Off the wall

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This article was published 18/07/2010 (5862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland –The shot of the day was on the 17th, where Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez, stymied up against the stone wall, turned his back to the hole and hit his ball directly into the wall, from which it caromed high in the air and came down behind him — on the putting surface. He still made a double-bogey six, but was lustily cheered by the massive gallery behind the green as he walked to the 18th tee. He birdied the last to finish 3-under-par.

McIlroy bounces back

RORY McIlroy, the 21-year-old from Northern Ireland who shot 63 in the opening round only to go 17 shots worse on Friday, bounced back with a 69 on Saturday, despite a double-bogey six at the difficult 17th, where he hit his approach shot up against the stone wall across the road behind the green. He said he thought he played better Saturday “because I had 80 shots yesterday, so I had a little bit of practice. I think it would have been very easy to let yesterday’s round linger, but I got it completely out of my head… so I think the response to what happened yesterday was probably the most pleasing thing.”

He said if he looked unhappy it was because “I felt as if I could have been a couple closer to the lead. I hit a good shot on 17, but just got a gust of wind and hit a 7-iron 210 yards.”

For Mickelson, 16 not sweet

DISASTERS lurked everywhere on the back nine Saturday, and Phil Mickelson had one at the 16th, hooking a five iron out of bounds off the tee, then bogeying the 17th. He shot 70, and is two-under through 54 holes.

“I’m frustrated with myself, because I let a good round slide. I played those holes 3-over and if I’d finished 5 or 6 (under par) you never know what’ll happen tomorrow,” he said.

Swede outlook

HENRIK Stenson, tied for fourth with Lee Westwood and Alejandro Canizares, eight shots behind leader Louis Oosthuizen, would love to be the first Swedish man to win a major championship, but knows he has his work cut out for him.

“If you can pull this off tomorrow…,” a reporter began.

“What do you mean, ‘if’?” Stenson said, smiling.

The eccentric Swede — not as eccentric as Jesper Parnevik, but in that ballpark — hasn’t had a great year up to now.

“Everyone is so nice to me, they’re all saying, ‘You haven’t been quite up to standard,’ ” he said. “I’ve been playing poorly all year. No point in trying to put that in cotton.”

He said he never saw his 105-yard lob wedge shot go in the hole at the 13th for eagle, “but after a while the crowd went crazy, which I took as a good sign.”

— Postmedia News