The Daily Wrap-up, Round 2: Bob Hope Classic
By Staff and Wire Reports
LA QUINTA, Calif.-- Bubba Watson loves a little rain on his game. With his mammoth drives sticking to fairways instead of bounding across them, he had the best round of his pro career to take the Bob Hope Classic lead.
Watson shot a course-record 10-under 62 on Friday to take a two-stroke lead over Alex Prugh after the second round, which began and ended in the driving storm that washed out Thursday's play and pushed the final round to Monday.
But there were just enough hours in between squalls for a SilverRock course record by Watson, who's trying to show there's more to his game than his jaw-dropping work off the tee.
"I didn't expect it to be that wet," Watson said. "I didn't come out of my house yesterday, so I didn't know what it was. It was really wet."
The Palm Springs area, which typically gets about 5 inches of rain a year, has been pounded by 3.3 inches already this week. Although it's expected to clear on the weekend before returning Monday, the storm has wreaked havoc on the PGA TOUR's only five-round, four-course tournament -- but some players handle it better than others.
Prugh, no stranger to rain from his college career at the University of Washington, followed his opening 64 with a bogey-free 66 on the Palmer Course at PGA West. First-round leader Shane Bertsch (69) was at 13 under with Joe Ogilvie (66), Chad Collins (64) and Martin Flores (65).
Watson passed off his Thursday by filming videos for Twitter of himself hitting balls out the door of his rental house -- but the prolific tweeter had no trouble getting back to business.
Watson still hasn't won on the PGA TOUR, but he showed off an improved putting stroke and capitalized on wet fairways at the four-course tournament's longest venue for a 29 on the front nine, including an eagle on the fifth hole when he drove the green from 335 yards and made a 7-foot putt.
Watson, who led the TOUR in eagles and was second in driving distance last year, was at 16-under 128 after taking on the tournament's two toughest courses in his first two rounds.
"My length is definitely going to play a part on that golf course, because it's got wide fairways," Watson said. "I can rip it if I want to. The par 5s are reachable, unless you get a day like today. ... It's different (in the rain). It's going to be hard for everybody, but I putted well today. That was my key. I hit a lot of good shots, but I putted well."
After a morning delay to avoid the worst of Friday's storm, the early starters played through the rain before it largely stopped an hour later. Their iron shots still produced large sprays of water from the fairways throughout the round.
In such marshy conditions, the rest of the players could see reasons for Watson's success.
"The wet weather just totally plays into his favor, because his ball's not going to get out of control when it hits the ground," Bertsch said. "He can just fly it his 330 (yards), and plug it and lift it, clean it, and hit wedges into every hole. It doesn't surprise me one bit."
The rain hasn't been quite so kind to Watson's wife, Angie. Her Friday round with actor Kevin Nealon in the pro-am portion of the Hope Classic was canceled when the amateurs were scratched in an effort to get the round in between the raindrops.
"She would rather her play and not me," said Watson, who got his wife into the field as a fifth-anniversary present of sorts.
Angie Watson is a former Georgia basketball player who's even taller than her 6-foot-3 husband. She's a 4 handicap after six years of serious play.
Bubba Watson finished fifth at the 2007 U.S. Open in Oakmont, but he's best known for his freakishly long drives and his even more prodigious tweeting abilities. Watson attempts to answer every tweet sent to him, and he posts links to videos of everything from his swing to his rendition of "Happy Birthday" to talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres.
In the morning hours before Friday's round, he tweeted 112 responses to fans -- albeit most of the one-word variety.
While Watson played indoor golf Thursday, Prugh waited out the rain by going to see "The Book of Eli" with another pro.
"I think the biggest factor was having to control your wedge shots," Prugh said. "Water-wise, there wasn't any trouble, no casual water that I found. There might be (Friday night), with all this downpour that we're getting."
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The par-5 18th hole on the Palmer Course was the easiest with a Friday scoring average of 4.281.
The par-4 second hole at La Quinta was the toughest with a Friday scoring average of 4.313.INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
PGA TOUR Network correspondent Bob Stevens offers these observations from Friday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146/SIRIUS 209 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
How "dialed-in" is rookie Martin Flores? The 27-year-old former Oklahoma Sooner didn't even know he'd played the first 36 holes of the Bob Hope Classic without a bogey until I mentioned it to him after the round. Flores has a calm yet confident demeaor of a player much older. He went about his 7-under 65 at the Nicklaus Private Course quietly with his hands in his pockets to keep them warm, but no big fist-pumps or displays of emotion -- good shot or bad. Most of the shots, obviously, were good. He's already conquered two courses he's never seen before; now it's on to Silver Rock and LaQuinta and if what I saw the first two days is any indication, he's not going to flinch all weekend.
Veteran Joe Ogilvie is one of those TOUR pros who "gets it," who understands how important it is to interact with his pro-am partners. But he also appreciated the opportunity to keep this 90-hole marathon on-track and play Friday without the amateurs. It was bad enough that he had his rain jacket off and on at least a half-dozen times without chasing down errant amateur shots too. He said he and fellow competitor Tom Gillis could have played in 2 hours, 45 minutes -- the pair continually drove the ball into the same spot and hit pin-seeking irons. Ogilvie shot a 66 that could have easily been a 61, with at least five putts missed inside 10 feet.
Ogilvie and Flores both told me they expect the greens to still be receptive Saturday, even though the Coachella Valley will finally be drying out. But Bubba Watson's two-shot lead is really a lot bigger than that. He's six shots better than any of the other players in his rotation -- and the two PGA West courses he's about to play have been the easiest to score on in the first two days.
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