Tyler Duncan tops leaderboard after round two

He’s known about the induction for nearly 18 months. He even visited the World Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida, to get ideas for his exhibit and the locker that will be there in perpetuity. But Monday night, the magnitude of what he’s accomplished really hit home for Davis Love III. There he was, with fellow inductees Lorena Ochoa Reyes, Meg Mallon and Ian Woosnam, at a dinner at One World Observatory, a stunning venue with sweeping views of New York City that is nestled atop the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. A host of other Hall of Famers were there to welcome them into the exclusive club. “It was like the ultimate class reunion,â€� Love said. His son Drew got to talk fitness with Gary Player, who toasted the incoming Hall of Famers, while Chi Chi Rodriguez gave the 23-year-old advice on his swing. Many pictures – the cell phone variety and other more official ones – were taken during the convivial evening of good cheer. “My wife, Robin, said, ‘You know, we’re going to get to do this every year,’â€� Love said. “To have that kind of setting that we’re going to be part of this class, this group, this club, for the rest of our lives. “It was an incredible night.â€� Tuesday night’s induction at the Cipriani Wall Street provided a more formal recognition of the class of five that also includes the late British journalist and broadcaster, Henry Longhurst. During the morning’s teleconference, Love, Mallon, Ochoa and Woosnam reflected on some of the highlights of their careers. Love first saw the World Golf Hall of Fame when it was housed in a building behind the fourth green at Pinehurst No. 2. He noticed it while he was playing the course as a kid but he never went in until recently in St. Augustine, where the Hall relocated and reopened in 1998.  And even as he was compiling a resume that includes 21 PGA TOUR victories, among them the 1997 PGA Championship and two PLAYERS Championships, Love didn’t get ahead of himself. It wasn’t until his good friend Fred Couples was inducted in 2013 that Love started thinking he might be Hall of Fame material, too.  “I guess I really thought I might get in, or it was actually a goal after Freddie Couples’ induction ceremony,â€� Love said. “I always looked up to Freddie and tried to hit it as far as him and be as cool as him but it never worked. “To think when he got in and he gave his speech and he mentioned me a few times — we’re basically the same year and did the same things in the game, and that’s when I realized I might actually get in.â€� Love has been a mainstay of the U.S. in international team competition – playing on six Presidents Cup and six Ryder Cup teams. He will spend the rest of the week at nearby Liberty National working as an assistant to Steve Stricker for the U.S. Presidents Cup team, his second such stint, and has captained two of the last three American Ryder Cup squads. A year ago, Love made the difficult decision to leave Bubba Watson, then ranked seventh in the world but not playing his best golf at the time, off his victorious U.S. squad at Hazeltine National. Watson was disappointed by wanted to contribute, asking if he could be an assistant, and Love gladly accepted. “He said, ‘(I) want to be in the Hall of Fame and I want to be a Ryder Cup captain. They are really the same thing,’â€� Love recalled. “And to think that I have done that over the last few years is just an incredible blessing. I just hope this class can carry forward what the classes behind us have done and grow the Hall of Fame.â€� Ochoa Reyes, who started playing golf at the age of 5 in Guadalajara, Mexico, accomplished a great deal in an abbreviated career. She won 27 times, including two majors, in seven years before retiring in 2010 to start a family and continue her charitable works at the age of 28.  She spent 158 weeks as No. 1 in the world, including the week she retired. “It’s great to see the change in the game,â€� Ochoa Ryes said. “Today in my country, there are many, many boys and girls playing. More than a hundred players are playing in the different schools. They have a scholarship in the States. I think we are going in the right direction, and so it’s great to be able to help in that way and make a change and have more golfers representing México in the different tours.â€� Woosnam, who won the 1991 Masters and played on eight European Ryder Cup teams, has been in New York City since Friday, doing a little sightseeing before the festivities began. He won 42 times around the world and twice on the PGA TOUR. The Welshman was part of a stellar group of five European golfers all born within 12 months of each other – joining Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros. Now they are all in the World Golf Hall of Fame. “(I am) very excited and very emotional the closer we get to being inducted into the Hall of Game with the greatest players ever,â€� the diminutive Welshman said. “It’s a big deal.â€� Mallon retired the same year as Ochoa Reyes but had played the LPGA Tour for 23 years. She won 18 times, including four major championships, two of which were U.S. Opens captured 13 years apart. She played on eight Solheim Cups and captained the team in 2013. Among Mallon’s favorite memories is the birdie putt she made on the 72nd hole of the 1991 LPGA Championship. It was her first major title, two weeks before she won her second, and Mallon converted when Pat Bradley and Ayako Oakamoto, who joined her in the final group that day, couldn’t. “It was the storybook where all three of us had a chance to win a major and I was the last one to putt,â€� Mallon recalled. “… It was a 10-footer to win a major, and you know, when you make the putt like that and you get to jump into your caddie’s arms and have that moment, it was really cool.â€� Monday’s dinner and Tuesday’s induction were, too.

