Bank of America Championship: Second-Round Notebook

text size

CONCORD, Mass. -- With the possibility of inclement weather in the forecast for Sunday, Champions Tour officials moved up the starting times one hour. Players will go off both the first and 10th tees from 8:30-10:35 a.m. ET.

With a 67 Saturday, Jeff Sluman moved up into a tie for second. (Badz/PGA TOUR)

Inside the Numbers

36-Hole Leaderboard

Player Score 1. Loren Roberts 134 -10 T2. Jeff Sluman 135 -9 T2. Tom Kite 135 -9 T2. Mark McNulty 135 -9 5. Bobby Wadkins 136 -8 T6. Keith Fergus 137 -7 T6. Mark Wiebe 137 -7 T6. Dana Quigley 137 -7 T6. Massy Kuramoto 137 -7 T6. John Morse 137 -7 T6. David Eger 137 -7

• With a one-stroke advantage heading into Sunday's final round, Loren Roberts will be seeking his first victory of the 2008 season. A seven-time winner on the Champions Tour, Roberts' last win came at the 2007 Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship last October, when he was a six-stroke victor over Tom Watson near Baltimore.

• This is Roberts' 16th start since his last victory. He owns two second-place finishes this year, at the AT&T Champions Classic where he lost in a playoff to Denis Watson, and at the Regions Charity Classic, where he finished one stroke behind Andy Bean.

• Roberts could become the seventh player to win this event in his first appearance in the tournament. Jay Haas became the sixth to do so a year ago, joining Bob Goalby, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Arnold Palmer, Bob Gilder and Tom McGinnis with that distinction.

• Roberts has enjoyed some previous success in New England. He won the 1997 CVS Charity Classic at Pleasant Valley CC in Sutton, Mass. Bob Gilder, who won this tournament in 2002, also won at Pleasant Valley in 1982.

• So far in 2008, only five of 14 events have been won by the leader/co-leader heading into the final round on the Champions Tour.

• In the previous 26 events, 14 second-round leaders/co-leaders have won the tournament, including three of the last five events: Bob Gilder (2002), Allen Doyle (2003) and Mark McNulty (2005).

• The winner of this year's Bank of America Championship will receive 248 points in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup race. Prior to the start of this tournament, Jay Haas, coming off consecutive wins, leads the race with 1,671 points, 258 points better than Bernhard Langer (1,413). Scott Hoch is third with 1,026 points followed by Denis Watson and Tom Watson with 669 and 633 points, respectively.

• Gary Player matched his age for the 12th time in his Champions Tour career when he shot an even-par 72 on Saturday. Player has also bettered his age nine times.

• Saturday marked the 43rd anniversary of Gary Player completing the career Grand Slam at age 29, when he won the U.S. Open in an 18-hole playoff with Kel Nagle. Player's 71 gave him a three-stroke victory over Nagle at Bellerive CC in St. Louis on June 21, 1965.

• Craig Stadler withdrew after the second round with a left hip injury.

• Dave Stockton and Keith Fergus made the day's biggest moves. The 66-year-old Stockton nearly matched his age, shooting a 5-under-par 67 to move up 35 places (from a tie for 65th to a tie for 30th), while Fergus shared honors for the day's low round with Loren Roberts at 6-under-par 66. His effort moved him from a tie for 36th on Friday to a tie for sixth.

• It will take a yeoman effort for Jay Haas to win his third straight victory. After successive wins at the Senior PGA Championship and the Principal Charity Classic, Haas will begin the final round tied for 23rd, six strokes behind Loren Roberts. Haas is also the defending champion in this event.

• The scoring average was 71.423 on Saturday, a slight increase from Friday's average of 71.244. A total of 39 players finished below par, four fewer than on Friday.

• A pair of par-3 holes have been the most difficult through two rounds. No. 13 (3.186/+.186) was the most difficult followed by No. 8 (3.122/+.122). The easiest hole has been No. 10 followed by No. 18. Both are par 5s.