Round 2 Notebook: HP Byron Nelson Championship

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May. 22, 2010
By Mark Stevens, PGA TOUR Staff

Weather: Partly cloudy and hot. High of 92. Winds SSE 10-15 mph.

• The cut came at even-par 140 with 70 professionals and one amateur advancing to the weekend.

• PGA TOUR rookie Blake Adams and San Antonio, Texas resident Cameron Beckman moved to 10-under to take the second round lead by one-stroke over Jason Day.

• Beckman tied the course record with a 9-under 61 in the second round. Justin Leonard (2001), Charlie Rymer (1996) and Billy Mayfair (1993) also recorded 61s at TPC Las Colinas.

• Adams' best position after 36 holes was T18 at the Sony Open in Hawaii (finished T25).

• Only six of 20 second-round leaders/co-leaders have gone on to victory this season on TOUR.

• At 16 years, 9 months and 24 days, U.S. Junior Amateur Champion Jordan Spieth becomes the sixth youngest player in TOUR history to make a cut. Spieth is a junior at Jesuit College Preparatory School in Dallas and has signed a letter of intent to play golf at the University of Texas. The list includes:

15 years, 8 months, 20 days, Bob Panasik, 1957 Canadian Open (T66)
16 years, 4 days, Tadd Fujikawa, 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii (T20)
16 years, 2 months, 23 days, Justin Thomas, 2009 Wyndham Championship (T78)
16 years, 2 months, 29 days, Matteo Manassero, 2009 British Open (T13)
16 years, 9 months, 7 days, Ty Tryon, 2001 Honda Classic (T39)
16 years, 9 months, 24 days, Jordan Spieth, 2010 HP Byron Nelson Championship (TBA)
16 years, 11 months, 21 days, Matteo Manassero, 2010 Masters Tournament (T36)

• This is the third 36-hole lead of Beckman's TOUR career:

Event Finish
2003 84 Lumber Classic T5
2007 Mayakoba Golf Classic 7th

• Beckman's previous low round at the HP Byron Nelson Championship was a 65 in 2001 and 2002.

• Beckman was 1-over through 14 holes on Thursday evening when play was suspended due to darkness.

• Beckman is making his ninth start at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. His only top 10 is T8 in 2002.

• Beckman's previous low round was a 63, which he recorded three times on TOUR.

63 (-8) 2002 Verizon Heritage T19
63 (-7) 2003 Valero Texas Open T29
63 (-7) 2008 Frys.com Open Won

• Coming into this week, Beckman had made three of 11 cuts on TOUR this season. He only had eight rounds in the 60s out of 29 rounds this season before posting back-to-back rounds in the 60s this week. It is only the second time this season he has posted back-to-back rounds in the 60s. Beckman won the Mayakoba Golf Classic in February with four rounds in the 60s.

• Adams is playing in his 14th career PGA TOUR event. He has now made eight cuts this season. Adams is ranked ninth among rookies with 207 FedExCup points. Overall, Adams is ranked 116th in the FedExCup standings. Adams' only top 10 this season was at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (T10).

• Adams low round on TOUR is a 63 at the Verizon Heritage.

• There have been six amateurs to finish in the top 20 at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. The last amateur to make the cut was Colt Knost in 2007 (T67). Tiger Woods was the last high school golfer to play in the HP Byron Nelson Championship (MC).

1944 Cpl. Earl Stewart Jr. 5th
1945 Wally Ulrich 5th
1946 Frank Stranahan T4
1946 Earl Stewart Jr. T4
1957 Dick Martin T11
1986 Scott Verplank T19

• Spieth is the first amateur to have back-to-back rounds in the 60s since Tadd Fujikawa recorded 66s in round two and round three of the 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii.

• The last amateur to win a PGA TOUR event was Phil Mickelson at the 1991 Northern Telecom Open. The last amateur to finish in the top 10 was Chris Wood at the 2008 British Open (T5).

Corey Pavin, who is attempting to become the first player to win all four Texas Swing tournaments during his career on the PGA TOUR, is at 5-under after the second round (T12). Pavin's victories in the Lone Star State include the 1984 Shell Houston Open, 1985 and 1996 Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial and the 1988 Valero Texas Open.

• Defending champion Rory Sabbatini is at 5-under (T12) in his attempt to become the first repeat winner of the HP Byron Nelson Championship since Tom Watson won three in a row from 1978-80. Sabbatini is making his 12th start at the HP Byron Nelson Championship, with a win in 2009 and T3 in 2007 his best outings.

• 2007 HP Byron Nelson Championship winner Scott Verplank (T12) is making his 24th start at the tournament. Just three players have made more starts (28 - Lanny Wadkins and Tom Watson; 27 -- Ben Crenshaw).

• Dallas, Texas native and resident Matt Weibring shot a 2-under 68 and is T44 after the second round. He is making his third start at the event, missing the cut in 2005 and T52 in 2009. Weibring's Dad, D.A., spearheaded the $10 million redesign of the TPC Four Seasons prior to the 2008 tournament. The elder Weibring played in the tournament 22 times, with runner-up finishes in 1993 and 1995.

• Bogey-free rounds:

Thursday: Michael Sim (66) and Nathan Green (67).

Friday: Cameron Beckman (61), Blake Adams (64), Jason Day (65), Alex Cejka (66), Tom Pernice Jr. (68), Chris Riley (64), Jeff Overton (65) and Chad Collins (68)

• Scoring Averages at the par-70 TPC Four Seasons Resort:

  Front 9 Back 9 Total Cumulative
Thursday 35.452 35.394 70.845 ---
Friday 35.000 35.097 70.097 70.471

• The par-4 third hole has played the toughest through two rounds, yielding a 4.265 average. The par-5 seventh hole was the easiest with a 4.484 average after two rounds. The seventh hole has given up 13 eagles, while no other hole has given up more than one eagle.

• Beckman and Adams' 130 is the lowest 36 hole score since Adam Scott and Brett Wetterich recorded a 130 in 2006.

Ken Duke used a 6 iron to record a hole-in-one on the par-3 second hole. It was the first hole-in-one at the HP Byron Nelson Championship since Vijay Singh's on No. 17 in 2005. Duke's ace is the third in tournament history at No. 2 (Dudley Hart/1991 and Tommy Tolles/1995).

• Play was suspended on Thursday due to threatening weather at 10:47 a.m. and resumed at 2:31 p.m. Play was eventually called due to darkness at 8:29 p.m. with 66 players yet to complete their round. The first round resumed at 7:15 a.m. on Friday, with the second round beginning at 8:15 a.m. It represented the first weather delay at the HP Byron Nelson Championship since a 20-minute delay on day two in 2003.

• On the same day that 16-year-old Spieth made the cut on the PGA TOUR, Grayson Murray, a sophomore at Leesville Road High School in Raleigh, N.C. shot rounds of 73-66--139 to make the 36-hole cut on the number at the Nationwide Tour's Rex Hospital Open. At the age of 16 years, 7 months and 20 days, he is the second youngest to make a cut in Nationwide Tour history. The youngest was Gipper Finau, 16 years, 20 days, at the 2006 Utah EnergySolutions Championship was the youngest. Murray was given a sponsor's exemption after winning the Junior Invitational last weekend. He is the top-rated high school player in the class of 2012 nationally and is bound for Wake Forest University on the Arnold Palmer Scholarship.

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