Children's Miracle Network Classic: Second-round notes

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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- The 36-hole cut was at 5-under with 71 players making the cut.

• Prior to this year, Scott Verplank had played 50 rounds at the Children's Miracle Network Classic. His best career rounds came Thursday and Friday when he shot an 8-under 64 each day. Verplank's best finish at Disney was a tie for second in 2003.

• The last time Verplank held the 36-hole lead was last year at the Children's Miracle Network Classic. It is the 11th time Verplank has held a 36-hole lead. He won the first two times he held a lead after 36 holes at the 1985 BMW Championship and the 1988 Buick Open.

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Steve Marino is challenging for his first PGA TOUR win this week.

• Verplank has a streak of 13 straight rounds at par or better dating back to the first round at the BMW Championship in September. The current leader in rounds at par or better is Steve Marino.

• Marino (tied for second) has 16 consecutive rounds at par or better which is the longest active streak on TOUR. He has gone 40 holes without a bogey going back to the 14th hole of the final round of the Ginn sur Mer Classic.

• Verplank has now made 13 consecutive cuts at the Children's Miracle Network Classic which is the longest active streak for the tournament.

• Verplank has been at par or better at the Disney event since 2004, a streak of 17 straight rounds. Verplank only has five rounds over par in the 52 career rounds at the Children's Miracle Network Classic.

• Marino is looking for his first PGA TOUR victory in his 65th career start. Marino has tallied 49 cuts made (counting this event), 22 top-25 finishes and nine top-10 finishes. His best career finish came this year at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

• Marino and Troy Matteson each set a personal best for low-36 hole score (131). Each player's previous best was a 132 which was done on three different occasions by each golfer.

• Matteson has made five of six cuts in the Fall Series (he missed the cut in Las Vegas).

• Matteson is currently the all-time leader in scoring average (66.33) with six career rounds played at the Children's Miracle Network Classic. Justin Rose is second through 12 rounds at 67.42

• Matteson seems to like the pro-am format that is being played this week (pro-am first two rounds). He picked up his first TOUR victory at the 2006 Frys.com Open which featured the same format.

• Matteson has two top-10 finishes in Florida this season (a tie for second at the PODS Championship and a tie for seventh in the Ginn sur Mer Classic).

• Fred Couples withdrew after the first round (3 over) due to a bad back. Ron Whittaker was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard.

• Erik Compton, playing on a sponsor exemption, drained a 29-foot putt on the par-4 18th hole to reach 6 under for the tournament and make his first TOUR cut since 2005. Compton is five months removed from his second heart transplant. Compton last played in a PGA TOUR event in 2005 with a tie for 44th at the Ford Championship at Doral. Coming into this event, Compton had played in 11 PGA TOUR events since 2000, making the cut five times. Compton played in his first PGA TOUR event as an amateur in 2000.

• Robert Gamez's best finish on the TOUR since his win at the 2005 Valero Texas Open came last year with a tie for third at the Children's Miracle Network Classic. Gamez finished tied for third at the 2007 Children's Miracle Network Classic to get into the top 150 on the season-ending money list. Last year at this event, Gamez shot rounds of 70-69-67-68 for a 14-under total.

• Bob Tway shot a second round 10-under 62 on the Palm Course. This event marks Tway's 19th tournament at Disney, dating back to 1985. In 1989, he equaled the single-round record at Disney with a first-round 61 on the Lake Buena Vista Course, a tournament mark since broken by Justin Rose (60 in 2006 on the Palm course), but still the course record at LBV.

• Tag Ridings had a tie for third at the 2007 Children's Miracle Network Classic to move into the top 150 on the season ending money list. Ridings was tied for second after the second round at this event last year.

• A top-30 finish on the season-ending money list earns invitations to the following year's Masters and the U.S. Open. In addition, a top-70 finish on the money list will yield trips to several significant invitationals, including the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial Tournament. 2007 Turning Stone Resort Championship winner Steve Flesch is a perfect example of the advantages of playing well in the Fall Series. He used his $1,080,000 first-place paycheck for winning at Turning Stone to move all the way from No. 70 on the official money list to No. 25 (he finished the season No. 26) to earn exemptions into the Masters and the U.S. Open. Flesch was on the Masters leaderboard all week until fading on the back nine on Sunday, but still finished tied for fifth to earn an invite to Augusta in 2009.

• Kevin Streelman is trying to become the fifth rookie to win in 2008.

• Robert Allenby (6 under, tied for 51st) is tied with Jim Furyk for most top 10s on TOUR in 2008 with nine. With Furyk not in this week's field, Allenby has the opportunity to take the season's top-10 crown.

• Jeff Overton, who is currently No. 125 on the money list is tied for 15th after the second round at 9-under 135. Overton underwent an appendectomy on Oct. 21 and finished tied for 18th a week later at the Ginn sur Mer Classic to move from No. 126 to No. 125 on the money list. Two days prior to the surgery Overton was at No. 122 on the money list following his tie for 69th at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

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