The Live Report: Verizon Heritage, Round 2
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By PGATOUR.COM Staff
AN FALLS BACK (6:08 p.m.): Amateur Ben An, who became the youngest player ever to win the U.S. Amateur last year, just fell back to 5 under after a bogey on the par-3 seventh, his 15th hole of the day.
Still, it's been a very good day for An, who has four birdies and an eagle. He's also missed just three fairways and four greens in regulation so far today and is in the top 10 in the field in putting with 50 total putts through 34 holes. -- Brian Wacker
CUT AT EVEN (5:50 p.m.): The cut line will remain at even par -- for now. That's good news for defending champion Brian Gay, John Daly and a handful of others. Nick O'Hern had a chance to send it to 1 under, but he missed his birdie putt on No. 16, which keeps him at 2 over for the day, even for the week and in a tie for 69th place.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the leaderboard, Greg Owen just wrapped up a round of 69, which gets him to 7 under for the week and into a tie for the lead late in the round. Only Ben An, who became the youngest U.S. Amateur champ last year, can catch the lead. He's 4 under today and one shot back with three holes to play. -- Brian Wacker
SECOND ROUND WINDING DOWN (5:18 p.m.): With the exception of a few players, most of the damage done at Harbour Town came in the morning wave.
One of those players to make a move was Charles Howell III. He shot a 4-under 67 and is now tied for the lead late in the day.
Howell missed the cut in Houston two weeks ago, but he's had a solid season with three top-10s. He's also had a solid week with his irons, hitting 67 percent of his greens in regulation.
Greg Owen and J.J. Henry are also moving up, at 2 and 3 under, respectively, as they finish up their rounds. -- Brian Wacker
MORE ON ADAMS (5 p.m.): Blake Adams' remarkable 14-shot swing was referenced below, but he pulled off an even more spectacular feat with his second-round 63. Adams tied the PGA TOUR record for fewest putts in one round with 18.
Starting on the back nine, Adams holed a 38-footer from the rough at No. 11 and a 14-footer from the fringe at No. 15 to turn with 10 putts. His biggest highlight was a 76-yard fairway hole-out at No. 3. Adams finished with a 14-foot birdie putt at No. 9.
With its small greens, Harbour Town is littered among the records for fewest putts in TOUR history. Kenny Knox also recorded an 18-putt round at Hilton Head in 1989. Here's a list of the players who share the record for fewest putts in a round:
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Adams will have a tough time reaching the record for fewest putts for a four-round tournament. That record of 92 is held by David Frost, also at Harbour Town, at the 2005 Heritage. Adams had 32 putts in his first round and is at 50 for the tournament, tied for 33rd in the field. -- Nick Zaccardi
SERGIO STRUGGLES (4:42 p.m.): Unless he gets hot on the final few holes, Sergio Garcia is headed for his first missed cut since the 2009 PGA Championship.
It's somewhat stunning given that Garcia was tied for fourth after a first-round 67. Garcia is 6 over on his round today with four bogeys and two double bogeys. Why the drop off? He hit 83 percent of greens in regulation in Round 1 but is at just 46 percent in Round 2.
With that, Garcia is now tied for 93rd at 2 over, needing to make up three shots on the final five holes to reach the projected cut line. -- Nick Zaccardi
PHIL COMMITS TO CHARLOTTE (4:25 p.m.): Masters champ Phil Mickelson will return to competition at the Quail Hollow Championship in two weeks, according to the tournament's official Twitter feed.
Mickelson is playing Quail Hollow for the seventh straight year. He's never won but has been a regular contender, posting a T3, two T5s, a T7 and a T12.
Tiger Woods, who won in Charlotte in 2007, committed to the event earlier in the week. Read more about Phil's commitment here. For ticket information, click here. -- Nick Zaccardi
ROUND OF THE DAY (4:15 p.m.): Blake Adams turned in a bounce-back effort at the Verizon Heritage that Jerry Rice wished for over on the Nationwide Tour.
Adams, who shot a 6-over 77 on Thursday, dusted himself off and carded a tournament-low 63 on Friday. Check out his 14-shot swing below:
That was enough to catapult Adams, a TOUR rookie, 84 spots up the leaderboard. He was tied for 128th. He is now tied for 44th. Anybody looking for a sleeper going forward in fantasy golf should keep an eye on Adams, who tied for 14th in Houston. -- Nick Zaccardi
ALL ABOUT APPLEBY (3:50 p.m.): Stuart Appleby is playing Harbour Town for the first time since 1998. The Aussie may have found his Fountain of Youth in Hilton Head.
Appleby, who turns 39 on May 1, has shot up 26 spots on the leaderboard with his 67 Friday, referenced earlier as his best round of 2010. He's currently tied for second at 6 under.
