10-way tie for US PGA lead
Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald and Phil Mickelson were part of an amazing 10-way tie for the lead at the US PGA championship in Chicago today.
Mickelson, beaten by three by Woods in their head-to-head clash the first two days, birdied the second, third, fifth and seventh holes as Medinah Country Club was there for the taking after overnight rain.
Woods then opened with a 30-foot par putt on the first and six-footer for birdie on the next.
Garcia, meanwhile, had three birdies in his first five like Mickelson – and the 26-year-old, second to Woods on the course in 1999, would have led on his own if he had been able to convert a 10-foot eagle chance on the 537-yard fifth.
That was the hole where earlier in the day Joey Sindelar holed a three-wood to achieve just the third albatross in the history of the event.
Donald was one of four overnight leaders on eight under and he rescued an opening par with a 12-foot putt after leaving his chip short.
Henrik Stenson, Billy Andrade, Tim Herron, Davis Love, David Toms and Chris DiMarco were the other all sharing top spot, Open runner-up DiMarco going to the turn in 31.
Sindelar’s two was the first albatross in any major since England’s Gary Evans in the 2004 Open at Royal Troon and the two previous ones in the PGA were by American Darrell Kestner in 1993 at Inverness and Swede Per-Ulrik Johansson 11 years ago at Riviera.
The 48-year-old still managed only a 73, but his compatriot Ryan Moore had a 67, Retief Goosen a 68 and Stenson’s fellow countryman Robert Karlsson a 69 to improve to three under after also making it to the weekend by the skin of his teeth.
England’s Ian Poulter was right in the thick of things as well when he had three birdies in the first seven to be only one behind on seven under.
Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell had to be content with a level par 72 for one under overall, but Justin Rose turned in 35 and was still three under for the championship with five to play and Swede Daniel Chopra joined the group on seven under with two opening birdies.
He is the player who came into the event only on Monday after Paul McGinley had made the decision to withdraw to attend the funeral of Darren Clarke’s wife Heather.
Andrade did not know he was playing until Wednesday when Steve Elkington became the seventh of eight players to pull out.
Chopra was playing with Sergio Garcia and he birdied the short second as well to move to six under and well in the hunt on the course where he finished runner-up to Woods seven years ago.
David Howell and Lee Westwood managed “only” 36 for the front nine and remained two under and three under respectively.
