Trump International and Scottish weather set a stern test at the Nexo Championship

    DP World Tour : Nexo Championship Tee Times Leaderboard

The Nexo Championship is again proving a battle of survival at Trump International Golf Links.

A year on from its DP World Tour debut as the host venue, the Old Course layout on the Balmedie links in Aberdeenshire is again causing havoc as the winds blow along the North Sea coastline.

At the end of the second round, only 17 players are under par ahead of the final 36 holes. The cut of +5 is the highest this season.

It was tough 12 months ago, with just nine players finishing under par. But a change in wind direction from then and across the practice days this year has caused torment for many in the field.

"It's just a tough course," said defending champion Grant Forrest in a mid-round interview with the World Feed on Friday.

"There's no let up, no forgiveness really. You've just got to be on it or you get punished."

Forrest is among the players to have drawn the harder side of the draw, having started in the wind and rain on Thursday and played in the afternoon wave on Friday as temperatures barely lifted.

He carded a course record -6 66 on his way to victory last year but appears unlikely to join Major champion Paul Lawrie as the third Scot to win three times on the DP World Tour in their homeland after rounds of 72 and 76 to sit +4 at halfway - eight shots adrift of solo leader Matthew Southgate.

Forrest's playing partner Patrick Reed, the Race to Dubai Rankings leader, was among those taken aback by the sudden shift in challenge from the practice days.

“The golf course played completely different from Monday through Wednesday,” he explained after his first round of 72, which he followed with a 73.

“When I played the back nine during the practice round, I was debating whether to hit three wood or even two iron off of ten. But into the wind today [on Thursday] it was driver, three wood and pitching wedge.”

Scott Jamieson is faring better in the cold and blustery conditions, carding rounds of 70 and 71 to sit at -3 as the 42-year-old targets a big result that could change the course of his season.

"It’s been a while since I was in this position at halfway," said the Florida-based Scot, who sits 135th spot on the Race to Dubai Rankings, and is battling to keep his card on golf's global Tour.

"There is still a lot of golf to be played but I’m really happy to be in a good spot going into the weekend.

"I enjoy playing golf and level par is a good score round here. So I wouldn’t mind these conditions for the next two days."

WEATHER

The forecast for the weekend is that the north-westerly wind will drop, having blown between 15-20mph across Thursday and Friday.

MORE OPINION

Connor Syme, another of the 15 Scots in the field sits just outside the T10 -1. “That was great. Very solid. I didn’t put myself in too much trouble on a very tricky golf course. So very happy with that. It’s definitely one of the rounds of the season for sure. It’s been a while since I have been up at the top of a board."

Eliot Baker, the lone amateur in the field "That definitely wasn't easy out there today," he said.

"That wind got blowing, the rain kept coming through but to be up there on the leaderboard going into the weekend on my debut, I couldn't be happier."

SUMMARY

Through the opening two days, 12 of the holes are playing over par. The 500-yard par four eighth is proving the hardest hole, with as many as 42 double bogeys or worse.

Scores have ranged from the low of 67, registered by first-round leader Marcus Kinhult, to a high of 86 by Ryan Van Velzen.

On Friday, India's Shubhankar Sharma enjoyed a hole-in-one at the 178-yard sixth, while England's Haydn McCullen made a quintuple bogey ten at the tenth. Both will be back for more after making the cut.

It all sets us up for an enthralling weekend.

Mathieu Wood europeantour.com

Bryan Angus (edit)

Wyndham Clark continues career year, Buick Championship .. 36 hole results

     PGA Tour : Buick Championship FedExCup  Leaderboard Tee Times

Wyndham Clark's record this year will show he won the US Open, and lapped the field at the Byron Nelson (CJ Cup) earlier, but driving the ball as well as anyone, he has been in contention on several occasions.

He is at it again this week, driving it long and in play on Bellerive GC, bogey free through 36 holes, 64 64 -12 to lead the Buick Championship in St Louis by a shot over Gary Woodland 64 65 -11 who grew up 4 hours away and has lot's of local  support.

Former US Open winner, JJ Spaun 64 66 -10 is 3rd, Sungjae Im 64 -9, Chris Gotterup 64 -9 at T4.

Rory added a two birdie 69 to his opening 65 -7, and Scheffler 72 65 is well back at -3

FedEx Standings

Scheffler's play this week doesn''t affect his #1 standing, he is already guaranteed $23,000,000 in the bonus pool.