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SILVIS, Ill. – Michael Kim turned 25 on Saturday, but you’d be crazy to call him a late-bloomer. It’s just that, well, Kim hasn’t won yet on the PGA TOUR. Terrible, right? And at his age! When you’re a member of golf’s overachieving high school Class of 2011 (Spieth, Thomas, Schauffele, Berger, Jonas Salk, etc.), you get used to seeing frowny faces at cocktail parties when it comes out that you haven’t won a major or three, or at least invented a vaccine. But there’s good news. Kim, who won the Jack Nicklaus Award as college player of the year in 2013 (Cal), may be on the verge of joining his baton-twirling classmates after extending his lead Saturday at the rain-delayed John Deere Classic. He birdied five of his last six holes for a third-round 64 and leads by five over Bronson Burgoon (66) going into the final round at soggy TPC Deere Run. “All the guys I played against in the 2011 class, I felt like I was just as good as those guys,â€� Kim said. “Seeing them do those things, win majors, win tournaments, is really motivating trying to keep up with them. It’s just been added motivation for sure.â€� Matt Jones (66) is six back, while Harold Varner III also shot 66 to go into Sunday seven back. Returning to the course to finish his second round at 8 a.m. Saturday, Kim bogeyed the 18th hole for a 64 for a three-stroke lead halfway through the tournament. In this, his third season on TOUR, it marked the first time he had led after any round. He wasted no time in extending it after the second rain delay Saturday. Heavy rain delayed tee times two and a half hours, sending the leaders out at 2 p.m., but Kim settled in with birdies at the second and sixth holes to maintain momentum. He later pulled off a nifty par save at the par-3 12th hole, pointing the toe of his putter down to pop his ball out of the rough left of the green and watching it roll to within a foot of the hole. He had birdied the 13th hole before another rain delay gave way to his late fireworks as he began to run away from the field. Players were afforded lift-clean-and-place rules on the rain-saturated course. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kim grew up in La Jolla, California, same as Schauffele, whom he’s known since they were 12 years old. They played against each other in junior golf, when Kim more than held his own. Professionally, though, it’s been another story. Now based in Houston, Kim has kept his head down while following his own slow-and-steady path. He was 48th in Web.com Tour money in 2014, and 13th the next year, earning his call-up to the PGA TOUR. He made 22 cuts in 29 starts as a rookie in 2016, when he finished 118th in the FedExCup Playoffs, and last season brought his best golf yet, a T3 finish at the Safeway Open and final ranking of 100th in the FedExCup. That got him into THE PLAYERS Championship. In other words, Kim has gotten better every year since turning professional. How he plays at the Deere on Sunday will go a long way toward determining whether that trend will continue. So far the signs are very, very positive. OBSERVATIONS COOK LEADS ROOKIE RACE: Austin Cook shot a third-round 66 and sits at 9 under. That’s not exactly in contention for his second win, but he’s looking better and better in the race for Rookie of the Year with Aaron Wise. “Coming into this year it was a goal, and Aaron and I are in a good little battle right now,â€� said Cook, 27, who won The RSM Classic last fall. He cautions that he’s playing against the field, not just Wise, whose progress he is nonetheless monitoring as they battle it out in the FedExCup. “I’m aware that last week I jumped right in front of him,â€� said a smiling Cook, who finished T5 at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier to move up three spots to 24th, while Wise missed the cut to drop to 25th. The two may be further apart still after this week, as Wise missed his fifth straight cut, by one, despite a second-round 67 at TPC Deere Run. Next week, Cook (like Wise) will head to Scotland to play The Open for the first time. He is expecting culture shock, so much so that he laughed about potentially bringing ketchup packets to eat. Turning serious, Cook said, “I’ve done pretty good in the wind; Sea Island blew pretty strong this year, and I hit the ball pretty good that week. Hopefully I can keep it going over there.â€� QUOTABLES I have my wife, mom, dad, two grandpas, and a couple buddies. SUPERLATIVES Low round: 63, Tyler Duncan. Longest putt: 74 feet, 4 inches, by Joaquin Niemann (68, 7 under) at the par-4 fourth hole, which he birdied. CALL OF THE DAY For play-by-play coverage of the third round at the John Deere Classic, listen at PGATOUR.COM. SHOT OF THE DAY

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How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three times per each of four Segments. The first fantasy golf game to utilize live ShotLink data, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf allows you to see scores update live during competition. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s TOUR Championship in this week’s edition of the Power Rankings. For more fantasy, check out Rookie Watch, Qualifiers and Reshuffle. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create your team, click the “Leagues” tab and search for “PGA TOUR Experts.” After that? Pick your players and start talking smack. Want to represent the fans against our experts? SEASON SEGMENT

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