Second round: Turnesa, Kuchar share 18-under lead
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Marc Turnesa holed out from 159 yards for eagle on the par-4 18th hole to offset a 17th-hole double bogey and maintain a share of the lead Friday in the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
Tied for the first-round lead, Turnesa followed his opening 62 with a 64 to match Matt Kuchar at 18-under 126 -- one off the PGA TOUR's 36-hole records for total score and relation to par. Kuchar had his second straight 63 at TPC Summerlin.
Zach Johnson, the other first-round leader after winning the Valero Texas Open last week, was third at 17 under after a 65 in sunny, calm conditions.
Turnesa, a PGA TOUR rookie, birdied Nos. 14-16, then dropped two strokes on the par-3 17th after hitting into the water. He got the strokes back on 18 with the eagle after a 300-yard drive.
"I hit a bad shot on 17 and made double," Turnesa said. "Then, on 18, I hit a good shot and got a little lucky as well, and it went in the hole.
"I was a little disappointed but there is so much golf to be played. I was just trying to put a good swing on it on 18 and get it in the fairway and make birdie when I put it in the fairway, so I was a bit surprised. I mean, it looked good. I knew in the air it was going to be close. So when I heard the crowd, it was a good feeling."
Kuchar, who missed the cut in his last seven starts, had nine birdies -- five on his last seven holes -- in his bogey-free round.
"It's not often when you can follow up a 63 with another 63," Kuchar said. "To do that was a lot of fun today. There were no bogeys today, and that's a nice thing to not have on your card.
"You've got a stretch there of definitely some birdie opportunities -- a drivable par 4, a reachable par 5, and I strung together a couple other nice ones. That last one, at 18, I hit a 7-iron from about 180 to, gosh, a foot and a half.
"I think the last one was the most fun, putting it to a foot and a half. I had made my only bogey yesterday on 18. It was good to get back with a birdie today."
Pat Perez (63), John Mallinger (64) and Ken Duke (66) were 15 under, RBC Canadian Open winner Chez Reavie, former UNLV star Ryan Moore (64) and Chris Stroud (65) followed at 14 under, and Rich Beem (65) and Nick Watney (68) were 13 under.
"You've just got to make putts on these greens," Beem said. "It's just a putting contest out here this week much more so than anything else because the golf course is really good. There's nothing out here. No wind. The pins have actually been fairly easy, which I think is great for the PGA TOUR staff to do that.
"Let's make birdies. Who cares if we shoot 28-under par. That's the nature of the game. Hopefully, they'll keep doing the same thing."
John Daly missed the cut by a stroke, shooting a 66 to finish at 5 under.
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| Friday's Best |
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The par-5, 492-yard third was the easiest with a Friday scoring average of 4.372.
The par-4, 469-yard second was the toughest with a Friday scoring average of 4.171.
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Immediately following a double bogey on the 17th hole, Marc Turnesa made up those two shots with a spectacular eagle on the final hole to retain the lead.
Four players shot 63s on Friday but it was John Huston's who helped him the most. He was tied for 93rd at the start but moved into a tie for 21st to make the cut. | QUOTE OF THE DAY | ||
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THANKS, STEVE
Rich Beem finds himself near the top of the leaderboard this week and, should he go on to win for the first time since the 2002 PGA Championship, he might want to send Steve Elkington a very nice Christmas present this year.
"My friend Steve Elkington gave me an unbelievable tip the other day. I've been really struggling with the speed of my putts for probably about the last 10 years or so I've been on TOUR," Beem said. "He just kind of said something that made a lot of sense to me, and so I really -- it really just kind of clicked, and it's always fun when (you) putt well out here."
Beem only hinted at what Elkington told him.
"It's just one of those things were I'm just trying to hit it to a different spot than I was before, so I'm just thinking about it more than anything else," Beem explained. "It's been amazing. It's been very simple for me to kind of think about, and with my speed the last two days I've been absolutely amazed."
Beem is currently tied for 10th after rounds of 66 and 65 and will likely move off the money list bubble -- he's currently 128th and in danger of losing his TOUR card -- if he finishes high this week. Not that he's thinking about that, of course.
"No, I don't think about that at all really. I'm out here to play golf. I play as good as I can, so that's what I -- I mean, I'm aware of it, but I'm not really thinking about it. If you start thinking about that you're in trouble," Beem said.
