Woodland leads in Hawaii as DJ is hit by year’s first penalty

By Rahul Banerji

Second overnight, three-time PGA Tour winner Gary Woodland moved into a comfortable lead in Hawaii on Friday even as the year’s first penalty – though not under under new rules — proved costly for defending champion Dustin Johnson..

Woodland (67, 67) sits three ahead of overnight leader Kevin Tway, Brysn DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy, all on nine under par 137s after two days of the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

However, it was Johnson who was most in the limelight for a penalty double-bogey that saw him drop 10 places into a share of 12^th place. It came when he played the wrong ball after hitting a tee shot into thick grass.

Johnson hit a ball out of the marked area only to discover he had played the wrong ball and was hit with a two-stroke penalty that gave him a double bogey.

‘My fault’

Said Johnson later, according to pgatour.com, “Obviously it was my fault. The marshal had it marked, said it went in the hazard right there, and there was a ball right there and it was a TaylorMade.

“I could see the logo on the side, so I obviously just assumed it was mine. That won’t ever happen again. I can promise you that. It’s just bad luck.”

The defending champion ended with a 1-over 74 o follow his 67 of the first day.

Woodland had eight birdies against two dropped shots on the day, though it was McIlroy and DeChambeau making the most gains with identical rounds of 69 and 68 over the two days.

Australia’s Marc Leishman held steady in fifth place with a 36-hole aggregate 138, eight under par, against countryman Jason Day’s 140.

Big-hitting rookie Cameron Champ climbed 10 places to shared sixth with a second round 68 and a 36-hole aggregate of seven-under 139.

More aggressive

Said Woodland later, “I’ve been playing a lot. Obviously it’s nice to be here, but I have a little different mindset this week, playing a little more aggressive, trying to contend, and trying to win instead of just enjoying the views out here, which I’ve done in the past.

“I had a couple days off. But I knew I wanted to be prepared coming in. The bulk of the season is so much earlier now I didn’t want to take any time off, I didn’t want to rest much,” he added.

Imran Ali sets pre-qualifying pace at Kensville

Meanwhile, at the Kensville Golf & Country Club in Ahmedabad, Kolkata’s Imran Ali Mollah hit a one-under-71 to set the pace in round one of the PGTI’s pre-qualifying I for the 2019 season on Saturday.

Imran, son of former Indian Open champion Feroz Ali Mollah, produced three birdies over the first 15 holes before dropping shots on his last two holes on Saturday.

Amateur Manpreet Mann of Noida and Chandigarh’s Ravi Kumar occupied joint second place at level-par-72.

Bangladesh’s Mohammad Ripon was a further stroke behind in fourth place.

The top 24 players plus ties will go through to the Final Qualifying Stage. There are three Pre Qualifying events in all.

Also read: Rule changes will continue to be debated for some time