However for all the players who are not already locked in to the top 30 for the Tour Championship, this weekend is all about making that number.

Woodland is at #31, Im at #40, Pat Cantlay #43, Michael Thorbjornsen #41 are just some examples....

Click on my FedEx icon above for all the standings.

Bryan Angus

Japan's flag fly's atop Canadian (CPKC) Women's Open, Huang/Henderson chasing...36 hole results

     LPGA : CPKC Women's Open 

Leaderboard

Japanese leader Miyu Yamashita is not quite 5 feet tall, but her game is big time, the former Women's British Open champion followed up her course-record 62 opener with Friday’s 64 for the runaway 5 shot lead at this CPKC Women's Open at -14. Her 126 score sets a new tournament record.

“I’m really happy about this result, and with two rounds to go (I) just want to focus on my game and keep playing like this,” Yamashita said.

She held a five-stroke lead on fellow Japanese, Yuri Yoshida, Kiara Romero of the United States, South Korea’s Soo Bin Joo who were all trailing at -9.

CANADIANS

Meanwhile defending champion Brooke Henderson, 28-year-old from Smiths Falls, Ont has a lot of work to do, seeking a third career win in Canada’s LPGA tournament.

 She shot 68 on Friday to sit nine strokes off the lead at -5. 

“We’ll see what the damage is after today, but it’s only half over at this point, so I just have to go low myself, I feel like my game is in a pretty good spot. Maybe try to be a bit more aggressive and see if we can climb.” Henderson said

 Anna Huang did more than make the cut, as the 17-year-old from Vancouver is the top Canadian heading into Saturday’s third round after she posted a second-round 68 on Friday to get to -7 T7.

The 4 time winner on the LET said "Going into this week, making the cut was my biggest goal,” Huang said. “So now that I’ve got that down, I’m just going to try to chase up the leaderboard this weekend.”

Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng, who was the Canadian tournament’s low amateur last year in Mississauga, Ont., shot 67 to get to -3.

Savannah Grewal of Mississauga -1, Maude-Aimee Leblanc of Sherbrooke, Que.,-1 and amateurs Michelle Xing of Richmond Hill, Ont.,-2  and Clairey Lin of Langley, B.C.,E,  made the cut.

The top 65 players and ties made the cut at the US$2.75-million event. 

Donna Spencer (Canadian Press)

Bryan Angus (edit)

DP World Tour : Windy Nexo Championship : 36 hole results

 DP World Tour : Nexo Championship Tee Times Leaderboard

Matthew Southgate underlined his reputation as a links specialist to withstand sustained winds at Trump International Golf Links and claim a one-shot halfway lead at the Nexo Championship.

On another day of testing conditions, scoring proved tough over the Martin Hawtree-designed Old Course in Aberdeenshire with Scottish duo Connor Syme and Martin Laird the only players to be bogey free on Friday.

Southgate carded a second consecutive 70, featuring a chip-in eagle late in his second round, to claim the solo lead at -4

England's Matthew Jordan, runner-up last week in Denmark, home hope Scott Jamieson, Sweden's first-round leader Marcus Kinhult and South Africa's Shaun Norris are a shot further back at -3

Nine shots separate the leader and those who made the cut at +5 the highest mark so far this season on the DP World Tour.

SOUTHGATE STORY

Southgate, who is playing without full playing privileges on the DP World Tour this season, claimed his first title on the HotelPlanner Tour at the Swiss Challenge in June.

Later that month, he earned a spot at The Open via Final Qualifying for a remarkable 6th time in his career.

The 37-year-old is making just his fifth DP World Tour start this season but he is in the mix to become the 14th first-time winner on the 2026 Race to Dubai campaign.

Fellow Englishman Jordan is another targeting his breakthrough DP World Tour win, and he has carried over momentum from his near miss at the Danish Golf Championship.

A remarkable start to his round, which saw him birdie his opening three holes and then eagle the par five fourth, lifted the 30-year-old to -5 and into a two-shot advantage of the early clubhouse lead.

A missed par putt from inside of five feet at the 14th saw him once again drop back to -2 but he ended his day on a high with a birdie at the par five last for -3

"Going out, you know with two par fives kind of downwind, and the way the wind is and the course is playing, that you do obviously want to get off to a good start," he said.

