LPGA Final Round on ABC

Tiger Woods enters Friday’s second round of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach looking to move up the leaderboard. Woods grinded out a 1-under 70 on Thursday, leaving him five shots off the lead held by playing partner Justin Rose. Woods, Rose and their other playing partner, Jordan Spieth, will tee off on the 10th hole at 11:24 a.m. ET. PGATOUR.COM will have hole-by-hole coverage of Tiger’s round. Rd. 2 preview notes STARTING ON 10. The 493-yard par-4 10th ranked as the toughest hole on Thursday, playing to a stroke average of 4.449. With the back nine at Pebble Beach considered the tougher of the two nines, Tiger hopes to hang on for the first part of his round as he tees off on the 10th. “Right away we’ve got a tough par 4 right from the get-go,â€� Woods said. “And we have the harder side to start off on, and hopefully I can finish up on the front side and have the full seven holes where I can get it going.â€� On Thursday when he teed off on No. 1, Woods made three birdies in the first seven holes (and also suffered a double bogey at the par-3 fifth) before finishing with 11 consecutive pars. IRON PLAY. Woods ranks first on the PGA TOUR in greens in regulation, and also in proximity from 200 yards and out, but he was not happy with his irons in the opening round. “I didn’t hit my irons as crisp as I’d like,â€� Woods said. One of the keys to success at Pebble Beach, he says, is making sure his misses are in the correct spots – specifically below the pin. That’s what he’ll try to do on Friday in order to avoid having as many lengthy par putts as he faced (and converted) on Thursday. “If I happened to not feel comfortable with a number, dump the ball 30, 40 feet, move on about my business,â€� Woods said. SCORING BY ROUND. It shouldn’t be a complete surprise that Woods started off slowly on Thursday. He ranks just 68th on Round 1 scoring average on the PGA TOUR this season. The good news? He progressively gets better throughout the week. His Round 2 scoring average ranks 52nd on TOUR, his Round 3 scoring average ranks 20th, and his final round scoring average ranks 14th.

