Lafayette, La. resident Ryan Hietala made his first career cut on the PGA TOUR on Friday with his 9-under 135 total, placing him in a tie for third. Hietala fired a 4-under 68 at English Turn in the second round and is only three strokes back of leader Joe Durant. Last year while playing on the Nationwide Tour Hietala collected his first career victory at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open in front of family and friends in Lafayette. He earned his card to play on the TOUR in 2006 with his tie for 18th finish at the 2005 PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament. • In the 17 years the Zurich Classic of New Orleans was held at English Turn Golf and Country Club, the cut ranged from players at 8-over par making it to the weekend (1993) to 5 under (2003). The cut Friday came at 4-under 140, with 71 players going off the No. 1 tee in twosomes on Saturday morning. It is the ninth time out of 14 stroke-play events (with 36 hole cut) that the cut has been under-par. The lowest cut this season was 4-under at the Chrysler Classic of Tucson and Ford Championship at Doral. • The stroke average Friday was 71.377 compared to 72.596 in Thursday’s first round. • There were 56 rounds in the 60s Thursday compared with 44 in Friday’s second round. • Eight players turned in bogey-free rounds Friday. There were six players in the morning wave to go bogey-free: Joe Durant, Stephen Leaney, John Seden, Roger Tambellini and Kirk Triplett, while the afternoon wave had two bogey-free rounds by Greg Kraft and Harrison Frazar. Durant is the only player to go bogey-free for the first 36-holes at English Turn.
• Joe Durant has held a 36-hole lead three previous times in his career and walked away a winner twice. The last time he held a second-round lead was at the 2005 PLAYERS Championship where he finished fifth. His two wins from that position came during the 1998 Motorola Western Open and 2001 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. • Glen Day, who is playing on a sponsors exemption this week, recorded a pair of 68s at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans to make his first cut out of four starts on the PGA TOUR in 2006. The last cut he made was at the 2005 Southern Farm Bureau Classic, where he finished ni a tie for 17th. • Craig Perks, who fired a 6-under 66 on Friday, managed to make his first cut of the season out of 11 starts, but it is his first cut in 20 starts going back to the 2005 Cialis Western Open, where he finished in a tie for 13th. • Stephen Leaney recorded a 5-under 67 on Friday to move to 9-under 135 for the tournament and is only three strokes back of leader Joe Durant. Leaney opened the year missing the cut in six of his first seven starts, including five straight at the start of the season, but he has turned his luck around over the last month by making the cut in his last four starts, including today in New Orleans. His best finish of the season is a tie for 12th at the Verizon Heritage. • Scott Verplank recorded the tournament-record third hole-in-one of the week on the par-3 205-yard 17th hole with a 4-iron. The previous high of two in a Zurich Classic came in 2001. Earlier this year there were four aces recorded at 2006 PLAYERS Championship. The 17th hole has now given up three aces in the 17-year history at the English Turn Golf and Country Club, while there have been six at No. 8, six at No. 12 and there has not been a single ace recorded at No. 3. • Four of the seven past champions of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in the field this week will play on the weekend. Defending champions Tim Petrovic missed the cut. He is the first defending champion this year to miss the cut.
David Toms, 69-67—136, T10 • Scoring statistics: Round 1 Round 2 Under-par rounds 101 75 Scoring Avg. 70.59 71.377 Morning wave scoring avg. 70.74 70.53 Afternoon round Scoing avg. 70.45 72.39 Rounds in 60s 56 44 • Two players withdrew from the tournament Friday. Briny Baird, who shot a first-round 75 and Alex Cejka (back injury), with a 72 in the opening round, withdrew before their rounds. • Fourteen of the 36 players from 16 countries outside the United States managed to make the cut at the Zurich Classic. Four are among the top-10 through the first round –Stephen Leaney (135/tied for third), Ian Poulter (135/tied for third), Retief Goosen (135/tied for third) and Aaron Baddeley (136/tied for 10th). International players have won eight of the first 17 events this season and that trend might continue this week as five of the last eight Zurich Classic of New Orleans crowns have been won by international players. • Five left-handed players, four of them newcomers, joined the PGA TOUR membership in 2006, thanks to either graduating from the Nationwide Tour (Eric Axley, Greg Chalmers and Bubba Watson) or earning their way through Q-School (John Engler, Jr. and B.J. Staten). Chalmers had previously played on TOUR from 1999-2004. The five join current members Russ Cochran, Steve Flesch, Phil Mickelson, Nick O’Hern and Mike Weir for a new all-time high total of 10 left-handed players on TOUR. Will this be a trend of the future? More kids are learning to play the game from the left side, thanks to the success of players like Mickelson and Weir. Seven of the lefties make up the 156 player field in New Orleans:
Eric Axley, 70-65—135, T3 • Six players over the age of 40 have gone on to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans -- Vijay Singh (41 years, 2 months, 12 days) in 2004; Ben Crenshaw in 1994 (42 years, 2 months 22 days); Calvin Peete in 1986 (42 years, 8 months, 5 days); Billy Casper in 1975 (43 years, 10 days, 24 days), Gary Player in 1972 (42 years, 6 months, 16 days); and 1965, when Dick Mayer (40 years, 8 months, 17 days) won. Four players in the top-10 through 36-holes are 40-plus – Joe Durant (1), Michael Allen (tied for third) and Glen Day (tied for 10th). |
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