18th hole ruins Taylor Pendrith’s day, 3 Canucks make cut

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — A demanding Aronimink Golf Club made for a particularly cruel finish for Taylor Pendrith on Friday at the PGA Championship.

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The Canadian battled the tough pins, the winds and the undulating greens and looked to be coming out ahead after pouring in six birdies along the way, but his second round met a gnarly end as he took three swipes to chip his ball onto the green from the rough at the final hole.

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Following a bogey at the 17th hole, the triple bogey at the 18th dropped Pendrith to four-over for week, making the 36-hole cut right on the number.

“Played really good today, until the end,” Pendrith said. “Drove it awesome, hit some really nice iron shots, and these greens are all kind of crowned and severe. Really sucks to end the day like that.”

Pendrith said he had struggled in practice rounds with his short game from the deep rough around Aronimink’s greens.

“I hadn’t been in the rough by the greens all week until 17 today, and I’d kind of been struggling with it early in the week,” he said, “It’s not my favourite shot. Took me a few times to get on the green on 18. So yeah, it sucks. I thought I had that sorted out before the week, and it was just the next time I was in there.”

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Pendrith’s adventurous Friday scorecard finished at two-over 72 with six birdies, five bogeys, and one triple bogey.

“It almost feels like a U.S. Open to me,” Pendrith said of the course setup. “I’m probably going to go hit a couple chip shots and end on a good note.”

It was a much less eventful day for fellow Canadian Nick Taylor, who matched Pendrith with a 72, but accomplished it with 16 pars and two bogeys. Taylor will head to the weekend tied with countryman Corey Conners at one-over par.

“Honestly, my game around the greens has been great all year,” Taylor said. “A lot of confidence there. The putter’s been really solid as well the last few weeks. I’ve been missing in mostly the appropriate spots to give myself chances.”

Through two rounds, Taylor ranks first in scrambling, first in sand saves, and fifth in putting on Aronimink’s treacherous greens.

“I feel like I’ve just seen the lines well. The speed’s been really good the last couple weeks,” he said. “I’ve worked a lot on setup and just a little bit of green reading. It just seems to be helping. It’s nice.”

The only Canadian to miss the cut was rookie Sudarshan Yellamaraju, who burst on the scene at the Players Championship with a T5 finish. He entered the week as the top Canadian on the FedEx Cup standings at 38th, but couldn’t get anything going at his first career major, shooting 75-75 to finish at 10-over.

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