Spieth sure he will last the pace at the PGA Championship

Jim Slater 02:15 15/08/2015
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  • Marching on: Spieth.

    Jordan Spieth insists fatigue won’t be an issue for him as he stepped up his bid for golf history at the PGA Championship on Friday, firing a second-round 67 that moved him within one stroke of David Lingmerth’s clubhouse lead.

    Spieth, who started the day five off Johnson’s lead, had six birdies and one bogey in his 67 for six-under 138. After victories in the Masters and US Open, the 22-year-old Texan has a chance to join Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods as the only men to win three major championships in the same year.

    Spieth said: “I feel good. I have got a chance to win a major championship. Just thinking about that gets you enough adrenaline so that there won’t be any issues.

    “I noticed last year for the first time I felt fatigue and felt like I had overworked and kind of burned out the end of the year. And I felt like by the Tour Championship I had kind of worn myself out.

    “This year I’ve done a better job of when I take time off, when you limit the practice coming back, how to prepare. But as far as mentally in this position, the way the year’s gone, I approach each event as if it’s the only event of the year when I stand on the 1st tee.

    “Just looking at the board, grinding it out, I don’t feel any fatigue. I’m sure at the end of this year, it will be nice to sit back and hang the clubs up for a couple weeks, but until then we have got a lot to play for.”

    After teeing off on 10, Spieth birdied 11 and bogeyed 12. A birdie at 16 was followed by a birdie at 18, where he holed out from a bunker.

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    Spieth is also closing in on the number one world ranking of Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, who posted a second successive 71 that left him five shots off the pace in his bid for a second straight PGA Championship crown.

    McIlroy’s round was marred by a damaging double bogey at the parfour 18th, where a beautiful drive was followed by a second shot into the rough and two poor chips.

    He got back on track with an eagle at the par-five second hole, where he chipped in from the front of the green. But he played the remaining holes in even par, unable to keep pace with playing partner Spieth, who picked up three birdies on his inward run.

    Open champion Zach Johnson, the third player in the “supergroup” along with Spieth and McIlroy, endured another frustrating day. He opened with three straight birdies, but finished with four birdies and four bogeys in a 72 that left him three-over for the tournament.

    Sweden’s Lingmerth had eight birdies, four bogeys and a doublebogey in a roller-coaster of a twounder par 70. Lingmerth got as low as eightunder, and his 36-hole total of seven-under 137 gave him the outright lead with Dustin Johnson, the overnight leader on six-under, about to tee off.

    “I saw nine-under, I wish I could have done that,” Lingmerth said. “But too many bad shots.”

    A hot, humid morning saw plenty of birdies on the par-72, 7,501-yard Whistling Straits course hugging the shores of Lake Michigan.

    South African George Coetzee powered up the leaderboard with an eight-under par 65. Coetzee, a two-time winner on the European Tour this year, had seven birdies and an eagle at the par-five 16th, where he stuck his second shot six feet from the pin and made the putt.

    A birdie at 17 moved him to sixunder for the tournament, but he was in a fairway bunker en route to a closing bogey.

    “You could see there was much more birdies to be had out there,” Coetzee said, after gusting winds pushed up afternoon scores on Thursday. “The guys are definitely not hanging back like they did yesterday.”

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