Woods in strong US PGA position

Tiger Woods put himself in a commanding position in a wind-swept second round of the US PGA Championship.

Woods, seeking his fifth US PGA title, overcame the wild conditions at Kiawah Island to fire a 71 to share the lead with Vijay Singh and Carl Pettersson.

Ian Poulter is one shot off the lead, while Rory McIlroy is three shots back after carding a 75.

World number one Luke Donald narrowly survived the cut after posting a four-over 76.

“Getting the ball on to the green is tough enough and then you have to get it in the hole,” McIlroy, who is two under for the tournament, told Sky Sports.

“It’s really tough out there because the wind is blowing you all over the place.”

The strong gusts, together with almost an inch of overnight rain which fell on the ocean course, made for wild conditions.

But while the majority of the field struggled, Woods embraced the elements.

“It was hard staying steady and a couple of times I was getting blown,” said Woods.

“It was fun but it was also tough because you were getting blown all over the place.”

Donald, 34, went into the tournament hoping he had learnt from his missed cut at June’s US Open.

But after opening with a 74 in South Carolina, he started his second round on the 10th with a double bogey and then dropped shots at each of the last three holes to leave his place at the top of the world rankings in doubt.

He said: “It’s just one of those weeks. I actually played decently this week and got nothing out of it.

“The course changed quite a bit today and you had to adapt. Certainly it didn’t play anything like the practice days.

Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell shot 76 to drop to level par.

Welshman Jamie Donaldson produced a solid round of 73 to follow Thursday’s 69 and leave him two under par. —BBC

 

 

 

South Korea beat Japan to win bronze

South Korea became only the second Asian nation to win an Olympic men’s football medal when they beat near neighbours Japan 2-0 in a feisty bronze-medal match in Cardiff.

Japan, bronze medallists in Mexico City 1968, went behind to Arsenal striker Park Chu-Young’s low 38th-minute shot.

Korea captain Koo Jacheol doubled their lead from 15 yards on 57 minutes.

Japan skipper Maya Yoshida saw his late header disallowed for a foul on Korean keeper Jung Sungryong.

Korea, convincingly beaten by tournament favourites Brazil in the last four, had never previously progressed past the Olympics quarter-finals and their victory in the Millennium Stadium was greeted by joyous celebrations at the final whistle.

“Korea celebrated like they had won a gold medal – and they thoroughly deserved it on the day.”

Japan had not conceded a goal in the tournament before their 3-1 semi-final defeat by Mexico, but their defensive frailties were exposed for the second successive game as Korea capitalised.

An isolated Park latched on to a long ball before superbly twisting and turning into space to fire a low shot past Japan goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda at his near post.

Japan pushed and probed in search of an equaliser, but they were hit by a sucker punch when a huge punt by Korea goalkeeper Jung Sungryong found Koo who lashed into the bottom corner.

The rivalry between the two nations threatened to boil over shortly after the half-hour when Koo became the third Korean player, after Ki Sungyueng and Oh Jaesuk, to be booked for cynically fouling Japan’s Yuki Otsu.

The Japanese players were furious with the rough treatment received by Otsu, who appeared to have been identified by Korea as the dangerman following a series of impressive Olympic displays. —BBC