D8 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, MAY 7 , 2022
soaked second round kept him in
first place, three strokes in front
of Max Homa. Four players —
including former All-Met Denny
McCarthy — were tied for third at
6 under.
Day followed his 63 in the
opening round with five birdies
amid pelting rain at TPC Potomac
at Avenel Farm, where preferred
lies were granted, standing water
gathered throughout the course
and some players, including Day,
removed their sponsor-embla-
zoned caps for good when they
became soaked.
“When you have conditions
like this, it’s really hard to control
a shot because you’re going in
there and you’re doing it kind of a
lot quicker than your normal pre-
shot routine,” Day said. “So you
have to force yourself to hit the
shot and trust that. I kind of
worked it out and found my way
on the back side.”
WELLS FARGO FROM D1 In a larger sense, Day has been
attempting to find his way for the
past few years. His last win in a
PGA Tour event was at the 2018
Wells Fargo Championship when
it was at Quail Hollow, the tourna-
ment’s regular home in Charlotte
that is hosting the Presidents Cup
in late September, thus leading to
the move to the D.C. suburbs.
Day reached his career pinna-
cle in 2015, becoming the first
player to go 20 under par at a
major when he beat Jordan Spi-
eth by three strokes at Whistling
Straits. He followed that with vic-
tories in the first two legs of the
FedEx Cup playoffs at the Bar-
clays and BMW Championship to
unseat Spieth as world No. 1.
Day came into this week’s Wells
Fargo Championship ranked
127th and off a tie for 10th in his
most recent tournament, the Zur-
ich Classic, in late April. Before
that, Day had missed three con-
secutive cuts, including at the
Players Championship.
But encouraging signs also
came with a third-place tie at the
Farmers Insurance Open in Janu-
ary. Victories at that event in 2015
and 2018 are part of Day’s 17
overall on the PGA Tour.
“All the work that I put in kind
of in the offseason, off weeks, it’s
starting to show a lot of signs, and
I’m finding a lot of confidence in
that swing,” Day said. “Every now
and then it kind of falls back to
some of that old stuff, but big
thing for me is just to not kind of
panic and just take a step back
and go through my shots and
trust it the best I can. And if I can
do that, hopefully I’m somewhere,
if not leading, come Sunday.”
Homa, who started his round
on No. 10, kept Day within reach
in part with an eagle at the par-5,
591-yard 10th, where the 2019
Wells Fargo champion holed out
from about 14 yards. He made a
bogey at 11 but rebounded with
birdies at 14 and 16.
Birdies at Nos. 2, 4 and 5around a bogey at the par-3 third
sparked Homa to shoot a 4-under- List was among the players
who matched that low round dur-
ing the morning tee times before
the conditions improved slightly
for those teeing off in the after-
noon.
Rory McIlroy, the highest-
ranked player in the field at No. 7,
was among them. The four-time
major champion shot a 3-over 73,
needing a seven-foot par putt on
No. 18 to stay above the cut line in
his first appearance in the area
since a record-setting win at the
2011 U.S. Open at neighboring
Congressional Country Club.
“Jason and I have been talking
about it for like 2^1 / 2 hours that we
can’t wait to be done and kick our
feet up,” Homa said. “I know he’s
got a bus here, so he’s going to
hang on the bus. I’m going to go sit
on my bed, and I think I deserve a
soda after today, maybe some
cookies, some kind of candy, I
don’t know.”
Day survives elements, takes three-shot lead
BY GENE WANGAs a youth golfer growing up in
Montgomery County, Denny Mc-
Carthy had played TPC Potomac at
Avenel Farm in its previous incar-
nation as TPC Avenel, when the
layout had been the butt of criti-
cism from such notable PGA Tour
luminaries as Greg Norman.
He also went back several times
following an overhaul to all
18 holes that began in 2007 and
took nearly two years to complete
before subsequent renovations to
the fairways and greens left TPC
Potomac in its current state for this
week’s Wells Fargo Championship.
But in all those rounds, McCar-
thy had never encountered condi-
tions as rugged as Friday’s second
round, with rain — torrential at
times — making shots from the
high, gnarly rough and oversatu-
rated bunkers that much more
treacherous and the hilly terrain a
bear to walk.
Still, the Georgetown Prep
graduate and three-time Washing-
ton Post first-team All-Met selec-
tion persevered to shoot a 1-under-
par 69 for a 36-hole total of 134,
four shots behind leader Jason
Day and within reach of the first
PGA Tour victory in his career.
“It got really cold out there,
nasty,” said McCarthy, 29. “The
wind was switching, rain on and
off. It’s tough when you’re walking
up hills trying to get ready. You’re
trying to catch your breath. It’s a
lot of things going on. My caddie
and I, we did a really good job of
just kind of taking each shot with
the same importance all day.”
At No. 13, McCarthy’s left foot
slipped during his downward mo-
tion with the driver. Then his right
foot gave out, and the club wound
up dangling from his left hand.
The ball somehow found the fair-
way, and he made par.
McCarthy, who played colle-
giately at Virginia, carded two
birdies before he made his only
bogey at the par-3 17th, hitting his
tee shot into the deep rough well to
the left of the flag. He chipped
within 50 feet and two-putted.
He managed a par at the 18th
despite driving into the native
area left of the fairway with an
approach to 25 feet of the pin.“I tend to slip every now and
then,” McCarthy said of his travails
at No. 13. “My feet like to get happy
from time to time. My left foot
likes to do a little toe tap, and it
slipped there. Fortunately I’m
pretty good and experienced at
slipping and was able to make
solid contact.”Wild ride for Odom
Howard senior Gregory Odom
Jr.’s hectic but rewarding week
ended with a 5-over 75 in the sec-
ond round, leaving him 12 over
and well off the even-par cut.
Odom had five bogeys and a
birdie in the first PGA Tour start of
his career, two days after he com-
pleted 54 holes on the way to
winning the PGA Works Collegiate
Championship outside Philadel-
phia.
Odom was playing as an ama-
teur thanks to one of four sponsor
exemptions from Wells Fargo,
which cited its mission to foster
diversity, equity and inclusion in
the PGA Tour’s first event in the
area since 2018.
The reigning Mid-Eastern Ath-
letic Conference individual cham-
pion was the only Black player in
the field of 156.
His accomplishments over two
seasons at Howard even caught
the attention of Golden State War-
riors superstar Stephen Curry,
whose seven-figure donation al-
lowed the Bison to reboot their
golf program last year.
“That is extremely amazing,”
Odom said of Curry’s words of
encouragement. “That’s what I’m
here for, to represent and be a
model so other kids can look up to
me and do better than me and
come here to the PGA Tour.”Notables miss cut
Zach Johnson was among sev-
eral major champions who missed
the cut. The winner of the 2007
Masters and 2015 British Open
shot 4 over to finish at 144 through
36 holes.
Also missing the cut were 2012
U.S. Open winner Webb Simpson,
2011 Masters champion Charl
Schwartzel and 2018 British Open
champion Francesco Molinari,
who won the last PGA Tour tour-
nament at TPC Potomac in 2018.WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIP NOTESLocal favorite McCarthyremains in the runningJONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POSTJason Day, who opted to remove his rain-soaked hat, had five birdies in his second-round 67 on Friday at T PC Potomac at Avenel Farm.
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