GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. – Morgan Pressel said she knew Saturday that it was going to be a tough day in the second round of the ShopRite LPGA Classic. The wind was strong and steady, the greens were bumpy and she failed to convert some early birdie chances.

But Pressel showed some veteran patience throughout the day and effectively battled the elements well enough to shoot a 2-under 69 and maintain a one-stroke lead.

Pressel had three birdies and a bogey to reach 7-under 135 on Stockton Seaview’s Bay Course. The 27-year-old American won the last of her two LPGA Tour victories in 2008.

“I think my patience was kind of tested on the first few holes where I had a few good birdie opportunities and didn’t even sniff the hole,” Pressel said.

“Rock (caddie Barry Cesarz) said to me, `Keep giving yourself birdie opportunities.’ And I ended up making a few. When you’re missing four or five putts on the front nine from 10 feet for birdie, it can wear on you. You’ve just got to say, `Hey, I made a good stroke, the greens bounced this way.'”

Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist was second. She birdied the last three holes for a 69.

Gerina Piller, Kelly Shon, Pernilla Lindberg, Catriona Matthew and Christel Boeljon were tied for third at 4 under. Shon had a 68, and Piller, Lindberg, Matthew and Boeljon shot 70.

The start was delayed an hour by fog. After the fog lifted, the breeze that usually blows at the Bay Course confounded many players trying to pull the right clubs. In addition, players noted that bumpy greens affected their putting.

Pressel didn’t allow the conditions to bother her. She did card a pair of birdies on her front nine – a 2-putt at the par-5 third hole and on the difficult par-4 sixth.

Her only bogey of the day came at the par-4 13th hole, where she lost her drive into the trees on the right and had to punch out from high grass into the fairway. After her third shot rolled over the green, she got up and down from 6 feet for a good bogey.

“I think that once that went in, my patience was fine,” Pressel said. “I’m like, `OK, I got out of there with a bogey and didn’t make double, and I know that I’ve just got to keep plugging along with pars coming in, and ended up making a good birdie on 16.”

She got the shot back at No. 16, hitting a 7-iron approach from 170 yards to 20 feet, and sinking the putt.

Pressel came close to winning last month, but lost a playoff to top-ranked Lydia Ko in the Swinging Skirts in California.

Nordqvist, a four-time tour winner who had four straight top-10 finishes earlier this year, rallied from bogeys at Nos. 11 and 12.

She began her hot stretch with a 5-foot birdie putt at the 16th, followed by a 6-footer at the short 17th and a 10-footer at the par-5 18th.

“I tried to give myself chances for birdies or play for pars on some holes,” Nordqvist said. “But knowing it’s a three-day event, you’re really going to have to try to shoot low scores every day. I tried to stay patient, and I think it paid off with three birdies there at the end.”

Defending champion Stacy Lewis and 17-year-old Canadian sensation Brooke Henderson struggled, but made the 36-hole cut right on the number at 3-over 145. Lewis had a 73, and Henderson, who had eight birdies in her opening round, went without a birdie Saturday in her round of 77.

Canada’s Alena Sharp also made the 36-hole cut. The Hamilton, Ont. native carded a 76 to sit tied for 35th at 1-over.

Michelle Wie, who withdrew from the Kingsmill Championship for what was diagnosed as bursitis in her left hip, missed the cut with a 72 and 4-over 146 total. She said her hip was sore and that she was considering withdrawing from the Manulife Classic next week in Cambridge, Ontario.

NEWCASTLE, Northern Ireland – Soren Kjeldsen of Denmark shot a 4-under 67 to take a two-stroke lead Saturday in the third round of the Irish Open.

The 40-year-old Kjeldsen used superior putting to break free of a six-way tie as gusting winds at Royal County Down sabotaged many players’ short games.

He rolled a long eagle attempt on the 12th to within 18 inches, settling for his fifth birdie. On the next hole, his curling 30-yard putt for a sixth birdie left Kjeldsen punching the air in jubilation.

But Kjeldsen, ranked 303rd, bogeyed the final two holes to reduce his lead over Rafa Cabrera-Bello of Spain and Maximilian Kieffer of Germany.

Kieffer shot a course-record round of 65, one shot lower than the previous best set in 1939 and matched Friday.

IRVING, Texas – Jordan Spieth wasn’t sure what par was at his hometown AT&T Byron Nelson and thinks it actually might have helped him through some frustrating early holes.

There’s a reason the Masters champion was uncertain – overnight rain turned one of the signature par 4s at the saturated TPC Four Seasons into a pitch-and-putt par 3 at 105 yards for the second round Friday.

Spieth and every other early finisher within three shots of clubhouse leader Jon Curran turned in a birdie 2, and Gary Woodland had a hole-in-one when it was still possible that the easy wedge over a pond would play as a par 4. Tour officials later made the switch.

