| Arnold Palmer Invitational second-round leaderboard |
|---|
| -7 T Hatton (Eng), S Kang (Kor); -6 D Lee (NZ); -5 H English (US), S Im (Kor), R McIlroy (NI); -4 M Leishman (Aus), P Reed (US), C Bezuidenhout (SA), S Burns (US), B Todd (US), T Hoge (US) |
| Selected others: -2 G McDowell (NI), D Willett (Eng), M Wallace (Eng); +1 B Koepka (US); +2 I Poulter (Eng); +4 L Westwood (Eng); +5 R Knox (Sco), P Mickelson (US), A Scott (Aus); +6 J Rose (Eng); +8 T Fleetwood (Eng); +9 P Harrington (Ire) |
Englishman Tyrrell Hatton shares the lead in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, with Rory McIlroy two strokes behind after the second round.
World number 32 Hatton reached seven under alongside Korean Sung Kang but said: “I felt like I lost my swing and didn’t know where it was going to go.”
McIlroy made four birdies in the tricky breeze but returned a one-over 73.
Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood were among those to miss the cut at three over.
Fleetwood failed to qualify after a second successive 76 left him eight over and ended a run of 33 consecutive cuts on the PGA Tour.
Compatriot Hatton won the Turkish Open in November and after wrist surgery that month, returned with a sixth-placed finish at last month’s WGC-Mexico Championship.
He began his second round at the 10th hole three shots off the lead and a superb six-iron to six feet at the 17th gave him one of five birdies in a three-under 69.
McIlroy has not finished outside the top 10 of any tournament since September but after his sixth consecutive opening round of 68 or better he was below his sparkling best on day two.
The world number one was only one shot off the lead overnight but took three shots from the rough down the right en route to a double bogey at the eighth and needed a 20-foot birdie putt at the par-three 17th to revive his round.
“It was harder to find fairways in the cross-wind, I made a few errors but I battled back well to keep myself in the tournament,” he said.
First-round leader Matt Every, a twice former winner of the event, missed the cut after recording four double bogeys in an 83 to finish on four over.
World number 309 Every, who won in 2014 and 2015, took 18 shots more than his first day total. The 36-year-old shot an 85 in missing the cut at the Honda Open last week.
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
Source link
