PGA Championship 2015 Leaderboard: Latest Scores and Standings from Friday
For golfers looking to make the cut and continue on to the weekend at the 2015 PGA Championship, there's been little room for error.
The projected cut line on Friday shows that even just a couple of surplus strokes might doom a player's chances of survival. This meant nervy afternoons for the likes of Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler and Tiger Woods, all of whom were far from their best selves in the opening round.
While some golfers struggled to get by at Whistling Straits golf course in Kohler, Wisconsin, others turned the venerable course into a personal showcase. None of the morning players were better than Hiroshi Iwata, who tied a major record with an absurd score of 63 on Friday.
Here's a look at the live standings from Whistling Straits, followed by the top early performers from Friday's play.
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Top Early Performers
Hiroshi Iwata
Iwata's blistering performance on Friday hardly could've come from a more surprising source. He's the world's No. 102-ranked golfer, is participating in his first PGA Championship, hasn't so much as made the cut in his only other major appearances (at the British Open) and opened the tournament with a first-round 77.
The man could do no wrong on the back nine Friday, notching an eagle and five birdies. Yahoo Sports' Ryan Ballengee noted he even had a chance to shoot a record 62 but fell just short on the 18th hole:
"His second shot to the 520-yard finishing hole came up some 20 yards short of the green to the right, leaving a tricky pitch shot over bunkers to a tight hole location. The pitch landed in the rough, bounding onto the green and sliding by the hole just inches on the left, setting up a straightforward par putt for a piece of golf history.
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Iwata appeared to be mighty appreciative of the attention received after his historic round, via PGA Championship:
Despite the bonkers day of golf, Iwata still didn't top the leaderboard thanks to his poor first round, and it's quite difficult to say where he goes from here. Things worked out pretty nicely for the last golfer to shoot 63 at a major, per Ballengee: "Iwata is the first player to shoot 63 in a major since Jason Dufner did in the second round of the 2013 PGA Championship, which he eventually won for his first major title. "
However, Dufner was a grizzled 36-year-old vet at the time of his record round and had accumulated his fair share of strong performances at majors to draw inspiration from in 2013. Iwata is in uncharted territory here, but if he can even play mediocre golf over the final 36 holes, he should have a chance at a big payday and a few more interviews at the media center.
George Coetzee
Before Iwata blew past everyone on Friday with his 63, Goerge Coetzee was the man of the hour. He shot a splendid 65 in the second round, good enough for a two-round total of 139 and a spot near the top of the leaderboard.
Unlike Iwata, Coetzee extended his brilliance to both the front and back nines on Friday. He knocked in four birdies and a bogey on the front. He followed that up with an eagle, three birdies and a final-hole bogey on the back nine.
ESPN Stats & Info noted he too had a chance at history, but the No. 18 hole foiled him for the second day in a row:
The 29-year-old South African has never made the cut at the PGA Championship, and he was in danger of missing out again after shooting two over on Thursday. Coetzee certainly put that run of futility behind him in the second round.
A mainstay of the European and Sunshine Tours, Coetzee hasn't popped up all that much on PGA events. When he has, the results have hardly been encouraging. Still, Coetzee is in his prime years and looks to have sorted out his considerable game on Friday, making him a player to watch over the weekend.
Jordan Spieth
This is the golfer we want to see. After shooting a relatively tepid 71 on Thursday, albeit in unfavorably windy conditions, Jordan Spieth got back to his world-beating ways on Friday. His second-round 67 put him at six under for the tournament, right in line with some of the best two-day scores thus far.
Spieth is gunning for his third major win of the year, having already conquered the 2015 Masters and U.S. Open. When you're enjoying the kind of season he's enjoying and making shots like this (via PGA.com on Twitter), you just have to feel like anything is possible:
Life is a golf course, and Speith is just playing in the sand trap (but not for very long).
The 22-year-old phenom is again primed to tangle with Dustin Johnson over the weekend, assuming the latter's excellent Thursday play carries over into Friday.
With a third major win this year, Spieth's boyish charms would quite easily make the young Texan one of the biggest names in all of sports. It would also likely be more than good enough to knock Rory McIlroy off the world No. 1 pedestal.
There's something magical about Speith in 2015. You would be wise not to miss out on witnessing it.
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