   
| PLAYERS Championship: Second-Round Notebook  PGA TOUR Staff PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Hunter Mahan recorded the first double eagle in PLAYERS Championship history Friday morning with a rare 2 on the par-5 11th hole. Mahan hit his tee shot 314 yards and then holed a 5-iron from 227 yards for his albatross.  Hunter Mahan made history at TPC Sawgrass Friday with a rare double eagle. (Hunter Martin/WireImage)
• Mahan's double eagle was the third of the 2007 PGA TOUR season (Tim Petrovic at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am; Nathan Green at the Verizon Heritage). Despite the double eagle, Mahan shot scores of 78-72--150 and missed the cut. • Charley Hoffman did something Thursday that's never been done before at THE PLAYERS: He opened the tournament with a quintuple-bogey 9 on the par-4 10th hole. That 9 is the highest first-hole score in the history of the tournament. In fact, there has never been a quadruple bogey by a player on their opening hole. Hoffman rebounded after being 5 over after one hole and shot a 3-over 75 Thursday. The 2007 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic champion added a 3-under 69 Friday and is at even-par 144 after 36 holes. Hoffman is 5 under for his last 35 holes while the mid-point leaders are 3 under. • Since THE PLAYERS moved to THE PLAYERS Stadium Course in 1982, the highest score by a 36-hole leader is 5-under 139 in 1983 by John Cook and in 1995 by Corey Pavin and Gene Sauers. • Defending champion Stephen Ames (77-79--156) missed the cut this week. He is the first defending champion to miss the cut at THE PLAYERS since 1993 champion Nick Price missed the cut in 1994. His 156 total is also the highest score by a defending champion in tournament history. • This is the 23rd time in his career that Phil Mickelson has held/shared the 36-hole lead in an event. Mickelson has gone on to win 13 times in that span. He also has four seconds, two thirds, one seventh and two eighth-place finishes when he's been at the top. The last three times Mickelson has been in this position, he has won the tournament. Those came at the 2007 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, the 2006 BellSouth Classic and the 2005 PGA Championship. • Phil Mickelson is atop the leaderboard thanks to his play on the par 5s this week. Mickelson is 7 under on the par 5s, 2 over on the par 4s and even par on the par 3s. Mickelson leads the 2007 PGA TOUR in Par 5 Scoring Average at 4.40. • Tiger Woods ranks No. 2 on the 2007 PGA TOUR in Par-5 Scoring Average (4.46) but he is only 2 under through the first two rounds this week. • Nathan Green looked like he'd hold the 36-hole lead but yielded the top spot late Friday afternoon to Phil Mickelson. Despite that, this is the best position Green has ever been in through two rounds. His previous high point came at the 2006 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee when he was tied for third at the halfway point -- unfortunately, he trailed leader Corey Pavin by six strokes at the time, and went to tie for ninth in the tournament. His career-best finish is a T2 at the Buick Invitational, where he lost a three-way playoff to Tiger Woods. • Tom Lehman hit his tee shot in the water at the par-3 17th hole Friday, thus ending a streak of 55 consecutive times he's ended up on dry ground. Lehman is making his 16th appearance in this event. Despite making a bogey 4 at the hole, he remains the tournament's all-time scoring leader at the 17th, having played it in 12 under par. Bob Gilder is next on the list at 10 under for his career at 17. • Bernhard Langer (72-77) made the cut to push his career total to 20 cuts made at THE PLAYERS. Tom Kite is the all-time leader in that category with 23 cuts made, followed by Tom Watson at 21 and Nick Price at 19. • Tiger Woods posted scores of 75-73--148 and advanced to the weekend. The only other time that Woods has started with two above-par scores this year was at the Masters Tournament (73-74), where he finished T2.
• Tiger Woods has now posted four consecutive above-par scores at THE PLAYERS. Woods closed out the 2006 tournament with scores of 73-75 and opened this year with a 75-73 start. Woods' 148 total is his highest opening 36-hole score in 11 career starts in this event. His previous high was 145 (72-73) in 1998. • Tiger Woods has managed only two birdies in his opening 36 holes, which ties his second-lowest total for the first 36 holes of his career. He had no birdies through two rounds in the 1998 TOUR Championship, and two birdies through 36 holes at the 1992 Nissan Open. • Since the PGA TOUR headed east to Florida, over-par cuts have become the norm. Starting at The Honda Classic, the 36-hole cut has been above-par in nine of the last 10 events (there was no cut at the WGC-CA Championship). The cut lines in that stretch are 4-over at The Honda Classic, 2-over at the PODS Championship, 3-over at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, 1-over at the Shell Houston Open, 8-over at the Masters, 1-over at the Verizon Heritage, 1-under at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, 1-over at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, 3-over at the Wachovia Championship, and 5-over at THE PLAYERS. • There are 25 players making their initial appearance this week at THE PLAYERS. Of that group, Charley Hoffman leads the pack at even-par 144. Robert Karlsson and Jeff Quinney are next on the list at 1-over 145. • There are eight former tournament winners in the field. Here's how they've fared over the first 36 holes this year: (2006) Stephen Ames, 77-79--156 MC; (2005) Fred Funk, 80-73--153 MC; (2004) Adam Scott, 74-71--145; (2003, 1992) Davis Love III, 77-71--148; (2002) Craig Perks, 75-76--151 MC; (2001) Tiger Woods, 75-73--148; (1998) Justin Leonard, 78-72--150 MC; (1997) Steve Elkington, 73-71--144. • Steve Lowery made a nice turnaround from his opening 78 on Thursday with a bogey-free, 6-under-par 66 on Friday. The score is the lowest in Lowery's 14 career starts at THE PLAYERS (40 total rounds/includes this year). Lowery's previous low score was a final-round 67 in 1994, his initial appearance in this event. • Jose Maria Olazabal also matched Lowery for the first two days with identical scores of 78-66. Olazabal was even for his first six holes and then reeled off six birdies in seven holes as he made the turn. Olazabal registered birdies at Nos. 16, 17, 1, 2, 3 and 4 and closed with five consecutive pars. • Sean O'Hair (72-69--141) is tied for second after 36 holes thanks mainly to an accurate driver. O'Hair has hit 25 of 28 fairways this week and leads the tournament in driving accuracy (89.29 percent). • Sean O'Hair and Greg Owen both might want to bottle whatever it is they're doing at the par-5 second hole. They have each eagled the par 5 both days so far. The tournament record for most eagles made is three by Justin Leonard in 2000. • Two players (Stephen Ames, winner and Retief Goosen, runner-up) were able to post four sub-par rounds during THE PLAYERS in 2006. Through two rounds this year, Nathan Green (71-69), Carl Petterson (70-71) and Rod Pampling (70-71) are the only players who have the chance to make it four in a row this year. • Through two rounds, 71 balls have drowned at the par-3 17th hole. A total of 50 balls found the water on Thursday, while 21 more went in the drink on Friday. Ben Curtis, Davis Love III, Kent Jones and Trevor Immelman put two balls in the pond on Thursday, while Chris Couch and Rory Sabbatini endured double trouble on Friday. • The 17th hole is currently ranked as the toughest on the course through two rounds. The 128-yard hole has a scoring average of 3.488 through 36 holes. The highest four-day scoring average for the 17th hole came in 1984, when it had an average of 3.368. The toughest par 3 on the PGA TOUR this year is the 4th at Augusta National Golf Club, which had a four-day average of 3.417. Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