“I was able to fire at more pins, not really worry about anybody else,” said Spieth, who shot 64 – 5 under because par became 69 to put him at 6 under for the tournament. “Really actually helped because I didn’t know what score I was at when it’s a par 4, 4 par, par 3, don’t really know what it’s at.”

Curran shot 63 and was at 9-under 130 with the two-round par total at 139 instead of 140, with several contenders unlikely to finish the round because of a three-hour delay at the start. Cameron Percy was a shot back after an eagle at the par-5 seventh for a 64.

Defending champion Brendon Todd shot 68 and was 1 over for the tournament, unlikely to make the cut.

The fairway at the normally 406-yard 14th was deemed unplayable in the landing area after 5 inches of rain fell starting about midnight, pushing the total to about 17 inches in less than three weeks at the Four Seasons course. Texas officials have declared May the wettest month in the state’s history.

Muddy footprints marked the area where a dip in the fairway funneled down to a rain-swollen canal off to the right. Standing water covered the ground under some trees, about the same spot where Spieth chipped out in Thursday’s first round and ended up with a bogey.

The temporary tee box was on the fairway side of a pond that wraps around the left side of the green. Tour officials believe it was the first such alteration since the 2005 WGC-Match Play Championship, when flooding at La Costa in Carlsbad, California, temporarily turned a 467-yard par 4 into a 162-yard par 3.

“It was really tricky,” said the 21-year-old Spieth, who birdied his final three holes at Nos. 7-9. “We get up there and it’s 105 yards, but it’s off a steep upslope and really muddy. I don’t think we’ll see that, if ever, again, something like that.”

Curran, a 28-year-old rookie looking for his first PGA Tour win, shot 29 starting on the back nine, with the same boost as others on the 300-yard head start at 14. He had bogeys on the first and sixth holes to prevent a serious run at a 59 – with an asterisk of course.

“I knew it was a 105-yard hole,” Curran said. “I don’t think anybody really knew what all was going on. I think it was good that they gave us a chance to get out there and play.”

Nick Watney had a bogey-free 65 and was in a group at 7 under that included 48-year-old Jerry Kelly, who also shot 29 while starting on the back nine. Yes, he had a 2 on 14.

“I would have counted those as 1-under par 4,” said Kelly, who had the last of his three tour wins in 2009. “That’s all I got to say.”

There’s another strong change of overnight storms into Saturday, but the forecast improves considerably later in the day and into Sunday. Workers spent about six hours getting the course ready starting around 4 Friday morning and might have to do it again.

“They’ve probably not really enjoyed each night for the last month or two months,” said Spieth, who finished 16th in his first pro tournament as a 16-year-old amateur at the Nelson five years ago. “But hats off to them and hopefully they can catch a break now.”

And the players can know what par is.

Graham DeLaet was able to get through his first 36 holes. The Weyburn, Sask., native sat tied for 27th at 4-under as of Friday night.

Team Canada’s Austin Connelly was 2-under with five holes left in his second round, while Adam Hadwin was sitting on the cut line with at 1 under with three holes remaining in his opening two rounds.

 – Morgan Pressel wasn’t thrilled with the first 16 holes she played Friday in the first round of the ShopRite LPGA Classic. Her final two holes really improved her demeanor.

A birdie-eagle finish gave her a 5-under 66, good enough to top the leaderboard in near-perfect conditions on Stockton Seaview’s Bay Course.

“I really didn’t put myself in a whole lot of trouble,” Pressel said. “I wouldn’t say that I certainly had the best game out there. I guess I just made a few mistakes, and I didn’t play all that well, but then I came down birdieing eighth and eagling the last hole. That definitely helps.

“I only made two bogeys. They weren’t great bogeys by any means. I shouldn’t have really made them, but hopefully I can eliminate those kinds of mistakes and can keep giving myself opportunities.”

The 27-year-old Pressel, seeking her first LPGA Tour win since 2008, held the advantage over Anna Nordqvist of Sweden, Alena Sharp of Canada, rookie Min Lee of Taiwan and American Ryann O’Toole.

Brooke Henderson, the 17-year-old Canadian playing on a sponsor exemption, was among nine players at 68. The group included Women’s British Open champion Mo Martin, Catriona Matthew and Gerina Piller.

Pressel, ninth on the money list with more than $443,000, hit a wedge close to set up a birdie on the par-4 eighth and hit a 5-hybrid from 225 yards to 3 feet for the closing eagle on the par-5 ninth.

“I didn’t honestly know where it was,” Pressel said about her second shot at No. 9. “I thought it might be short of the green. I couldn’t see it and nobody clapped so I had no idea. Then we came up far enough over the hill to where we could see it and I was like, `Oh, it’s right next to the hole. OK, I’ll take it.'”

