Day gets scare from stinging in wrist

HOYLAKE, England – Jason Day won the Match Play Championship, and then played only one tournament (the Masters) over the next three months because of a thumb injury. So imagine the scare at the British Open when he took a practice swing and felt a stinging sensation from his left hand.

It wasn’t the thumb. It was his wrist.

“I took a practice swing and something popped in my left side, and it was kind of like a tingling sensation through my hand, and it went straight up to my elbow,” Day said Friday after a birdie on the 18th hole for a 73 that assured he would at least make the cut.

He received treatment and played the second round with his wrist heavily taped.

“I’ve had wrist injuries before,” Day said. “And it just didn’t feel like it was a harm to me. So I just wanted to get through the round and see the guys, see how it went. And today it was only one shot where it felt bad.”

Ruling helps Haas

Bill Haas thought he might be in danger of missing the cut. Instead he shot a 2-under 70 and was near the leaders when he finished. He was helped by a huge break and a ruling that required some clarification.

Haas hit his tee shot on the 17th into high rough, and with about a minute left in the five minutes they were allowed to search, the ball was found.

That was the first good break. The next one was just as important.

“It had been stepped on, but in the hay,” Haas said. “But we determined the lie had been altered.”

Haas was given relief under Rule 18-1 because someone else moved the ball, and he was allowed to replace it under Rule 20-3b because the lie had been altered.

Back to day job?

John Singleton took a break from his job as a factory worker to play in the British Open this week.

After missing the cut by only two shots at Royal Liverpool on Friday, he doesn’t know if he’ll be going back to the day job.

Singleton birdied three of his final four holes to shoot a 2-under 70 in his second round.

“I don’t know if I’m going to go back to work on Monday or not,” said the 30-year-old Singleton, who makes paints and varnishes in a local resin factory. “I just finished off an emotional roller coaster. So I think I have to come down from that and I’ll see what happens.”

Sympathy from Phil

Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els, who have been battling on the golf course since they were teenagers, shared a few meaningful words when they finished their rounds. Mickelson shot 70 and was back to even-par at the British Open. Els never recovered from that opening 79 and missed the cut.

Mickelson said he could see how shook up Els was on Thursday when he hit a spectator in the face with his opening shot.

Mickelson said even before Els three-putted from 8 inches on the opening hole Thursday, he told Lefty what happened.

“He was shook up,” Mickelson said. “And I tried to say, ‘Look, you can’t worry about that. I do it all the time.’ But it didn’t help, I guess.”