The wait for Major win No 1 will continue for Branden Grace after a second straight 73 at the PGA Championship will see him miss the weekend, writes WADE PRETORIUS.
There were gains to be made at Bethpage Black, with Matt Fitzpatrick and Dustin Johnson showing that the beastly course could be tamed.
Certainly, examples of such play remain few and far between, but Grace, now SA’s third-best player according to the Official World Golf Rankings, was not among the movers on Friday.
Instead, a round of 73 that featured a solitary birdie came on the back of his opening effort, which has him all but guaranteed to miss the cut.
Grace’s numbers tell a story of his early departure – he hit just 28.5% of fairways in regulation and could muster just 55.5% of greens in regulation in round two. The nature of Bethpage dictates that missing fairways equals big numbers.
The lone birdie came from over 30 feet on the 16th, but as Grace leaves New York early, he will be left to assess how his key numbers stack up, as he lost nearly two strokes to the field in putting this week.
He was not alone in battling around the Black course, with early coverage showing how the marquee group of Jason Day, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy barely found a fairway between them on every hole.
The latter in that star trio is unlikely to be around on the weekend, while Day and Mickelson continue to find themselves some distance behind Brooks Koepka.
A testament to the course and the punishment on hand for those who stray into the long stuff.
Photo: Warren Little/Getty Images