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AUSTIN, Texas — Robert MacIntyre grew up playing the rough-and-tumble Scottish sport of shinty, and he had more than enough fight to give Dustin Johnson all he could handle Thursday in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. RELATED: Bracket, Scoring | Who will advance? All the scenarios for Friday Johnson had to rally late with an eagle and a clutch birdie to send the match to the final hole, where both players missed birdie chances and settled for a tie. Neither the world’s No. 1 player nor the 24-year-old from the tiny town of Oban were sure what to make of it. “It was a tough match,” Johnson said. “Ended up making a really good halve, and definitely pleased with it.” MacIntyre, who trailed for most of the front nine at Austin Country Club and led for most of the back nine, walked away with a mixture of satisfaction and disappointment. Ultimately, both remained in position to advance out of their group to the weekend knockout stage. “Obviously, I was dying to win that match,” MacIntyre said. “I was in such a great position to do it. But he threw everything at me, and I can be proud of finishing there all square. Inside I’m a little disappointed not to win. But once we walk away from here and drive back to the house, it’s going to be, ‘You know what? I can compete with these best guys on the planet.” Some of the best in the planet were eliminated on the second day of round-robin group play. Justin Thomas, the No. 2 seed, fell behind big on the front nine for the second straight day and couldn’t catch up. Thomas made a strong rally against defending champion Kevin Kisner before losing on the 17th hole. Tyrrell Hatton delivered more highlights — not so much with a shot, but the artful tossing of a club and the sarcastic clapping of his hands — in losing to Sergio Garcia. The Spaniard, whose American home is in Austin, won his second match and thus eliminated Hatton, the No. 8 seed. Other top seeds in the 16 groups who have no chance to move on were PGA champion Collin Morikawa (4), Tony Finau (12) and Viktor Hovland of Norway (13). In all, 18 players had matches Friday with nothing on the line. Friday is the final day for groups, and Kisner’s victory set up a win-or-go-home match against Kuchar, a past Match Play champion who beat Thomas on the first day and outlasted Louis Oosthuizen on Thursday. Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer also square off Friday after both won went to 2-0 in their group. Rahm had a harder time than he imagined with The Open champion Shane Lowry, who was 3 down with three holes to play when the Irishman went birdie-birdie to send it to the 18th, and then showed off those great hands with a pitch from under a tree to 12 feet. He missed the birdie putt and Rahm, who would have had a putt from the same range, smiled a sigh of relief. “He made a heck of a run at the end, man,” Rahm said. It’s hard to find a true David vs. Goliath at this level of golf, not with the top 64 players available from the world ranking. MacIntyre, trying to nail down a spot in his first Masters, worked his way up to No. 44 with his first victory on the European Tour last fall and a close call in Dubai a few months later. He briefly stepped away from golf to return to shinty, a sport that resembles a mix of field hockey and rugby that MacIntyre often says is “in my blood,” not to mention whatever blood he spills on the pitch. He knew what he faced against Johnson and was up for it. MacIntyre birdied the ninth, made a 25-foot birdie on the 10th to take his first lead, and then Johnson put his tee shot in the water on the 11th. MacIntyre returned to a 2-up lead when Johnson made bogey on the 14th, and the Scot looked poised to pull of a stunner. But the Scot left himself in a tough spot on the par-5 16th and could only manage par. Johnson was 10 feet away for eagle, and MacIntyre still had him putt it (Johnson made it). The turning point came on the par-3 17th, a most dangerous par 3 for players hitting no more than wedge. Johnson poured in an 18-footer to level the match. “He holed putts when he had to hole putts,” MacIntyre said. “He does that to win numerous majors.” In other matches: — Patrick Cantlay played another superb round and still had to go the distance, this time making seven birdies in a 1-up victory over Carlos Ortiz. Cantlay is the equivalent of 15-under par through 36 holes. — Dylan Frittelli, the South African who hit the winning shot for Texas when the Longhorns won the NCAA title in 2012, has required only 29 holes to win both his matches. — Ian Poulter had a 3-up lead with three to play when he was forced to the 18th hole by Cameron Smith, who stuffed his approach into 6 feet. No matter. Poulter delivered a 15-foot birdie putt to win a second straight match. Rory McIlroy won easily, but now needs Poulter to lose Friday to have any chance of advancing.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The ball-striking was better but the score was higher. There’s a one-word explanation for that phenomenon. “Golf. It’s a funny game,â€� Rory McIlroy said after his second-round 70 at the Wells Fargo Championship. McIlroy’s record is unmatched at Quail Hollow, and that continued Thursday with a 66 that gave him the first-round lead. Considering his success here – he’s the only two-time champion here, and has twice set the course record – the stage seemed set for a runaway win. McIlroy is third in the FedExCup thanks to one of the most consistent stretches of his career. He finished in the top 10 in seven consecutive events to start the year, including a win at THE PLAYERS Championship. On Friday, he fell down the leaderboard instead. He shot a higher score despite improved play off the tee. McIlroy gained nearly two more strokes with his tee shots than he did in the first round. He also hit one more green Friday. Related: Tee times | Dufner, Homa prove there’s light at the end of the tunnel | Day makes dream come true for young fan | Harsh lessons can pay big dividends on the PGA TOUR “I stood up here (Thursday) night talking about how I got the most out of it yesterday, and today was the complete opposite,â€� McIlroy said. “I turned a 66 into a 70.â€� McIlroy made some slight swing fixes in the three weeks between the Masters and Wells Fargo Championship. He said he was still getting accustomed to the changes, especially with the longest club in his bag. Another day helped those modifications become further ingrained. “I was a little more comfortable with it today,â€� he said after missing just four fairways Friday. Short putts, and a tough finish, kept him from holding onto the lead. He’ll start the weekend in the top 10, but also five strokes behind 36-hole leader Jason Dufner. McIlroy was 4 under for the day until playing his last two holes in 3 over. McIlroy double-bogeyed the short eighth hole after driving into a fairway bunker. He missed a 9-foot putt to bogey his last hole. It was one of three putts from inside 10 feet that he missed Friday, including a 4-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole. “I’m still right there going into the weekend,â€� McIlroy said. “I just need to try and shake off that bad finish and get off to a good start tomorrow.â€�

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