Round 2, RBC Canadian Open
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By PGATOUR.COM Staff
PLAY SUSPENDED FOR THE DAY (7:30 p.m.): So much for that. Thirty minutes after blowing the horn to resume play at the RBC Canadian Open, officials blew it again, this time to halt play for the night with more bad weather on the way. Play will resume tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. -- Brian Wacker
ROUND OF THE DAY? (7:20 p.m.): No one has completed the secound round yet, which is back under way after a nearly 3-hour weather delay, but Nathan Green could be headed for the best score of the day at 6 under through his first 12 holes.
The Ausie got off to a fast start with birdies on each of his first four holes before being set back by a bogey at the par-4 fifth. Green rebounded, though, with back-to-back pars followed by birdies on 3 of his next 5 holes. That has him at 10 under for the week and just one shot off the lead.
Green has missed each of his last two cuts, but is clearly playing well this week -- especially today, having taken just 13 putts so far. Follow the rest of his round live with Shot Tracker by clicking here. -- Brian Wacker
LAST GROUP OF THE DAY (7:10 p.m.): What do Michael Bradley, Joe Ogilvie, Chez Reavie, Kevin Sutherland, Brian Bateman and Ryan Palmer all have in common? They're scheduled to be the last groups of the day, going off Nos. 1 and 10, at 8:40 p.m.
How odd is that? Most players eat breakfast and maybe a light lunch before teeing off. These guys will have eaten breakfast, lunch, dinner and read War and Peace before hitting their first shot of the second round. That's provided, of course, that they even hit those shots. Yesterday, after a 7 1/2-hour weather delay, they played until 8:46 p.m. before the horn blew signaling the end of play for the day. If you're in either of those two groups, why not declare it's too dark and just come back tomorrow? -- Brian Wacker
PLAY HAS RESUMED (6:57 p.m.): The horn just sounded again at Glen Abbey, this time to signify the resumption of play here in the second round. There's a little more than 90 minutes of daylight left so they'll try to get in as much golf as possible, but we won't finish the second round until sometime tomorrow, which means we could be in for another Sunday marathon. -- Brian Wacker
WEATHER UPDATE (5:55 p.m.): There will be more golf played today. The latest word is that play will resume at 7 p.m., just over an hour from now. At that point, they'll play until darkness, which will be about 8:45 p.m.
That said, Kevin Na's day, among that of others, is now over. There won't be enough daylight for him to tee it up in the second round, which, weather permitting, will now finish sometime tomorrow. -- Brian Wacker
EASY DAY AT THE OFFICE (5:05 p.m.): Professional athletes -- maybe none more so than golfers -- are all about routine. So when that routine is thrown off by a weather delay, they don't like it.
Kevin Na, who opened with a 63 yesterday and was scheduled to tee off at 6:05 p.m., might not play today because of the current weather delay at Glen Abbey, where rain and lightning continue to roll through the area.
"It throws you off because you're so used to waking up in the morning and coming to the golf course," Na told GOLF CHANNEL. "This morning when I woke up, I didn't know what to do."
What Na ended up doing was getting in some practice and hanging around the golf course. " I would have liked to play," Na said. "Maybe this is a good thing, though. After 6 or 7 hours in the clubhouse I was a little worn out." -- Brian Wacker
WEATHER UPDATE (4:25 p.m.): With heavy lightning in the area and a massive amount of weather moving through, we're looking at probably a 2 hour, 45 minute delay, maybe even 3 hours.
That means players with late tee times -- the last group is set to go off at 6:50 p.m. because of yesterday's nearly 8-hour delay -- the last few groups will be lucky to play a single hole, if that much.
Among those late tee times? First-round leader Kevin Na, whose 9-under 63 has since been passed by a few players, including Jerry Kelly, who was at 11 under when the horn blew a little while ago.
Also, the cut line is currently at 2 under. What that means, though, we won't know for a while, if not tomorrow, since some players have yet to even tee off in the second round. And if that's not enough, the forecast for tomorrow is calling for an 80 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms. -- Brian Wacker
PLAY SUSPENDED (4:10 p.m.): With dark clouds gathering over Glen Abbey and the threat of lightning, play has been suspended for the second time this week at the RBC Canadian Open. Stay tuned for more updates. -- Brian Wacker
NEW LEADER (4:05 p.m.): Jerry Kelly continues to strike the ball well and putt it nearly as good here in the second round. As a result, Kelly is alone atop the leaderboard right now at 11 under for the tournament and 4 under on his round.
