Former US Open champion Justin Rose was frustrated not to make the most of a brilliant start as low scoring looked to be the order of the day in the 96th PGA Championship at Valhalla yesterday.
Rose had birdied the final two holes of his second round to make the cut with just a shot to spare on Friday evening and carried on where he left off yesterday.
The world No5 raced to the turn in just 31 at a venue where he made his Ryder Cup debut in 2008 and finished with three points from four matches, but after picking up another shot on the 13th the 34-year-old’s charge was halted with bogeys on the 15th and 16th.
Rose, who won back-to-back events at the Quicken Loans National and Scottish Open recently, birdied the 18th to complete a 67 and finish four under.
“I had it going, five-under through 13, so I was looking to get it to maybe seven or eight under for the round and who knows where that would put me going into tomorrow,” a disappointed Rose said.
“I would say the winning score is going to be 16-under, somewhere in that realm. When you start even par, you’ve got to go all guns blazing. I felt like I could have got halfway there today, but it wasn’t to be.
“Some parts of the golf course are really easy out there,” Rose said. “Getting close to the pin with your irons is easy, but that’s if you catch a good lie in the fairway. Obviously the fairways are completely saturated right now and the fact that they are so wet probably is a good thing it’s not picking up much mud.
“But if it drys out, it’s going to be a nightmare out there tomorrow if we don’t get a little rain from now until then. The ball is going to pick up so much mud, which is obviously tough conditions to play in.”
Danny Willett had also jumped up the leaderboard with birdies on the second and third and chipping in for an eagle on the fourth, which had been reduced to 292 yards to allow players to try to drive the green. A birdie on the 10th then took Willett to six-under par for the tournament, which is where he finished.
Scotland’s Marc Warren was enjoying his second experience of the year’s final major after finishing in a tie for 12th on his debut at Oak Hill 12 months ago, and a five-under par 66 helped him climb up the leaderboard.
