G-Mac sliding towards Ryder Cup backroom; Clarke and McGinley rally in Tulsa

Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland plays his stroke from the No. 11 tee during Round 1 of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, Thursday, November 12, 2020.

Graeme McDowell can only be days away from a Ryder Cup vice-captaincy call up after he missed his tenth cut this season in the Charles Schwab Challenge.

An assistant to Thomas Bjorn in 2018, the 41-year old looks likely to play a backroom role again at Whistling Straits with Pádraig Harrington keen to announce his third assistant captain soon.

The 2010 US Open champion carded a second successive 74 at Colonial Country Club to miss the cut by seven shots on eight-over. Scores

At the top of the leaderboard, Jordan Spieth shot a four-under 66 to lead by one stroke from Jason Kokrak (65) and by three from Sebastián Muñoz (65), Sergio Garcia (69) and Patton Kizzire (65) on 11-under.

In the weather-delayed KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Darren Clarke shot a two-under 68 to move up to 24th in three-over.

The Dungannon man was tied 24th, 10 shots behind Canada’s Mike Weir, who shot 65 to lead by four shots in the clubhouse from Rocco Mediate (69), US Ryder Cup skipper Steve Stricker (68) and Germany’s Alex Cejka (70) on seven-under. Scores

Paul McGinley also had a good day, finishing with two birdies to shot 69 that left him just inside the cut line on seven-over with 18 players still to finish their second rounds when play was suspended due to darkness.