Disappointing morning for Poulter

Ian Poulter is three shots off the lead after two rounds at Merion
15 June 2013

Ryder Cup hero Ian Poulter suffered a disappointing finish to his second round as the weather-delayed US Open resumed at Merion.

Poulter was just one shot off the lead and facing a birdie putt on the 15th green when play was suspended due to darkness shortly before 8:30pm on Friday evening, a knock-on effect of the four-and-a-quarter hours' play lost to bad weather on Thursday.

He had to settle for a par when play resumed and then bogeyed the 16th after finding a fairway bunker off the tee and failing to get up and down from just short of the green. A superb long putt on the 17th, where his tee shot to the par three had span back off the green, helped Poulter save par there, but he bogeyed the 18th to complete a second consecutive 71.

At two over par, the 37-year-old was three shots off the lead held by Phil Mickelson and Billy Horschel - the only two players under par - with Luke Donald, Justin Rose and Steve Stricker a shot behind.

Taiwanese amateur Cheng-Tsung Pan was one over par with four holes of his second round still to play. The 21-year-old was introduced to the game by his mother, who caddied at a course in Taiwan, but moved to the United States in 2007 to play collegiate golf at the University of Washington.

Poulter, who shares a best US Open finish of joint 12th with Donald at Winged Foot in 2006, said: "Albeit it was with two bogeys in the last three holes to finish round two, I'm right there. I'm right in position and let's look forward to what round three and four have."

The cut fell at eight over par with 73 players making the final two rounds, which would begin in threeballs at 12:15pm local time from the first and 11th tee. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had been joint 29th when they finished their rounds yesterday, but had climbed to 13th without hitting another ball.

At three over par they were only four off the lead alongside Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Open champion Ernie Els, while Florida-based Scot Russell Knox and three-time major winner Padraig Harrington were a shot further back.

Paul Casey, who had to come through qualifying at Walton Heath, was five over after rounds of 73 and 72, while Sergio Garcia was six over after consecutive rounds of 73. Lee Westwood, John Parry, Paul Lawrie and Martin Laird all finished seven over, while David Howell, Simon Khan and Irish amateur Kevin Phelan all made the cut on the mark.

The draw meant Woods and McIlroy would play together for the third day in succession - Fernandez-Castano making up the group - with the final three-ball of Mickelson, Horschel and Donald not out until 2:40pm local time.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in