"Maybe the claustrophobic feel of the course makes it a bit sharper with your targets," Appleby said. "Hit the ball well, putted well. Very few mistakes. Haven't dropped many shots, and making just enough birdies to have a round on the card. Overall very good golf."
As many know, Appleby hasn't been at his best recently. He failed to finish in the top 125 on the money list for the first time since 1996 last season and is playing this year on an exemption for being in the top 25 on the TOUR career money list. And that's why he's here. Appleby did not qualify for the Masters for the first time since 1996, when he was 24 years old.
"That threw my schedule a bit," said Appleby, who has plunged to 157 in the Official World Golf Ranking. "Playing here became an option."
Many players who miss the Heritage cite a desire for a post-Masters break, but Appleby also mentioned another reason for his absences: bugs.
"There are a few marks on me that maybe reminded me maybe why I didn't come back," Appleby said. "I've been dousing myself in something that will probably create cancer, but it keeps me alive for the week." -- Nick Zaccardi
BRYCE IS RIGHT (3:04 p.m.): Bryce Molder will enter the weekend near the top of the leaderboard after two bogey-free 68s here at Harbour Town. Short of a win, though, nothing might compare to a round Molder played at Chenal Country Club when he was a 21-year-old rising star at Georgia Tech. That's because he played with President Clinton.
Molder shot a 12-under 60 that day, while the President shot 84.
"He was fun to play with," Molder said. "And it would just be like playing with any fun foursome at your home course.
"He stepped away and shut the phone off for four hours, and actually for about six hours. It was unbelievable how many autographs and how many pictures he took during the round. Anybody that wanted one that was there at the club got a picture."
As for Molder's golf since then, it's been up and down. He has yet to win on the PGA TOUR after what was a stellar amateur and collegiate career.
"It's all in my head," Molder said of his struggles.
That started to change, however, when he started working with sport psychologist Gio Valiante. The result? Four top-10s this season for Molder, who appears to be on his way to another one. -- Brian Wacker
BOO BITS (2:48 p.m.): Boo Weekley's second straight 68 was good, but it could have been even better if not for a few putts he left in bad spots.
"I left a lot out there today," Weekley said. "I hit the ball really good, just didn't get it in the hole enough. On the front side I know I left three out there outside of 5 foot."
Still, Weekley will enter the weekend near the lead, something he hasn't done at all this season.
"I struggled with my shoulder coming out and didn't believe it and started working out, started getting healthy again," Weekley said. "Now I feel like I could make the right swings. And just get that putter hot and I think I'll be back in the circle." -- Brian Wacker
CUT CHECK (2:15 p.m.): We're a little more than halfway through the second round and the cut line is currently 1 under.
That leaves John Daly just one shot off the weekend. He shot rounds of 72-70 to get to even on a course that doesn't exactly suit his grip-it-and-rip-it style. Defending champion Brian Gay is also in trouble, though. He shot the same scores as Daly and unless the cut line moves, he won't be around for the weekend after winning by a record 10 shots a year ago. -- Brian Wacker
CHOI DROPS A SHOT (1:45 p.m.): First-round leader K.J. Choi has fallen out of the top spot thanks to a bogey on his second hole of the day, the par-4 11th. Choi badly pulled his tee shot, finding the little bit of water short and left of the fairway bunker on the hole. He then hit his next into the fairway trap before getting up-and-down to save bogey. -- Brian Wacker
FURYK FIRES 68 (1:30 p.m.): Jim Furyk is the new clubhouse leader -- though overnight leader K.J. Choi just teed off about 20 minutes ago -- after a second-round 68. That gets Furyk to 7 under heading into the weekend at Harbour Town, a short course with tiny greens that should suit his game perfectly.
On the day, Furyk hit just 11 of of 18 greens in regulation for the second straight round, but he was good with his short game and the putter. For the week, Furyk is averaging just 1.59 putts per green in regulation. He's perfect from inside 10 feet (30-for-30) and has also made four of six putts from 10 to 15 feet. See Furyk's scorecard below for more, or click here to replay his round with Shot Tracker. -- Brian Wacker
APPLEBY GOES LOW ... FOR HIM (1:07 p.m.): The good news for Stuart Appleby is that he recorded the lowest score of his season so far on Friday. The bad news is that it was just a 67.
Still, Appleby, who has broken 70 just twice and missed five of his first six cuts this year, is in good position at Harbour Town, where he's 6 under through two rounds. That has him, at least for the time being, one shot back. -- Brian Wacker
SLOCUM SLIPS UP (12:58 p.m.): So much for that share of the lead for Heath Slocum. He rinsed his second shot on the par-4 18th at Harbour Town and made double bogey. That's the sixth ball in the water this week at the difficult finishing hole, which is playing as the third-most difficult on the golf course right now with a stroke average of 4.161 and 40 bogeys or worse, compared to 21 birdies.
