2017 U.S. Open, Round 2: Leaderboard, tee times, TV schedule

AKRON, Ohio – Troy Merritt, who picked up his second PGA TOUR victory at the Barbasol Championship two weeks ago, underwent emergency surgery at Boise’s St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center on Friday to remove a potentially dangerous blood clot. He is still hoping to play in the 100th PGA Championship at Bellerive, and planned to get on a flight to St. Louis early Sunday morning. This, despite the fact that he probably won’t be well enough for practice rounds and will rely on his caddie, Wayne Birch, to scout the course. “I’ll go to the course; I might be able to hit a few putts,� Merritt, who played for Boise State, said by phone Saturday afternoon. “I’m not in pain, but I can’t move my arm very much.� Merritt had been dealing with swelling for a month, he said, but it would subside. This time, with Merritt taking the week off at home, it didn’t. The arm had expanded to twice its normal size and was turning purple when his wife, Courtney, a former BSU gymnast, suggested he get it looked at. The staff at the Idaho Sports Medicine Institute, which had treated Courtney for a torn calf muscle, sent him to St. Alphonsus for an ultrasound Friday morning, which showed the clot. “It was a quick progression from there,� Merritt said. He was whisked to the emergency room, given an IV line and supplemental oxygen, and was in and out of consciousness for two hours as doctors removed a roughly one-foot-long blood clot that started in his left biceps, came up through his arm pit, and went into his left pectoral muscle. Courtney drove him home Friday afternoon. Merritt’s first-round tee time for the PGA Championship next week is 8:51 a.m., with Ollie Schniederjans and club pro David Muttitt. If he can play, this would be Merritt’s third PGA and fifth major overall. He is 69th in the FedExCup, but was outside the top 125 before the Barbasol. “I would massage it and grit my teeth and try to get through it,� he said. “I didn’t know it was a blood clot. Competing, that’s what I know how to do. You play your best and fight through it. “It’s a tough decision when you don’t have job security,� he added. “I could hit a golf ball, so I kept playing. But this last week it swelled up so much so that there was no way I could’ve played, so I guess it was good timing to take the week off and get it taken care of.� Hours after the surgery, Merritt was joking with his agent, Peter Webb, and caddie, Birch. “I was asking Wayne and Webb how many guys have won on the PGA TOUR with a blood clot in their chest and arm,� Merritt said Saturday afternoon as he took a break from watching TV. He said he has no family history of blood clots, but was told they sometimes show up in young competitive athletes, baseball players more than golfers. He added that he’s getting used to his new regimen of blood-thinners, which he has to inject into his stomach twice a day. “You’re supposed to pinch yourself and shoot it into the fat, which is hard for me because I don’t have much of a stomach,� Merritt said. “I think pinching myself hurts more than the actual needle going in, and I am no fan of needles. I’ve got to go back in after the PGA and have more tests done and determine the actual cause so we can fix that and it doesn’t happen again. “There will be some type of program I have to do after that, for blood-thinners,� he added. In the wake of his first and only surgery, Merritt was feeling grateful to be on the other side. “I didn’t have time to think about it,� he said. “I was just trying to take it minute-by-minute, hour by hour. I was fortunate that everything went well and the arm responded. I had a good team of doctors working on me, doctors calling in favors to make sure I was seen as quickly as possible. “They said the plane ride shouldn’t be an issue,� he added, “and they gave me the go-ahead to compete. They just said to let the incision heal so I don’t rip it open.�

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PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Tiger Woods will be around at the Genesis Open this weekend – unfortunately he won’t be playing. In his role as tournament host at Riviera Country Club, Woods will stick around in Los Angeles for his official duties and will also work on his game after a second round 5-over 76 has him well outside the projected cut line at 6 over. The 79-time PGA TOUR winner had a tough day off the tee and on the greens hitting just four of 14 fairways (one of which came after bouncing off a tree) and needing 32 putts. “I didn’t really play that well today. I missed every tee shot left and I did not putt well, didn’t feel very good on the greens and consequently never made a run,â€� he lamented afterward. After going out in 2-over 37, Woods birdied the 10th hole to put himself right around the projected cut. But then he promptly made three straight bogeys, two with three-putts, to cut short just his second full field event since back fusion surgery last April. “I didn’t feel very good when I was warming up with my putting. The greens were fast and bumpy, and I knew that,â€� Woods said. “I need to miss the golf ball below the hole … when the greens get this fast and this bumpy, anything above the hole is virtually luck if you make the putt. I kept missing it above the hole and that’s what was ticking me off.â€� It will be just his 25th career missed cut on TOUR in 330 starts once the second round is finished early Saturday. With two tournaments and six rounds of competitive golf now under his belt, Woods said he had good and bad to reflect on when addressing the bigger picture. “I’m both pleased and also not very happy with some parts of it. It’s nice to be back competing again and to be able to go out there and play, practice after each round … something I haven’t done in years … keep building,â€� he said. “(But) just the inconsistency of it. One of my hallmarks of my whole career is I’ve always hit the ball pin high with my iron shots, and I have not done that. “My wedge game is fine, but my normal iron shots that I’ve always had dialed in for much of my entire career, it’s just not there.â€� Woods also sighted the vast differences to playing golf at home versus on TOUR and said the only way to get better was to play more tournaments. He will get his next chance soon having committed to next week’s The Honda Classic near his Florida home. Playing consecutive weeks is a sure sign Woods is not worried about his back, instead saying only his feet and knees were sore – from old age. He will be joined at The Honda Classic by the 2012 champion Rory McIlroy – who saw first-hand this week how Woods played. “He’s very close, he is very close. Give him a little bit of time. He’s still figuring a few things out with equipment – sort of in between drivers – but he’s close,â€� McIlroy said. “He hits enough good shots to know that if he sort of pieces it all together, he’s going to be right there. I think everyone just has to be patient with him, especially him being patient with it and just give himself time. “It’s a good thing he’s playing next week just to get back at it.â€�

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