PGA Championship : Tee Times Leaderboard
Matthieu Pavon and Matt Fitzpatrick surged into contention as Jhonattan Vegas retained his two-stroke lead at the halfway stage of the 2025 US PGA Championship.
Vegas, the first Venezuelan player ever to lead a Major Championship, followed up his first-round 64 with a solid 70 to stay at the summit.
A closing double-bogey dropped him back to -8 and gave hope to the chasing pack, though, and Pavon took advantage with a 65 to reach -6.
He was joined on that mark by Englishman Fitzpatrick, who shot a second successive 68, and South Korea's Si Woo Kim - whose 64 included a 252-yard hole in one, the longest ever recorded in a Major.
Vegas said: "Every chance you get to lead a major and play with the lead is never easy. So I feel proud of a solid round today.
"Even though it's never easy to give two shots away right at the end, a lot of golf left so got to keep remembering the good stuff."
Pavon matched the best ever Major Championship round by a French player, he was out in 31, with a 34-foot putt at the second for the first of his four birdies. Further birdies at the 12th and 14th completed a superb bogey-free card.
"Got a nice momentum with the putter early on, a few birdies on the front nine and helped me to be more confident on the back nine," he said. "Overall it was a super satisfying day."
Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open Champion, was -1 for his front nine and then birdied the tenth and 12th holes to finish -3 for his round and reach -6 at the halfway stage of the tournament.
"Obviously being in this position before is a huge advantage," he said. "I think the biggest thing for me that I'll take on is I obviously want to win another major, of course I do, but I've already won one so I feel like there's less pressure when you've already won one.
"Saturday is always, I feel like, the make or break of how close you are to the lead. I would say Saturday back nine is where ideally you'd like to play your best holes - your best golf of the tournament for the last 27 (holes), in my opinion."
Kim remarkably repeated his feat from last year's Open Championship, where his 238-yard ace at Royal Troon's 17th hole was the longest in that event's recorded history.
He exceeded that by 14 yards with his five-wood tee-shot at the sixth - his 15th hole - and followed that eagle with a sixth birdie of the day in a round featuring just a solitary bogey.
Scottie Scheffler shot 68 to reach -5 where he was joined by fellow American Max Homa - who matched Kim's 64, also with six birdies and an eagle.
New Zealand's Ryan Fox 71, South Africans Christiaan Bezuidenhout 68 and Garrick Higgo 69 and Scotland's Robert MacIntyre 70 were the DP World Tour members in a group of ten players at -4
European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald 74 made the cut at -1 one shot behind United States counterpart Keegan Bradley 72 -2.
The cut fell at +1 with World #2 and recent Masters champion Rory McIlroy making it right on the line as did defending champion Xander Schauffele.
The Northern Irishman was -4 for the first ten holes of his round before back-to-back bogeys ensured a nervy finish. He impressively saved par after his tee shot at the 13th rolled off the green and birdied the 14th and 15th to give himself some breathing room, which proved necessary after bogeys at the last two holes.
edit****Notables missing the cut.
Padraig Harrington +2, Sepp Straka +2, Shane Lowry +2, missed the cut as did Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, Ludvig Aberg in a group at +3, further down the leaderboard Rickie Fowler, Thomas Detry, Min Woo Lee all missed at +4, Justin Rose, Brooks Keopka, Phil Mickelson at +9, and former #1 Dustin Johnson +12
Canadians, big hitting Taylor Pendrith T17 69 70 -3 and Corey Conners T36 73 68 -1 will play the weekend while compatriots, local resident Mac Hughes +9, Nick Taylor +6 and Adam Hadwin #11 all found a wet Quail Hollow too stern a test.
europeantour.com
Bryan Angus (edit)
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