Pressel became the youngest player to win a major in the 2007 Kraft Nabisco at 18 years, 10 months and 9 days old. But she has won just one other victory on the tour, the 2008 Kapalua LPGA Classic.

She came close to breaking that drought last month at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic in California, but lost on the second hole of a playoff with top-ranked Lydia Ko.

Nordqvist, who had a streak of four top-10 finishes earlier this season, birdied her final hole, the par-5 ninth, with a 4-foot putt.

“Morgan is a very good player,” Nordqvist said. “Her short game is amazing, and she’s a very feisty player. Once she gets hot, she gets really hot. I think she is riding some confidence. She’s been playing great.”

Lee, who entered this week coming off three straight missed cuts, had an eagle and three birdies on the front nine to make the turn at 5 under.

O’Toole birdied her last two holes to get to 4 under, and Sharp’s round was highlighted by an eagle.

Third-ranked Stacy Lewis, the tournament winner in 2012 and 2014, chipped in for eagle at No. 9, her last hole, and finished with a 72.

Michelle Wie had a 74. The U.S. Women’s Open champion is playing after withdrawing from the Kingsmill Championship two weeks ago because of a left hip injury. She went through a series of evaluations and MRIs and was diagnosed with bursitis.

NEWCASTLE, Northern Ireland – Early exits are becoming a habit for Rory McIlroy, especially in his home country.

The 26-year-old Northern Ireland native failed to make the Irish Open cut for the third straight year Friday, shooting an even-par 71 that failed to make up for an 80 in the opening round. It is the second straight week the world’s top-ranked golfer failed to make the weekend, having exited early at the PGA Championship at Wentworth.

This one, he said, hurt more because it’s personal.

“Obviously I’m playing at home in front of a lot of friends and family. To not play the way I wanted is very disappointing. But I’m sort of getting used to it,” said a downcast McIlroy, whose Rory Foundation charity hosted the Irish Open for the first time.

England’s Tyrrell Hatton showed the field at Royal County Down that the seaside links course, bedeviled with unseasonably frigid gales and pelting showers, could be tamed.

The 23-year-old Hatton, ranked 142nd in the world, set a new course record of 66 to join a five-way tie for the lead at 3-under 139. His score tied a mark from 1939, but club and European Tour officials said it was considered a new record because the course has greatly changed over the past 76 years.

Only 15 of the 156-player field managed to beat par Friday as the changing weather drove the cutoff score to 5 over.

Ireland’s Shane Lowry summed up the sense of frustration when he smashed his putter against his bag and broke it after missing a short putt for par on his third hole. Lowry actually played better when forced to putt with his wedge, managing three birdies and making the cut with a 74.

“Golf’s a weird game and it’ll drive you mad sometimes,” said Lowry, who thanked his caddie for persuading him to stay on the course.

Local fans made the Irish Open a four-day, 80,000-ticket sellout in hopes of seeing McIlroy at his best. He gave them brief hope Friday when he sank a 30-foot putt on the short seventh for his first birdie of the tournament. He picked up another shot at the 12th and needed just two more birdies to make the cut.

But McIlroy mis-hit his approach to the 15th and three-putted for a double bogey, erasing the day’s gains.

“I just shot myself in the foot,” he said.

He drove his shot off the 18th tee into an impenetrable wall of thorny gorse bushes and, after taking a penalty drop, saved par with a 15-foot putt in front of the cheering grandstand.

But McIlroy said he wasn’t relishing the tournament’s final two days.

“I might have to show my face at a couple things,” he said.

He now has nearly three weeks to prepare for the U.S. Open.

“I’m honestly looking forward to a couple weeks off,” he said.

Vancouver, B.C. – North Vancouver, British Columbia’s Bryn Parry carded a 7-under 65 on Friday at Point Grey Golf and Country Club to take the 36-hole lead at the PC Financial Open, the opening event of the 2015 Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada season.

The 43-year old former Web.com Tour member carded nine birdies and two bogeys in his second round to reach 12-under, four clear of Toronto’s Albin Choi through two rounds in Vancouver.

“It’s just been an absolute treat to play golf,” said Parry, who is playing on a sponsor’s exemption this week and works primarily as an instructor at the Bryn Parry Academy at Seymour Creek. “I still don’t have any expectations. I have a few things I’m going to work on that I want to try and accomplish this month, and tomorrow will be a day to try to get better at those things.”

Parry, who finished second in a playoff at the 2007 Henrico County Open on the Web.com Tour, said he’s gained perspective on the game in his post-Touring career, and hopes to take a fresh approach into the weekend without putting too much pressure on himself. “I did play on the Web.com Tour in ’07, but this is certainly a step up for what I do on a day-to-day basis, and it’s a treat. These guys are good.”

