Deutsche Bank Championship: Second-round notebook
By Stewart Moore, PGA TOUR Staff
NORTON, Mass. -- Tim Clark recorded a 9-under 62 on Saturday at the Deutsche Bank Championship and will take a one-shot lead over first-round leader Mike Weir into Sunday's third round.
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• Clark was flirting with a possible round of 59 as he was 11 under through 16 holes, but he bogeyed the par-3 eighth and the par-4 ninth to fall back to 9-under 62.
• The 36-hole cut fell at 3-under 139 with 86 players making it to Sunday's third round. Since there were more than 78 players to make the 36-hole cut, the field will again be cut to the low 70 players and ties after Sunday's third round. The 36-hole cut of 3-under 139 ties the lowest 36-hole cut on the 2008 PGA TOUR (Travelers Championship, Buick Open, John Deere Classic and Wyndham Championship).
• Tim Clark's 14-under 128 is the second-lowest opening 36-hole score (to par) on the PGA TOUR in 2008.
• Clark is making his 167th career start on the PGA TOUR this week and is still looking for his first win. In that span, he has recorded six runner-up finishes, 30 top-10 finishes and 71 top-25 finishes. He is the TOUR's all-time leading money winner amongst players who have not won with earnings of $11,140,352. The only other players in the top 100 on the TOUR's all-time money list who are still without a victory are Briny Baird ($9,344,402), Brett Quigley ($8,920,419) and Justin Rose ($8,710,418).
• This marks the third time in his PGA TOUR career that Clark has held at least a share of the 36-hole lead in a TOUR event. He finished tied for 12th at the 2007 Crowne Plaza Invitational and tied for 13th at the 2007 Masters.
• Tim Clark, Trevor Immelman and Hunter Mahan each had two eagles on their scorecard during the second round of the Deutsche Bank Championship. Since the tournament's inception in 2003, the feat has happened nine times. Along with Saturday's trio, Garrett Willis (Nos. 2 and 18 of second round of 2003), Adam Scott (Nos. 2 and 18 of second round of 2003), Ryan Palmer (Nos. 2 and 7 of first round of 2004), Tiger Woods (Nos. 2 and 7 of fourth round of 2006), Justin Leonard (Nos. 7 and 18 of fourth round of 2007), and Angel Cabrera (Nos. 2 of 18 of second round of 2007).
• Tim Clark's 14-under 128 is the lowest opening 36-hole score (to par) of his career. His six lowest scores through two rounds also include a 128 (65-63) at the 2003 Valero Texas Open, a 129 (65-64) at the 2007 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, a 131 (64-67) at the 2008 Wyndham Championship, a 131 (62-69) at the 2007 TOUR Championship, and a 131 (66-65) at the 2005 Children's Miracle Network Classic.
• First-round leader Mike Weir (61-68?129) bogeyed two of his first four holes on Saturday but recovered with five birdies for a round of 68. The last time Weir opened a tournament with two rounds in the 60s was the 2007 Fry's Electronics Open, where he went on to record his eighth career victory on the PGA TOUR.
• Weir might feel most comfortable after Sunday's third round if he is still trailing the leader. Of his eight PGA TOUR wins, only once has he held the 54-hole lead going into the final round (2004 Northern Trust Open).
• Jim Furyk entered the week at No. 10 on the FedExCup points list and is in position to make a move after rounds of 66-65?131 have him tied for fifth through 36 holes. Furyk has had limited success at the Deutsche Bank Championship with a tie for 13th in 2003 being his best finish. Each year, he seems to have one bad round that throws his week off: 2007 (final-round 74), 2004 (third-round 77) and 2003 (first-round 74).
• In the 2007 PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, Furyk entered The Barclays at No. 3 on the points list, but failed to record a single top-10 in the four playoff tournaments and in turn finished No. 11 in the final FedExCup standings.
• Furyk is still looking for his first PGA TOUR title this year after winning at least once a year from 2005-2007. He has accumulated six top-10s in 23 starts this year with a runner-up finish coming at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship. Putting seems to be holding Furyk back as he entered this week ranked No. 133 in Putting Average. The only other time in Furyk's career in which he has ranked outside the top 100 in Putting Average (at the end of the year) was in 2002 when he finished the year tied for 114th in that category.
• Kevin Streelman, with rounds of 66-65?131, has now made 12 straight cuts on the PGA TOUR, dating back to the AT&T Classic in May. During that stretch, Streelman was as low as No. 142 on the FedExCup points list, but moved back into the top 100 with his tie for fourth at The Barclays for the first time since the Buick Invitational, after which he was No. 84.
• John Merrick, who stands at 10-under 132 after a 68 on Saturday, has positioned himself for his first PGA TOUR title a few times this year with the 18- and 36-hole leads at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and sole possession of the 54-hole lead at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Merrick carded weekend rounds of 69-67 at Mayakoba and finished tied for third, while in New Orleans, a final-round 73 dropped him into a tie for seventh.
• Anthony Kim has put together rounds of 66-66?132 at the Deutsche Bank Championship and finds himself tied for ninth with 36 holes still to play. Kim trailed Jason Bohn by two shots through 36 holes of the 2008 Wachovia Championship, where he earned his first win. At the site of his second win, the AT&T National, Kim trailed Jeff Overton and Tom Pernice Jr. by three shots through 36 holes.
• 2008 U.S. Bank Championship winner Richard S. Johnson carded a 5-under 66 on Saturday to move into contention at the Deutsche Bank Championship (67-66?133). Johnson's win in Milwaukee stands as his only top-30 finish on the PGA TOUR this year. He is making his fifth career start at TPC Boston this week, where his best finish came in 2004 when he tied for 17th.
• 2007 Deutsche Bank Championship winner Phil Mickelson was at 4 over on his round through seven holes on Saturday and well outside the cut, but played the remaining 11 holes at 5-under to finish with a 1-under 70 and a two-day total of 3-under 139, just inside the cut line.
• Boston Red Sox fan Jason Day, a native of Queensland, Australia, posted a 5-under 66 on Saturday to move to 6-under 136. Currently No. 96 on the FedExCup points list, Day needs a strong finish this week to advance to next week's 70-player BMW Championship field. Since graduating from the Nationwide Tour in 2007, Day has posted two top-10 finishes in 20 starts this season (sixth at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and tied for eighth at the Shell Houston Open).
• The second-round leader/co-leader at the Deutsche Bank Championship has carried that lead on to victory three out of five years, including Adam Scott in 2003, Vijay Singh in 2004 and Olin Browne in 2005.
• The second-round leader has gone on to win 17 of 36 stroke-play events on the PGA TOUR in 2008, including most recently Carl Pettersson's win at the Wyndham Championship.
• The following players have been mathematically eliminated from the PGA TOUR's Playoffs for the FedExCup after missing the cut at the Deutsche Bank Championship: Parker McLachlin, Michael Letzig, Matt Kuchar, Retief Goosen, Nick Watney, Lee Janzen, Patrick Sheehan, Glen Day, Ian Poulter, Cliff Kresge, Rich Beem and Fred Couples.
• While only nine eagles were recorded during Friday's first round, an astounding 24 eagles were recorded on Saturday, with eight of them coming at the short par-4 fourth.
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