PGA Championship golf: Kiwi Ryan Fox drops down leaderboard after tough second round

Ryan Fox watches his tee shot on the 13th hole during the second round of the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club. Photo / AP

Kiwi golfer Ryan Fox found the going much tougher in his second round at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York, after a blistering start to the second major of the year.

Fox carded a three-over-par 73 on Saturday morning (NZ time) to be tied for 19th on one-over, following his opening-round 68 on Friday.

His round included four bogeys and a birdie to place him six shots off the lead, along with 11 other players - including Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa.

Fox, ranked 41st in the world, started his round on the back nine with five consecutive pars before dropping shots on the par-three 15th and par-four 16th.

He rolled in a sizeable birdie put on the 17th, before carding a five on the par-four 18th and was far more consistent after the turn - a bogey six on the fourth was the Aucklander’s only blemish.

Fox came into the tournament after more than a month away from the game, having withdrawn from the RBC Heritage tournament in April due to what turned into pneumonia. He then returned to New Zealand for the birth of his second child.

The last tournament he completed was the Masters at Augusta where he finished a respectable 26th, and he showed yet again the big events don’t seem to faze him with a strong showing early on at a very challenging set-up at Oak Hill Country Club.

Meanwhile, Scottie Scheffler, Corey Conners and Viktor Hovland are tied for the lead at five-under 135.

Hovland is on a hot streak at the major championships - he’s been among the top 10 after 10 consecutive rounds at majors, the longest such active streak.

First-round leader Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Suh are two shots back. DeChambeau shot a one-over 71 in the second round, while 25-year-old Suh made just one bogey on his way to a two-under 68 to make a cut at a major for the first time.

Brooks Koepka’s four-under 66 was the best round of the day, moving him to two-under for the tournament, three behind the leaders.

Only nine of the 156 players in the field were under par after two rounds. The group at even par through 36 holes includes major champions Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Keegan Bradley. Also at even was club professional Michael Block.

Major champions and good friends Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth are sticking around for the weekend too, but they needed to work to make it happen.

Thomas, the defending PGA champion, sank an eight-foot bogey putt on the 18th to finish on the cut line at five-over. Spieth, nursing an ailing left wrist, saved par from a greenside bunker on 18 to join Thomas on the same score.

Earlier, Fox said he was somewhat surprised by his first-round performance.

“I didn’t have a lot of prep coming in and had four weeks off in the lead-up to this with a few things on. For the most part I played pretty solid. There was some pretty scruffy iron shots in there and my short game saved me. I rode a pretty hot putter today, which was nice,” he said after the first round.

“For the most part when I was in trouble today, I was generally in trouble in the right place and managed to get myself up and down or out of trouble pretty nicely.”

The start of the tournament was delayed by almost two hours due to frost on the course. Unfortunately for Fox, he didn’t receive notice of the delay until he was at the course, being one of the early groups off the first tee.

“I left my hotel at 5.30am just before I got the email. Then just before I got to the golf course I got the text. I certainly would have liked an extra hour in bed. But I can go and have a pretty nice nap this afternoon I think.”

- with AP