"You are going to hit bad shots, and you are going make mistakes. I mean, it was difficult in terms of mentally too, there was a couple of times with some of the short putts that I missed, that I might have got influenced slightly when I was over it and stuff like that. It’s not just the drives, it's not just some of the iron plays, it’s all round, really."

Florida-based Jamieson, among the morning starters, is 135th in the Race to Dubai Rankings and in need of a big performance to help his cause to retain his playing rights for next season.

The 42-year-old burst out of the blocks with three birdies in his opening four holes as he took advantage of a stretch of the course that played downwind. He then bogeyed four of his next 11 holes, but he enjoyed a strong finish with gains at the 16th and 18th for a 71.

Kinhult conceded to not having his best golf on Thursday despite an opening 67, and he bookended his second round with birdies to card a 74.

There was then a six strong group of players at -2,  that featured English amateur Eliot Baker, Japan's Keita Nakajima, Denmark's Jacob Skov Olesen, Italy's Matteo Manassero, Spain's Quim Vidal and Zimbabwe's Benjamin Folllett-Smith.

Syme carded a 68 for the best round of the day to get to -1.

europeantour.com

Bryan Angus (edit)

Rory bounces back into T1 at Buick Championship...Live leaderboard, FedEx standings...

   PGA Tour : Buick Championship FedExCup  Leaderboard Tee Times

The top 50 have made their way to the revamped parkland course, Bellerive CC in St Louis where so far it's a mainly sunny 82*f slight wind 8mph NW, much more comfortable than the oppressive 100+* in Memphis last week.

After failing to break par in 4 rounds last week at St Jude Championship in Memphis, Rory McIlroy who had lost a feel for his swing after a 4 week break, flew home to Florida for 2 days of work with coach Mitch Bannon, then bounced back to T1 for the lead -6 64 with Gary Woodland, Wyndham Clark, Chris Gotterup and JJ Spaun.

"At least Mitch got me back to where I felt like I knew what I was doing, days like this are encouraging, but I have still got a long ways to go" said the world #2.

There are no Canadians in the field to report on.

The Fitzpatrick's continue their dream season, Matt T6 -5 65 a Player of the Year candidate, his younger brother Alex, making more money than in his entire career, T8 -4 66.

After his unchallenged 8 shot win last week, Scott Scheffler struggled, making 5 bogey's T44 +2 72, citing a flu bug had made him sick before heading home for some more medication.

For all scores, tee times, FedEx standings click on my links above...

Bryan Angus

Huang leads Canadians in Edmonton at mosquito ridden CPKC Women's Open ...18 hole results

   LPGA : CPKC Women's Open 

Leaderboard

Japan's Miyu Yamashita shot a season-low -8 62 on the 6,452-yard, par-70 Royal Mayfair Golf Club in Edmonton. She is one stroke ahead of her countrywoman Nasa Hataoka -7 63 and two up -6 64 on Kiara Romero of the United States.

The first round was played under mostly cloudy skies, a temperature of 24 C and in occasional clouds of insect repellent. Edmonton’s 56 centimetres of rain since June 1 made the city a breeding ground for mosquitoes. 

“I’m getting annihilated,” said one caddie as she sprayed herself down at the turn.

Anna Huang (Bernard Brault, Golf Canada)

Vancouver’s Anna Huang, 17, and 18-year-old amateur Michelle Xing of Richmond Hill, Ont., were three shots off the lead at -5 65 in a T4 to lead the Canadians, with China’s Ruoning Yin and Japan’s Yuri Yoshida.

The  25-year-old Women's Open Champion, Yamashita, who also won June’s Meijer LPGA Classic in Belmont, Mich., recorded eight birdies.

“It’s been a while since I finished the first round in good position,” she said. “My putting was really nice, so I felt really good.”

Defending champion Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., seeking a third win in her home LPGA tournament, finished with a birdie to go -3 67

“I feel it was very important and it felt great,” Henderson said. “I really wanted it. I hit it really hard. I’m glad I hit the hole, but to see it go in was really nice.

“The scores are very low out here today, the leaders especially, so just trying to go out tomorrow and make a bunch of birdies and try to catch them.”

Henderson birdied her first three holes of the back nine after making the turn at even par. Her tee shot and second shot found rough on the 16th hole, which she bogeyed.

“If you find the rough or you’re not hitting it so well, it can really be penalizing as well, so you’re just trying to stick to the short stuff,” she said. “Every time I made a bogey, I was able to bounce back with a birdie pretty quickly, which is important.

