BMW Championship, Round 2 updates: FedExCup Playoffs

Cameron Young didn’t win The 150th Open at the Old Course at St. Andrews on Sunday, but he still accomplished a lot. By carding a final-round 65, including a 17-foot eagle putt at the last to reach 19 under par – solo second, one short of playing partner Cameron Smith (64) – Young took a step toward potentially winning PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year honors. The Wake Forest product may also have inched closer to making the U.S. Presidents Cup Team, which will play the International Team at Quail Hollow Club this fall. “I think I gave myself a really nice chance (to win),” said Young, 25, who three-putted the first hole for bogey but mostly dazzled with seven birdies and an eagle. “Frustrating to come up short, but, overall, I think I had a really good week, and I think I hung in there really well today.” Other than his rough start, his only other misstep was a drive into an unplayable lie at the ninth, leading to another bogey. Otherwise, Young showed no rookie nerves. He was vying to become the 11th player, and second straight after Collin Morikawa last year, to win in his Open debut. Although fellow Wake Forest alumnus Will Zalatoris has gotten more publicity for his clutch play in the majors, Young may be developing that reputation, too. He tied for third at the PGA Championship in May and has been flirting with his first TOUR win all season. He finished T2 at the Wells Fargo Championship, T3 at the RBC Heritage, T2 at The Genesis Invitational, and T2 at the Sanderson Farms Championship. He knew he needed something special for the fourth round of The Open. And he produced it. Alas, so did Smith, who made eight birdies and no bogeys. “It probably hurts a little worse to come up one shot short,” said Young, who is projected to move from 18th to 13th in the FedExCup standings, tops amongst the rookies with three tournaments remaining in the regular season. “If you lose by eight you don’t really care. But, yeah, I played well today.” He knew that even an eagle at the last might not be enough, what with Smith on a roll. “I would have signed up for 65 this morning,” he said. “And to watch Cameron shoot what he did, it was pretty amazing. I think I handled it pretty well. Not as much as some of those other guys, but I’ve at least been around the lead a lot this year. On the PGA TOUR. In a major. So it’s not the first time I’ve been in that situation. “And the more I put myself there,” he continued, “I think I said at the PGA (Championship), one of these times I’ll shoot 5 under on the back and that will be enough. And today I did. And it wasn’t. So I guess one of these times I’ll shoot 6 (under) on the back on Sunday and that will be enough.”

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FORT WORTH, Texas — This has been a good week in North Texas for Scott Stallings, first qualifying for the U.S. Open that will be played less than an hour from where he was born and now sharing the lead at Colonial with top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and Beau Hossler. Stallings shot a 6-under 64 without a bogey on a relatively calm Friday at Hogan’s Alley. That put the Massachusetts-born and 206th-ranked player in the world at 9-under 131 along with with Dallas-area resident Scheffler and former University of Texas player Hossler, who both had bogey-free 65s. Scheffler, in one of the last groups of the day after Stallings and Hossler played in the morning wave, tied them with a 14-foot birdie putt at the par-4 17th and saved par at No. 18 after his final drive went left into the rough. “I think I needed to put up a good score with the wind being real low and the greens being not crazy firm,” said Scheffler, without a bogey so far this week. “Yeah, I love that stat. It’s a lot of fun. … I kept the stress off myself for the most part.” It was calm pretty much throughout the day Friday. But hot and breezy conditions are expected for the weekend rounds at the Charles Schwab Challenge, with gusts around 30 mph and temperatures in the mid- to upper-90s in the forecast. Scheffler and Hossler were among the Colonial-record eight players to share the 18-hole lead at 66. Stallings began the second round as one of the seven others within a stroke of that. Patrick Reed matched his opening 66 with another and was alone in fourth place at 8-under 132. Pat Perez (66) and Chris Kirk (67), the 2015 Colonial champion who hasn’t won on the PGA TOUR since, were 7 under. After missing the cut at last week’s PGA Championship like Scheffler did, the 37-year-old Stallings came to the Dallas area to play in a 36-hole qualifier Monday for the U.S. Open next month in Brookline, Massachusetts. He shot 8 under and placed 11th to get into his third U.S. Open and 12th major overall. “That was a huge goal, probably the biggest goal I had of the year, is to play the Open up there,” Stallings said Friday. “Probably the only time in my career I’ll have an opportunity to play a major championship in New England where at least half my family lives, my sister lives just down the road.” Stallings had eight birdies and five bogeys in his first round at Colonial. There were no bogeys on Friday, and no birdies until four in the middle of the round — at Nos. 8, 9, 11 and 12. The three-time PGA TOUR winner added another at No. 14, then finished by rolling in a 28-foot birdie putt. Having the momentum of qualifying for the U.S. Open “carry over into the week was nice to see, and take advantage of a day that we definitely haven’t seen very often here,” said Stallings, who was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, but now lives in Tennessee, where he went to school at Tennessee Tech. Jordan Spieth, another local favorite and No. 9 in the world, shot 66. He birdied his first two holes and had a 35-foot birdie putt when finishing on the ninth hole. Spieth was tied for 12th at 5 under. The 2016 Colonial winner, Spieth was the runner-up at Hogan’s Alley for the third time last year, when he led after each of the first three rounds before falling in a final-group showdown with Jason Kokrak the last day. Kokrak is even par through two rounds this year. Fifth-ranked Justin Thomas missed the cut at 3 over a week after winning the PGA Championship for the second time. His 72 on Friday included going 6 over over a four-hole stretch midway through the round — bogeys at No. 7, 8 and 10, and triple-bogey 7 at No. 9 without going in the water. It is the second year in a row the PGA winner played the following week at Colonial missed the cut. Last year it was Phil Mickelson. Hossler, in his 136th PGA TOUR event and still looking for his first victory, had a more steady second round after the exciting finish Thursday, when he had two eagle 2s his last four holes, though both hole-outs came immediately after bogeys. “Certainly, yesterday was more of an up-and-down round. Today felt frankly, never really stress-free, but as stress-free as it’s going to get,” Hossler said. “It felt like I was in play. I never was that out of position.” Nick Taylor, ranked 244th in the world, took the solo lead for the second day in a row. The Canadian dropped into a share of the first-round lead with a bogey on his final hole, and Friday shot 6-over 41 on his final nine holes after five birdies in his first nine holes to make his turn at 9 under.

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