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MCNEILL FEELING BETTER
Defending champion George McNeill shot 67 on Friday to sit in a tie for 21st. He didn't play much in the weeks before Las Vegas, though, after a brief health scare.
In June, doctors found a golf ball-sized lump in his neck and initially thought it was lymphoma. It wound up being a bronchial cyst and he had to have surgery in August.
"They didn't know exactly what it was, and the first thoughts of the doctors were cancer. It was something that it turned out not to be anything. It was just something that happened to flare when it did," McNeill said.
He played the first two events in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup and then missed the next five weeks. McNeill couldn't swing a club for the first three weeks following the surgery, then began practicing again and felt well enough to tee it up at the Turning Stone Resort Championship.
| 6 | Number of players who've had two eagles in one round this week. |
| 18 | How many times the second-round leader or co-leader has won in 2008. |
| 86 | High temperature on a sunny and warm Fall day in Las Vegas. |
"I wasn't sure I was going to be able to play there. I thought at first (Las Vegas) was going to be my first week back. But I felt fine and I felt good enough and healthy enough to go play Turning Stone, so I did. It's really boring sitting at home," McNeill said.
He said, while he enjoyed the time off, it wasn't the best way to earn it and he hates that he missed several events.
"I never really had any time off in the middle of the season. It's nice to take some time off and relax and spend some time at home, do whatever I miss that I usually don't -- or do whatever I do when I usually miss stuff during the year," McNeill said. "I would like to have played in some of those events that I did miss obviously. I think that goes without saying. So there's good and bad."
MORE TRENDSETTING FROM MOORE?
Ryan Moore is known for setting fashion trends on the PGA TOUR. First it was the painter's cap, now it's the headband. Moore sported a white sweatband-style headband in the second round of the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
"It's extremely comfortable actually. I really like it. It's kind of a funny idea I had earlier in the year. A couple of my friends and I were joking around about it, and I actually wore it at the FBR Open for a couple days and got harassed pretty well by the crowds there, which is always fun," Moore said.
Clearly it wasn't causing a negative effect on his golf game, as Moore shot a 64 on Friday and is tied for seventh. On a fall day where temperatures soared into the 80s, the headband also kept him cool.
"Seems to be working, so who knows, might be sticking around for a while," Moore said. "...I just, you know, want to keep people on their toes and change it up every now and again for fun. Why not?"
INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
XM Satellite Radio announcer Fred Albers offers these observations from Friday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
Nick Watney is 13-under par after rounds of 63-68 but he is smiling for other reasons. Watney is recently engaged to Amber Uresti and will be married May 23rd, 2009. Amber is the niece of PGA TOUR player Omar Uresti and daughter of PGA TOUR caddie Rusty Uresti.
Marc Turnesa went 34 holes without a bogey before hitting his tee shot into the water at the par-3 17th. He made a double bogey six but quickly got those two strokes back on the 18th hole. Turnesa holed out from 159 yards for an eagle. The double bogey/eagle finish has Turnesa 18-under par and tied for the lead with Matt Kuchar.
There was a rare headband sighting this week. Ryan Moore broke out his headband for the tournament. The UNLV graduate usually wears a painter's cap but wore a headband for Friday's round. He also wore the "fashion statement" in Phoenix last February. "I just want to keep you guys guessing," said Moore.
THINGS TO WATCH ON SATURDAY
1. Chris Stroud. He tied for sixth at the Valero Texas Open last week and is again in the top 10 after two rounds in Las Vegas. Stroud is No. 172 on the Money List at present, so he needs a few more strong finishes to keep his TOUR card. Last year in the Fall Series, Stroud had his best finishes of the season and went on to finish third in the PGA TOUR National Qualifying Tournament. Stroud tends to shine at the end of the year.
2. Frank Lickliter II. Lickliter is 145th on the Money List at the moment and is also tied for 21st after rounds of 65 and 69. Last year's q-school winner, Lickliter needs to notch several high finishes in the remaining events to avoid q-school this year.
3. Chris DiMarco. The Florida Gator fired a 64 on Friday to vault up the leaderboard in Las Vegas. Like Stroud and Lickliter, he's also outside the top 125 looking in.
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