“Three under, definitely going to need a little bit more tomorrow, but a good start.”

Both Huang and Xing were positioned to make the cut Friday for the first time in their careers after two tries apiece.

“Definitely making the cut would be a really big goal for me, and then hopefully some good weekend golf,” said Huang, who won 4 European Tour tournaments in the last 11 months.

“I’m definitely a lot more confident than I was the past few years coming into this event, and then also just all the crowds out there really helped.”

Xing was a late addition to the field with a sponsor’s exemption.

“As an amateur, like that’s one of my biggest goals, is to make the cut at an LPGA event, especially when it’s in Canada,” she said. “It would mean a whole lot.”

OTHER CANADIANS

Clairey Lin, a 16-year-old amateur from Langley, B.C., shot a -2 68 in her tournament debut. 

Tour veteran Maude-Aimee Leblanc of Sherbrooke, Que., joined her at -2.

 Vancouver’s Leah John turned in a -1 69 and Savannah Grewal of Mississauga, Ont., shot E 70.

Lin’s fellow Canadian amateurs Lauren Kim of Surrey, B.C., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., all shot E70, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos was +2 72 o and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., carded a +8 78.

Katie Cranston of Oakville, Ont., shot a +4 74, Alena Sharp of Hamilton a +7 77 and Calgary’s Tillie Claggett shot a +8 78.

Donna Spencer (Canadian Press)

Bryan Angus (edit)

Swede Marcus Kinhult leads in Scotland...Nexo Championship 18 hole results...

   DP World Tour : Nexo Championship Tee Times Leaderboard

Marcus Kinhult holds a two-shot lead over a chasing pack that includes amateur Eliot Baker after the first round at the Nexo Championship in Scotland.

The Swede mixed seven birdies with two bogeys in a -5 67 over the Old Course at Trump International Golf Links, on a day of testing conditions that demanded patience.

Baker, who was announced on Tuesday as part of the Great Britain and Ireland team for next month's Walker Cup, is one of four players at -3 69 alongside fellow Englishman Andrew Wilson, France's Félix Mory and Zimbabwe's Benjamin Follett-Smith.

Kinhult, whose sole DP World Tour victory to date came on UK soil at the British Masters in 2019, came close to his second title earlier this season as he finished tied second in Belgium.

Among the afternoon wave who enjoyed the better of the weather as the morning rain cleared away and sunny skies appeared, albeit with strong winds, Kinhult produced a hat-trick of birdies on his back nine to hit the front late in the day but conceded he was far from at his best.

"It was a very ugly minus five," he said. "Tee to green, it was not great to be honest.

"I’m not going to complain, I’m very happy with the score, but I was a little bit off off the tee, and also into the green.

"My short game and putting was unbelievable today, which obviously helps, so I’m happy with the score."

"When I walked outside this morning at 7 o’clock, it was raining pretty hard and it was cold, so I think we got the better draw today. It was tough.

"It’s slightly different this year, I remember last year the wind was the other direction, so the course is playing completely different, so it’s a good challenge for sure."

Starting at the first, Baker, the sole amateur in the field, capitalised on the downwind first to get off to the dream start with a birdie.

"Didn't really know what to expect from today, but I just enjoyed the experience out there and thankfully it went well," said Baker, winner of last year’s Scottish Men’s Open Championship at North Berwick.

"I've no expectation this week, just purely trying to enjoy it, gaining the experience and hoping it builds me as a player."

HotelPlanner Tour graduate 31 year old Mory who has made four of his last six cuts on the DP World Tour was thrilled with his performance.

"Just keep doing the same thing. I mean, it's going to be blowing, we're in Scotland, you know? So probably a lot of low shots and yeah, just stick to what I'm doing and just do the best I can."

32 year old Follett-Smith made his first cut on the DP World Tour since May last week, is a two-time winner on the HotelPlanner Tour. He made birdies at the tenth and 16th as he dropped just the one shot on his front nine at the 15th, capitalised on the par fives that played downwind over the front nine, before he recovered from a bogey at the eighth to set up a tap-in birdie at the ninth.

There were then eight players at -2, including Danish duo Jacob Skov Olesen and Lucas Bjerregard, English pair Matthew Southgate and Haydn McCullen, Japan's Keita Nakajima, Australia's Jason Scrivener, Sweden's Albin Bergstrom and Scotland's Scott Jamieson.

europeantour.com

Bryan Angus