In the second round, Kelly has hit 9 of 10 fairways and 9 of 13 greens in regulation. He's also taken 18 putts through 13 holes after taking 27 putts in the opening round. He's also yet to make a bogey this week. That makes 55 straight holes without a bogey, dating back to last week, for those of you scoring at home. -- Brian Wacker
WAITING GAME (3:20 p.m.): There's all sorts of movement atop the leaderboard -- Camilo Villegas, Jerry Kelly, Martin Laird, Pat Perez and Nathan Green are all under par in the second round -- but one player parked there unable to move is Kevin Na. That's because Na, who finished his first round a few minutes before the horn blew for darkness last night, won't tee off in Round 2 until 6 p.m.
Who knows what will happen by then -- Na could easily be 4 or 5 strokes back. So what will he do in the meantime? If yesterday is any indication, not much.
"I had my manager go to the hotel and grab my computer," Na said yesterday of the 7 1/2-hour rain delay. "For a couple hours I watched TV shows that I downloaded, just ate a couple times and went to the car and took a nap.
"I got to the 11th hole where I was starting and I looked at the guy and I said, man, 'it feels like Friday.' So it was a long day."
If he thought yesterday was a long day, today is going to feel two days. -- Brian Wacker
JUMPING UP THE LEADERBOARD (3 p.m.): Jay Williamson has birdied 3 of his last 4 holes and has six in total through the first 11 holes of his second round. That has him at 7 under for the week and in contention as the birdie-fest continues at Glen Abbey.
Williamson has never won on the PGA TOUR, but he's come close with a runner-up each of the last two years. This year, however, has just two finishes in the top 50 and zero in the top 10. He keeps hitting greens the way he is -- 23 of 29 in regulation so far -- and that is sure to change. -- Brian Wacker
TOUGHEST AND EASIEST HOLES (2:40 p.m.): With all sorts of players going low at Glen Abbey, it seems appropriate to take a closer look at how it's playing, especially given the course changes and re-routing this year. See below for how it played in the now-completed first round. -- Brian Wacker
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ANOTHER HOLE-IN-ONE (2:30 p.m.): For the second day in a row, someone made a hole-in-one at Glen Abbey. This time it was Briny Baird who jarred one from the tee, holing out on the 132-yard, par-3 15th. Earlier this year, Baird won America free lettuce wraps at P.F. Chang's by hitting a similar shot when he hit a bulls-eye target at the San Diego Padres' Petco Park from a rooftop of a building across the street.
Yesterday, Joe Durant made an ace on the 147-yard, par-3 seventh to help him shoot a 7-under 65. -- Brian Wacker
COMMENTS FROM KELLY (2:15 p.m.): Jerry Kelly was out at 8:10 this morning to finish off his first round, then had to go right back out for Round 2, which he's played in 2 under to get to 9 under and within a shot of Pat Perez, who sits atop the leaderboard for the moment at 10 under. Confusing, we know.
What's not confusing is why Kelly has been able to put up some good numbers of late, dating back to last week in Milwaukee.
"I'm striking the ball better than I ever have," Kelly said. "And the putter is coming back again, so I'm ready to go play some golf."
The other half of that equation are the soft conditions. "You can get after it," Kelly said. And that's exactly what he and a lot of other people are doing right now. -- Brian Wacker
BIRDIE ALERT (2 p.m.): Pat Perez has suddenly climbed into contention thanks to four birdies in his last five holes, including three in a row, to get to 9 under and into a tie for the lead at the moment.
This is Perez's fourth tournament in a row after missing six straight with an ankle injury he suffered while running with his dog. Perez has missed the cut in 2 of his last 3 events and finished in a tie for 30th last week in Milwaukee. -- Brian Wacker
WEATHER UPDATE (1:45 p.m.): The skies above are cloudy, but play continues on uninterrupted in the second round with the first round now entirely in the books. That's the good news.
The bad news is that more rain and thunderstorms are in the forecast. Right now, there's a massive front of weather west of Michigan and making its way toward the area. It will probably take a few hours to get there, but it's going to at some point. Stay tuned. -- Brian Wacker
PRO DEBUT (1:20 p.m.): Jamie Lovemark, who was scheduled to tee it up yesterday in his first PGA TOUR event as a professional, had to wait until today because he had an original tee time of 2:05 p.m. When he did tee it up today, he shot a 2-over 74 in the first round. He'll have a quick turnaround with a 1:40 p.m. tee time in the second round.
As an amateur, Lovemark had previously played in eight TOUR events, spanning back to 2006. His best finish of those eight was a tie for 39th at the 2008 Buick Invitational. -- Doug Milne
SEA OF RED (1 p.m.): The first round is nearly complete and the second round under way -- that's what happens when weather becomes an issue -- and there continues to be more low numbers put up on the board.