Slocum finished with a second-round 67 and is 5 under heading into the weekend. -- Brian Wacker
WEEKLEY IN WITH 68 (12:53 p.m.): Two-time Verizon Heritage winner Boo Weekley is in the hunt at Harbour Town again. Weekley shot his second straight 68 on Friday, hitting the same number of fairways (11) and greens in regulation (15) as he did in the opening round. Weekley did have two fewer putts on Friday, but he's tied for third at the moment just one stroke off the lead.
That's a vast improvement from most of the rest of his season so far in which he has just two top 25s and missed cuts in three of his last five tournaments. -- Brian Wacker
Below is a look at Weekley's scorecards through the first two rounds. Click here to replay his rounds with Shot Tracker.
SLOCUM, FURYK SHARE LEAD (12:43 p.m.): What a difference a week -- and a course -- makes. About this time last Friday, Jim Furyk was getting ready to pack his bags after shooting 80-76 at the Masters. Today? Furyk has a share of the 36-hole clubhouse lead at 7 under with Heath Slocum as they wrap up their second rounds at Harbour Town.
What's most surprising about Furyk's round -- he's 3 under with two holes left -- is that he's not exactly hitting every green in regulation. So far, Furyk has hit just 59 percent of what are the smallest greens on the PGA TOUR.
That last statistic holds true for Slocum, too. He's 6 under here in the second round, but he's hit just 63 percent of his greens in regulation this week. In other words, these guys are getting up-and-down a lot. -- Brian Wacker
PRIORITY POWER (12:15 p.m.): The top three players after the second reshuffle of the season are Rickie Fowler, Alex Prugh and J.P. Hayes.
All three have made significant upward movement over the first 16 events of the year -- Fowler started 33rd, Prugh 30th and Hayes 17th following last year's q-school. Fowler and Hayes each got off to solid starts this week at 3 and 2 under, respectively, after the opening round. Prugh, however, was 1 over after a 72 on Thursday. -- Brian Wacker
MASTERS MOMENTUM? (11:50 a.m.): Since the Verizon Heritage moved into its slot after the Masters in 1983, just five players have won the event without having competed in the Masters the week before: Brian Gay (2009), Boo Weekley (2007), Aaron Baddeley (2006), Bob Tway (1995) and Davis Love III (1987). -- Chris Reimer
BIRDIE BARRAGE (11:33 a.m.): Heath Slocum had a career year in 2009, winning The Barclays and finishing eighth in the FedExCup standings. Right now, he might be on his way to matching a career round or at least coming close to doing so. Slocum is 6 under through 13 holes, having made five birdies, an eagle and just one bogey.
Slocum, whose lowest score ever was a 61 at the 2003 Valero Texas Open, has taken just 16 putts here in the second round. He's also perfect inside of 10 feet and has made three of five putts from 10-15 feet. As a result, Slocum is now tied for the lead at 7 under. Click here to track the rest of his round live with Shot Tracker. -- Brian Wacker
PLENTY AT STAKE (11:20 a.m.): Several players in the field need a good finish this week to qualify for THE PLAYERS Championship field. Anyone not otherwise qualified who is in the top 10 in FedExCup points after the Zurich Classic will make the field. Currently, the top 10 are qualified. Players like Rickie Fowler (No. 26); Alex Prugh (No. 35), J.P. Hayes (No. 42) and Chris Couch (No. 45) need to play well here and at next week's Zurich Classic of New Orleans if they hope to tee it up at TPC Sawgrass. -- Chris Reimer
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FAST STARTS (11:10 a.m.): In the opening round, most of the damage at Harbour Town was done in the morning wave, before the wind kicked up. The same seems to be happening today with Jim Furyk, Bryce Molder, Chad Campbell and Heath Slocum all at least 3 under in the second round.
Thanks to that hot start by Furyk, he's now tied for the lead at 7 under. A big reason Furyk has bounced back from that opening-round 80 at the Masters last week: His putting. He took just 24 putts on Thursday and has just 12 through his first 10 holes today (though he's only hitting a little more than half his greens in regulation). -- Brian Wacker
ROUND 2 UNDER WAY (11 a.m.): This is only the second time K.J. Choi has played in the Verizon Heritage, but it's not the first time Choi has gone low in the opening round. His 64 on Thursday, for example, matched just the second-lowest start to a tournament he's had in his career (Choi shot 63 at the 2002 Tampa Bay Classic).
Strong starts for Choi have usually, and not surprisingly, led to strong finishes -- three of his seven PGA TOUR victories have come when shooting an opening score of 64 or better. See below for more. -- Brian Wacker
| Choi when shooting 64 or better in the first round | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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