“I’ve got hockey with my kids tomorrow at seven o’clock in the morning, so we’ll go do our family stuff and then we’ll come back out in the afternoon and play,” said Parry, who will play with Choi in the day’s final group at 1:10 p.m. tomorrow.

Choi, who captured medalist honours at the Florida Qualifying Tournament last month, posted a bogey-free 67 to reach 8-under through 36 holes.

“The win at Q-School really kind of set things for me and really got me comfortable coming into this season,” said Choi, who was born in nearby Surrey and lived here for the first six years of his life before moving to Toronto. “Coming back here’s always a treat.”

Mackenzie Tour rookie Logan McCracken carded a 6-under 66 to sit in solo third at 7-under heading into the weekend.

NEWCASTLE, Royaume-Uni – Le Nord-Irlandais Rory McIlroy, premier au classement mondial, a raté la qualification pour une deuxième semaine de suite, vendredi, se voyant écarté de l’Omnium d’Irlande.

McIlroy avait amorcé le tournoi avec un 80, plus neuf, à la suite de quoi un 71 n’a pas suffi.

Son total a dépassé de quatre coups la limite pour jouer lors du week-end.

Vendredi, ce n’est qu’au septième trou que le golfeur de 26 ans a réussi son premier oiselet du tournoi.

Six joueurs sont à égalité en tête à moins trois dont l’Anglais Tyrrell Hatton, qui a brillé avec un 66, vendredi. Il a obtenu six oiselets et un aigle.

TORONTO – Former University of Toronto Varsity Blues athletic director and current member of Golf Canada’s Board of Directors, Liz Hoffman, received the Thomas R. Loudon award as part of the 2015 U of T Sports Hall of Fame ceremony on Thursday night (May 28) at the new Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.

The Loudon award is presented to a person associated with the University of Toronto for outstanding services in the advancement of athletics. Hoffman retired from U of T in 2010 after 39 years of outstanding service, leadership and mentorship of University of Toronto athletics.

Hoffman has been a driving force behind the growth of intercollegiate competition in Canada. She has paved the way in many areas of university sport – as an athlete, as a coach, an instructor and as an administrator. As the director of athletics, she served on the board of directors of Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) during three different decades (1982-86, 1993-97, 2003-07), including being its president (1995-97), and has been a U of T delegate to Ontario University Athletics (OUA) and its predecessors since 1977, including terms as president (1980-84) and past president (2003-07).  She built a tremendous coaching team at U of T, where under her leadership the Varsity Blues claimed 17 national titles and 126 provincial team championships.

The award was presented to Hoffman by U of T’s dean of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto.  Jacobs saluted Hoffman’s decades of service and the lasting impact her initiatives made on sport at U of T.

“Under Liz’s watch, University of Toronto developed gender and sport equity policies that were firsts in interuniversity sport in Canada,” Jacobs told the crowd. “Her initiatives shaped the co-curricular athletics and recreation experiences of countless—literally thousands of—U of T students on all three campuses.”

Hoffman received a standing ovation from the crowd as she came to the mic. For Hoffman, the honour was very much a family affair—literally, with her husband Rick and sons Mark and Matt at her side—and metaphorically, returning “home” to her Blues stomping groups.

“We will always be part of the Varsity Blues family,” she said. “I thank you for this honour; I will always treasure it; we will always treasure it.”

Vancouver – Langley, British Columbia’s Thomas Hay fired a 6-under 66 on Thursday at Point Grey Golf and Country Club to take the first round lead at the PC Financial Open, the opening event of the Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada’s 2015 season.

The 25-year-old Vancouver-area native, who earned conditional status at the British Columbia Qualifying Tournament two weeks ago, cruised to a bogey-free round to lead by one over Bryn Parry, Nyasha Mauchaza and Jay Myers after 18 holes.

“It was pretty stress-free. I didn’t have too many long par putts out there,” said Hay, a Drury University graduate. “I think the longest par putt I had was about three feet, and out here some three-footers can be pretty tough, so all around it was pretty solid.”

Hay’s solid start marked the continuation of success for British Columbians at the season-opening event, which saw local favourites Eugene Wong and Brad Clapp finish in a tie for second in 2014.

“It’s kind of cool that there’s an event out this way in Vancouver now. It’s such a great city and it’s awesome that there’s an event out here now for us. For me to sleep in my own bed is kind of a nice treat to start the year,” said Hay.

Parry, a former Web.com Tour member who works primarily as an instructor in the Vancouver area, is playing on a sponsor’s exemption this week and made the most of it on Thursday, carding six birdies and a bogey for a 67.

“I’ve worked really hard at it to get as prepared as I could,” said the 43-year old, noting the differences between his time as a full-time Tour player and his current role, teaching at the Bryn Parry Academy at Seymour Creek. “I’ve got to get home and take my kids to golf practice. I didn’t used to think about that. This used to be all-encompassing and now it’s just one of the things you do during the day.”