CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Jhonattan Vegas and J.T. Poston each put a 3 on their scorecard at the par-3 17th. The way they played the hole was nothing alike.
Vegas watched his tee shot sail to the right and figured he would need to chip-and-putt his way for par. But it struck the rake outside the bunker when it landed and caromed onto the green. His first thought was that it might roll so hard to the left it would go into the water. Instead, he stopped 35 feet away from an easy two-putt par.
“Sometimes you get a sprinkler head that goes out-of-bounds or the cart path that goes out-of-bounds, or sometimes you hit a rake that goes on the green,” Vegas said. “It’s just part of the game, and you’ve just got to enjoy it all.”
Poston played in the afternoon and put his shot on the 185-yard hole — a front tee to go with the front pin — into the water.
“I would have taken bogey walking off that tee,” Poston said, who played bogey-free the rest of the way, shot 70 and was only four shots out of the lead.
He did even better. Going to the drop zone, from 110 yards and holed wedge for par.
“That felt like it was better than a 3,” Poston said. “I was staring double bogey right in the face. That was big for momentum.”
Coming up aces
Already one of the more playfully animated characters in golf, Si Woo Kim had something to really celebrate Friday at Quail Hollow.
He now has the longest hole-in-one in major championship history.
Kim used a 5-wood on the 252-yard sixth hole for his ace. It carried him to a 7-under 64 that left him two shots out of the lead in his quest for his first major.
After his ball bounced on the green and curled around toward the hole and dropped in, Kim threw his club high in the air, then started running down the fairway until he reached the next tee box. Then he turned back to his playing group and triumphantly raised his arms in the air.
Kim was told it was the longest ace in major championship history. There was no need telling him who had the previous record — it was Kim last year at Royal Troon.
“Last record was me, too, because I’ve kind of made similar number at Royal Troon, so that was longest maybe major history hole-in-one,” he said.
His ace at the British Open last year was on the 238-yard 17th hole at Troon.
“Yeah, it's exciting,” he said. “I hit it like right exactly how I wanted. So it was cool and then it was pretty memorable hole-in-one in major.”
Temper, temper
The PGA Championship provided a few explosive moments Friday at Quail Hollow.
One of them, without too much surprised, belonged to the animated Tyrrell Hatton. He was right in contention until hitting his tee shot into the creek left of the 18th fairway at the midpoint of his round.
He hissed at his driver dropped two strong expletives, leading the ESPN announcers to say, “So, he was not happy with that tee shot.”
Hatton made triple bogey and wound up seven shots out of the lead.
And then there was Shane Lowry, who hit a good drive on the short eighth hole only to discover it was in a pitch mark that was not his — if it had been, he would have been granted a free drop. But he had to play it.
Lowry was trying to put it in the bunker because he didn’t think he could reach the green 57 yards away from that lie. Still angry, he dropped an expletive and violently slammed his wedge into the divot he had made.
Lowry wound up with a bogey and extended his middle finger at the hole when he missed his par putt. He also was seen speaking to an official, but Lowry said that was directed toward an ESPN crew member who interjecting.
“The ESPN guy came straight over and said, ‘That’s not your pitch mark.’ I’m like, ‘That’s not for you to talk about. That’s for me to call a rules official and decide what happens,’” Lowry said.
“I wasn’t arguing that it was my pitch mark,” he said. “I was trying to be 100% sure.”
Either way, he was annoyed — especially after missing the cut by one shot.
Major performance for Matthieu Pavon
Matthieu Pavon of France showed his chops in the majors last year when he contended in the U.S. Open, playing in the final group with Bryson DeChambeau at Pinehurst No. 2 before closing with a 71 to finish fifth.
He's back at it again in the PGA Championship. Pavon had a 6-under 65 for his lowest round in a major and putting him in the final group with Jhonattan Vegas.
He also matched the low score in a major by a Frenchman. Michael Lorenzo-Vera had a 65 in the 2018 PGA Championship at Bellerive.
“I was able to play Wells Fargo last year on that golf course, so I knew what test of golf that tournament could be,” Pavon said. “I think it’s even bigger now being a major. The atmosphere is great, and the golf course played tough. I’m very lucky to play there last year and get a little taste of it because now I understand better the way it is.”
Pavon played bogey-free with only one of his birdies on the par 5s.
The French player to win a major is Arnaud Massy in the 1907 British Open. More recently, Thomas Levet was part of a four-man playoff in the 2002 British Open at Muirfield, and Jean Van de Velde famously lost a three-shot lead on the final hole at Carnoustie in 1999 and then lost in a three-man playoff.
“The last two days were pretty solid, but today was even better,” Pavon said. “Got a nice momentum with the putter early on that kept me in the right way to manage the golf course. Overall it was a super satisfying day.”
Divots
Patton Kizzire withdrew after 10 holes of the second round with an injury. He was 6-over par for his round and 9 over for the championship. ... There won't be another Block party at this PGA Championship. Michael Block, who made an ace at Oak Hill in 2023 to finish in the top 2023 and earned more than 15 minutes of fame, shot 75-82 this year. What's similar to that magical week at Oak Hill is that Block has received an exemption to the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial next week on the PGA Tour. ... Dustin Johnson's major woes continue. He missed the cut for the fifth time in his last seven majors with rounds of 78-76.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press
