NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. (AP) — Justin Rose's second-round scorecard had a little bit of everything at the PGA Championship.
He had four bogeys, three birdies, two double bogeys and was in jeopardy of missing the cut after ending up in the thick rough 25 yards from the pin on his final hole.
Standing a few feet from the edge of a fairway bunker, Rose dug deep with his wedge, and his golf ball took three small bounces on the green and tracked into the hole
for an eagle 3.
The spectacular shot put the 45-year-old Englishman near the cut line at 3-over par and likely propelled him into the weekend in his 24th appearance at the championship. The cut was likely to be in the 4-over par range.
Rose is a Philly favorite after winning the 2013 U.S. Open at nearby Merion Golf Club, and he has a good history at Aronimink, where he won his second PGA Tour title in the 2010 AT&T National. He lost to Keegan Bradley in a playoff in Newtown Square in the 2018 BMW Championship.
Rose's found Friday was in many ways fitting for a golfer whose career has been long been defined by many highs and lows and gritty, grind-it-out performances. He missed the first 20 cuts of his career, then became a major and Olympic champion and has enjoyed a mid-40s resurgence that has yielded multiple runner-up finishes in majors in recent years.
Rose got off to a rocky start Friday, driving into a bunker right of the difficult 10th hole and taking two shots to get out before eventually making a 6, the first of his two double-bogeys. Then, the rollercoaster round really took off.
His birdies on the 12th and 16th holes sandwiched a bogey, double-bogey, bogey, and he closed his front nine at 4-over 39.
The fun continued on the front nine, his back, when he followed three straight pars with a birdie before stumbling again. He posted bogeys at Nos. 6 and 8 and tumbled down the leaderboard.
Then, he hit the shot of his second round on the par-5 ninth hole. His 310-yard drive found the fairway, but his second shot traveled 267 yards and landed in the thick left rough.
His eagle was the first of the second round and the third of the championship.
Then, the waiting game began for Rose, who was left to hope that his fabulous finish was enough to make the top-70 scores and ties to reach the weekend.
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