Saturday 6 June 2015 21:19, UK
David Lingmerth emerged as the surprise halfway leader of The Memorial as Tiger Woods narrowly avoided missing the cut on an entertaining second day in Ohio.
Lingmerth fired a flawless 65 to hit the front on 12 under, while Jason Dufner made a welcome return to form and hit a hole-in-one in his 67 that left him a shot off the lead, and England's Andy Sullivan's inspired best-of-the-day 64 propelled him into the reckoning on 10 under.
Former champion Justin Rose is just three off the pace after a solid 67, but five-time winner Woods endured another terrible day with the driver and was forced to get up and down for a scrambling par at the last to avoid closing with three straight bogeys and missing the cut.
Lingmerth, recently forced to regain his tour card at the Web.com Tour Finals after finishing 134th in last year's FedExCup standings, closed out a front-nine 33 with three consecutive birdies and picked up four further shots over the last seven holes to take over the clubhouse lead.
"I started giving myself some opportunities and the putts started dropping in," Lingmerth said. "All of a sudden I just started playing the way I know I can."
Dufner started on the 10th and put together a remarkable back-nine 33 with a birdie at 11 followed by a double-bogey at 12, and he then birdied 14 and eagled the next before his six-iron to the 201-yard par-three 16th found the bottom of the cup.
After signing for a 67, he said: "I'm hitting it really good. I'm having enough good holes, good shots, to offset some of the mistakes I've had."
Sullivan on the charge
Sullivan, twice a winner on the European Tour this season, was the biggest mover of the second day as he made four birdies on each nine and kept a bogey off his card to vault 29 places up the leaderboard into a share of third with Ryan Moore, who birdied his last three holes to card a 67.
Rose surged into the mix with a superb run of five birdies in six holes from the fifth, but he lost momentum when his tee shot at the short 12th found water and he ran up a disappointing five.
But the Englishman recovered to birdie the final two holes for a 67 which got him to nine under alongside Jim Furyk, Hideki Matsuyama, Francesco Molinari, Brendon Todd and Patrick Rodgers.
Masters champion Jordan Spieth got to nine under with three birdies and an eagle in an outward 31, but he double-bogeyed the 10th and dropped another shot at 12 to slip to six under, while Phil Mickelson is two further back after a mixed-bag of a 68.
Woods managed three birdies over the first four holes despite his waywardness off the tee, and he hit back from a bogey at 10 with further birdies at the 12th and 14th.
But his errant driver cost him shots at 16 and 17, and he looked to be heading out of the tournament when he was forced to lay up from deep rough at the last before he pitched to five feet and nailed a clutch par putt for a 70 which was enough to make the cut with nothing to spare.
Live coverage of the third round starts at 5.30pm on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf.
