, but I feel like my best golf is still ahead out here,� Winslow said. “I just want to keep playing solid on the weekend, keep executing the strategy. I want to play the par-5s a little bit better and clean up a little bit of the slop. My wedge play today wasn’t quite as solid, so I’d like to clean that up a bit, stay focused and keep playing my game.� Harrold, who shot an opening 64 in an Asian Tour event in Xiamen, China, at the end of last year, teed off on No. 10 and carded eight birdies, including three in a row, twice, from Nos. 11-13 and Nos. 7-9. The 29-year-old was delighted with the improvement from his opening 74. “I’ve had three birdies in a row before, but I can’t remember doing it twice in a round,� said Harrold, who won a European Challenge Tour event in 2014 and has two victories on the Euro Pro Tour. “I set myself up much better today and hit nice iron shots into good positions on the green. I also holed some good putts, and that’s not always easy on these greens, which have a lot of slopes. I putted nicely in the first round, but my swing wasn’t as good as today.� The 5-foot-3 O’Donovan played with Winslow for the first two days and enjoyed the group, despite the big difference in height and length off the tee. The 30-year-old native of Ireland played his own game and kept himself in contention for Tour golf. “Joseph’s hitting his second ball from a different place to me, places I don’t see on the golf course,� said the Irishman. “I remember I hit a really good drive on one hole, and he knocked a 3-wood about 30 yards past me. That was depressing, but it’s been good fun.� Kim showed his pedigree, having played on the Korean Tour for three years and on the Japan Golf Tour last year, although he failed to retain his card. The strongly built Argentine—whose grandparents moved from South Korea to Buenos Aires— is just three shots off the lead as seeks a PGA TOUR Series-China card and a path to the U.S. “It was a good round, I think. Even when I made mistakes, I didn’t lose focus, so that’s why I could finish under-par today,� Kim said. “I’m here because I want to be on the PGA TOUR, so first I have to get my card.�

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