Romero rallies at rainy Oakland Hills
Andres Romero savoured an “almost perfect” round at Oakland Hills today as he put himself in contention for tomorrow’s final round at the 90th US PGA Championship.
The Argentinian rattled in seven birdies and just two bogeys on his way to a five-under-par 65 to jump from a tie for 48th place to a tie for eighth at two over for the tournament.
His round also equalled the course record at Oakland Hills posted by eight other players, including Jack Nicklaus in 1991 in a US Senior Open play-off with Chi Chi Rodriguez and most recently Tom Lehman at the 1996 US Open.
Romero’s 65 left him three shots behind overnight midway leader JB Holmes, whose own start to the third round was delayed due to a rain delay.
“I played an excellent round, almost perfect,” Romero said through an interpreter as the rain began to fall heavily outside the championship media tent.
“Yesterday I finished very nice with my round and now after this 18 holes I can’t believe it, I have a chance for tomorrow and, well, I have to wait, but it’s great to be here.”
If the round was almost perfect Romero’s description of certain shots dispensed with the modesty – a “perfect nine iron” at the second, a “perfect drive” off the sixth tee and a “perfect three iron” onto the ninth green.
It all left the 27-year-old regretting a second-round, quadruple-bogey eight at the 16th, a hole he birdied 24 hours later. A par there on Friday and he would be sitting pretty as clubhouse leader.
“I played a great first shot, then a perfect 9-iron from 140 yards,” he said, recalling his Friday calamity.
“It bounced in the front of the green, but like the wind blows just in the moment and it went down to the water.
“Then again I had tried to make a good shot, but again a lot of back spin, again to the water. And after that I got mad and I lost concentration for the rest of the round.
“I couldn’t come back after that eight. I made a double bogey at the 18th because I was mad. And then I was almost fighting for the lead in the tournament and suddenly I was trying to make the cut, so I was going mad the rest of the round.”
Romero had suffered a similar fate 13 months ago at Carnoustie’s 17th in the Open Championship but he said that disappointment had served as a huge learning curve.
“I learned a lot after that week. I won in Germany (at the next week’s Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship of Europe) and the following week I finished sixth in the Bridgestone and that helped me a lot not to, I don’t know, not to go down after that loss.
“That helped me a lot and after that. It was a very good experience after that Open.”