Jerry Kelly, who finished third in Milwaukee last week with a closing 65, posted another 65 in the first round here, which he finished this morning. He's since added to that with two birdies in his first three holes in the second round and remains bogey-free for the week.
You can follow Kelly's round live with Shot Tracker by clicking here and in case you were wondering, the tournament record for the RBC Canadian Open 25-under 263, set by Johnny Palmer in 1952 at St. Charles CC. We've got a long way to go to even think about that, but the leaders have been taking it seriously low so far. -- Brian Wacker
TWEET OF THE DAY II (12:35 p.m.): "The new i-15 driver looks great just haven't had enough time to work with it. Worked the new irons all last week. First switch in 10 years." -- Chris DiMarco with more info on his changing of clubs this week.
Maybe the change will help. It's been an up and down season for DiMarco -- he's made 15 of 20 cuts, but also has just three finishes inside the top 25. -- Brian Wacker
VILLEGAS GRABS SHARE OF LEAD (12:20 p.m.): Camilo Villegas did his best Kevin Na impersonation today, lighting up Glen Abbey over his final nine holes to shoot a 9-under 63 to pull even with Na atop the leaderboard.
Villegas birdied 4 of his last 6 holes and went one better with an eagle on the par-5 18th to play his last six holes in 6 under. Now he'll turn it right around and tee off for Round 2 right now, while Na will have to wait until 6 p.m.
Like Na, Villegas needed only 24 putts in the first round. Villegas also had similar numbers on his approach shots, hitting 14 of 18 greens in regulation. Below is a look at Villegas' scorecard from the first round. -- Brian Wacker
TWEET OF THE DAY (12 p.m.): "Hitting the new i-15 irons this week and loving them." -- Chris DiMarco, a relatively new member of the Twitter world, on his clubs this week in Canada.
DiMarco got off to a solid start yesterday, making back-to-back birdies on Nos. 5 and 6 before giving a few shots back with a double bogey on No. 11 and a bogey on No. 14. He recovered quickly, however, making birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 to get in the house at 1 under before the sun went down.
Earlier, DiMarco said, "Sitting in Canada waiting to play second round. 7 hour delay yesterday."
He'll be sitting and waiting a long time today. The second round is just under way with groups going off split tees, but DiMarco isn't set to go off until 5:20 p.m. -- Brian Wacker
MORE NA NUGGETS (11:45 a.m.): Should Kevin Na's first-round lead hold -- and it looks like it will with the first round getting closer to being completed -- it would mark the second time he has held at least a share of the 18-hole lead.
Na previously shared the first-round lead at the 2007 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, where he went on to finish in a tie for second. As for his Canadian Open history, this is just his third, but he already has one top-10 here, having finished in a tie for eighth last year.
Below is a closer look at some of Na's key statistics this year, which should also give you an idea of how good he can be, especially on and around the greens. -- Brian Wacker
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NA, REALLY? (11:30 a.m.): It's not a huge surprise to see that Kevin Na played so well yesterday, shooting a 9-under 63 that featured five straight birdies to close out his round and a 7-under 28 over his last nine holes. What is surprising, however, is that Na apparently never filed an entry form for the British Open. As it was, he could have gotten into the field as an alternate had he done so.
The British Open's loss is the RBC Canadian Open's gain, at least so far. With the second round set to tee off from split tees just before Noon, Na is still in the lead by two over a half-dozen players, including Jerry Kelly, who went on an early birdie run earlier this morning.
As for Na, you might remember him as the kid who skipped his senior year in high school to turn pro. He had some early success in Asia before becoming the youngest member of the PGA TOUR in 2004. That year, he had a couple of top-10s, including a tie for fourth at The Honda Classic. The following year, Na added two runner-up finishes, including a playoff loss in Tucson.
In 2006, Na played just 11 events after a car door got slammed on his right hand. Since then, however, he has come closer and closer to winning -- he tied for third at THE PLAYERS Championship, where he eagled the par-5 16th coming in and earlier in the week had shot a very impressive 66.
As for yesterday's round, the 25-year-old was just happy to get it all in, which is exactly what you need to do when you're playing as well as Na was and darkness is near.
"That's all I was hoping for actually. I would have taken par the last hole if we weren't able to finish," Na said. "I was just trying to get off the tee real quick and hit. Ended up being we had 10, 15 minutes to spare, but you never know when they're going to call it." -- Brian Wacker
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