Lucky Woods leads
Tiger Woods in the lead at Firestone is typical.
Woods hitting a 9-iron over the clubhouse roof and escaping with bogey because it was not marked out-of-bounds made the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, nothing short of bizarre on Friday.
Woods birdied his first four holes and shot a 6-under-par 64 to take a one-shot lead over Davis Love III, but what made the second round memorable was a bogey on his final hole that left Woods feeling lucky after a strange sequence of events.
It started from the right rough on No. 9 when Woods hit a 9-iron from 167 yards that soared over the flag and over the grandstands. It hit the concrete path and bounced over a balcony and onto the roof.
From the back of the clubhouse, Summit County deputy sheriff Bill Muncy was sitting in his chair when he noticed a golf ball bouncing around next to a youngster.
“The kid looked up and said, ‘Who’s throwing balls at me?’ ” Muncy said. “Then he stuck it in his pocket.”
Whether the kid saw the swoosh and “TIGER” imprinted on the ball was unclear. Woods stood in the fairway nearly 10 minutes before rules officials arrived.
Dillard Pruitt, the rules official, talked to the deputy sheriff and then went about figuring out where Woods should drop. There was no penalty because the grandstands – known as a temporary immovable obstruction in the Rules of Golf – were in his way.
Woods eventually took relief from the rough near the first tee, 84 yards away, hit a lob wedge to 30 feet and two-putted for bogey, putting him at 9-under 131 going into the weekend.
PGA
Japan’s Yusaku Miyazato became the first golfer to make two holes-in-one in the same round of a PGA Tour tourney when he aced a pair of par 3s at the Reno-Tahoe Open in Reno, Nev.
Miyazato accomplished the feat on the 230-yard, downhill seventh hole and then the 173-yard, uphill No. 12 at the Montreux Golf and Country Club.
Bob Estes leads the tournament with a 15-under 129. MacKenzie is a stroke back, while Miyazato is at 135.
Champions Tour
Bobby Wadkins birdied three of the last four holes to take a three-stroke lead after the second round of The Tradition in Aloha, Ore., the final major of the season for the seniors.
Wadkins shot a 5-under 67 for the second straight day to get to 10 under.
Lonnie Nielson was alone in second place at 7 under after shooting a 68.
LPGA
Soo-Yun Kang shot a 6-under 66 and Jee Young Lee had a 67 to share the top spot at 11-under 133 at the midpoint of the Wendy’s Championship for Children in Dublin, Ohio.
Wendy Ward of Edwall, Wash., is at 2-under 142 after shooting 73. Tracy Hanson of Rathdrum, Idaho, shot a second-round 66 and sits at 143.
U.S. Amateur
Ferris High graduate and current Washington Huskies player Alex Prugh lost his bid to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur tournament in Chaska, Minn. After winning earlier in the day to reach the quarterfinals, Prugh fell to Webb Simpson 2 and 1.