The Live Report: Shell Houston Open, Round 2
| Live Report essentials | ||
|
By PGATOUR.COM Staff
MORE PHIL (7:31 p.m.): After a reporter reeled off some what-will-Phil-do-next moments, he asked Mickelson if this was a frustrating day.
"Yes,'' Mickelson said. "It was."
A few minutes later, the same reporter tried to cheer him up, noting he played the 18th hole well.
"That's not much consolation,'' said Mickelson, who shot 76 Friday and is 1 over going to the weekend. "I had a solid front nine and thought if I could have a good back I would be back in contention. And instead I'm on the cutline . . .. I seem to be doing that a lot lately.'' -- Melanie Hauser
CAN SCOTT BE GREAT AGAIN? (7:15 p.m.): Adam Scott, who won here in 2007, is working his way back after struggling last year. He struggled down the stretch Friday, but birdied the last hole and settled at 5 under going into the weekend.
"I saved my best for last,'' he said. "I struggled yesterday with the putter, but I ironed out the kinks today. I feel like I'm playing well.'' -- Melanie Hauser
HEAR THIS (7:05 p.m.): Out of the mouth of the kids . . .The slogan for the Shell Houston Open is "A Chance for the Children." So as Phil walked into the scoring tent and everything went silent, one of the kids along the autograph line yelled out -- "Phil, for the children." It drew a laugh. -- Melanie Hauser
ROUND 2 WINDING DOWN (6:48 p.m.): We're deep in the second round at Redstone, but a few players continue to move up the leaderboard. The most recent player to get into contention is Omar Uresti.
Uresti, who has come through q-school five times in his career and once made nine straight birdies in a Nationwide Tour event, has five birdies and just one bogey in his second round. That brings him to 7 under and within two of the lead with four holes left in his round. -- Brian Wacker
TWEET OF THE DAY (6:20 p.m.): "Well it looks like I will get some extra rounds at Augusta.......not sure if I am disappointed or pleased. Can you be both?" -- @geoffogilvy
As mentioned earlier, Geoff Ogilvy missed the cut after finishing his two rounds in 3 over. He'll need those practice rounds at Augusta National, too. For as good a player as Ogilvy is, his best finish at the Masters is a tie for 15th last year. Ogilvy will be making his fifth-career Masters appearance. -- Brian Wacker
MOLDER IN FRONT (6:05 p.m.): Coming out of Georgia Tech as a four-time, first-team All-American, Bryce Molder was one of those can't-miss kids. He did, though.
Much of the last decade, Molder has bounced back and forth between the Nationwide Tour and the PGA TOUR until a breakout year in 2009 when he won $1.38 million -- more than $1 million more than any other season in his career.
That momentum has carried over to this season and this week for Molder. He already has three top-10s and is well on his way to another one, if not a win, after shooting a 66 at Redstone Friday to take a one-shot lead at 9 under.
Molder has made just one bogey all week, to go with 10 birdies. He's also putted extremely well and is in position to do what his fellow Whisper Rock member, Paul Casey, did here a year ago -- win for the first time on TOUR. -- Brian Wacker
COUPLES' STREAK LIVES ON (5:45 p.m.): Fred Couples missed the cut the first time he played in the Shell Houston Open in 1981. He hasn't missed one at this event since, shooting 71-73--144 to make his 17th consecutive cut, matching Jimmy Demaret's record of most consecutive cuts. Demaret began his streak in 1946 and made the cut again in 1947. There was no tournament in 1948 and he did not enter in 1949. Demaret picked up the streak again 1950-1964. -- Mark Williams
CUT CHECK (5:34 p.m.): The projected cut right now is 1 over and that has two very notable players possibly in a bit of trouble.
Phil Mickelson is inside the line at even par with four holes left, but he has continued to struggle with his consistency. A day after shooting 69, Mickelson is 3 over with a bogey, a triple-bogey 7 on No. 10 and just one birdie.
Mickelson has been hitting his share of fairways and greens, but he's not making anything on the greens with a putts per green in regulation average of 2.
Geoff Ogilvy, meanwhile, is on the outside looking in. Ogilvy is in the clubhouse at 3 over and headed to next week's Masters a little early. -- Brian Wacker
AUSTIN'S ACE (5:14 p.m.): We just had our second hole-in-one of the day with Woody Austin acing the 144-yard seventh. Austin's shot with a wedge hit the flagstick, landed behind the hole and rolled back into the hole.
That also gives Austin scores of 1-2-3-4-5-6 on his scorecard. Austin, who began on the back nine, still has two holes to play. Could a 7 and 8 be next? -- Brian Wacker
KODAK UPDATE (5:03 p.m.): Joe Ogilvie birdied the 18th hole, this week's Kodak Challenge hole (and the most difficult on the golf course). Rickie Fowler, who currently leads the Kodak Challenge, also birdied the par-4 18th. -- Doug Milne
GOOD SPOT TO BE IN (4:50 p.m.): The second-round leader on the PGA TOUR has held on for victory four times this year. Since 1990, the second-round leader in Houston has gone on to win seven times. Most recently, Paul Casey achieved the feat in 2009. -- Doug Milne
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR CANDIDATE (4:35 p.m.): Alex Prugh has established himself as a serious contender for Rookie of the Year honors. He claimed three consecutive top-10 finishes early in the year and has made six cuts in nine starts. Prugh is currently ranked 33 rd in FedExCup standings.
Prior to this year, Prugh's only other PGA TOUR start was as an amateur at the 2007 U.S. Open, where he missed the cut. Prugh earned his way onto the TOUR in 2010 by virtue of a 16th-place finish on the 2009 Nationwide Tour money list.
Should Prugh's 8-under lead hold up, it will mark his first second-round lead on the TOUR and third overall. He was leader or co-leader after Rounds 3 and 4 of the five-round Bob Hope Classic. -- Doug Milne
WATSON'S WAY (4:15 p.m.): After a 1-over 73 in the opening round, Bubba Watson shot a 5-under 67 Friday, highlighted by an eagle at the 600-yard 15th .
Not surprisingly, Watson is ranked as the driving distance leader through two rounds this week. His accuracy off the tee, however, continues to suffer. Thursday, Watson hit just four of 14 fairways, followed by a second round where he hit six of 14 fairways. -- Doug Milne
SCORING CONTINUES TO BE GOOD (4 p.m.): So much for tough scoring in the afternoon wave, at least so far anyway. Vaughn Taylor is 3 under through 10 holes, Kevin Stadler 2 under through 10, Padraig Harrington 3 under through seven and Adam Scott 2 under through eight.
The scoring average for the day isn't exactly low -- it's at 72.849 right no -- but it's better than the 73.112 average from Round 1. That, by the way, was the highest first-round scoring average of the year. -- Brian Wacker
ATOP THE LEADERBOARD (3:15 p.m.): Alex Prugh and Cameron Percy share the lead here in the second round at 8 under. Prugh was particularly impressive, though, shooting a 66, which not only included eight birdies, but a double bogey.
Prugh, you might remember, had an impressive start to his rookie season with a pair of fifth-place finishes at the Bob Hope Classic and Farmers Insurance Open.
The last three weeks, however, Prugh has missed the cut and failed to break 71. That obviously won't happen this week, not after shooting the low round of the tournament so far. See Prugh's scorecard below, or click here to replay his round with Shot Tracker. -- Brian Wacker
A.K. DOING O.K. (2:45 p.m.): Despite hitting just 16 of 28 fairways, Anthony Kim is right where he wants to be: one shot off the lead and hitting his stride with the Masters less than a week away.
"Just staying patient, that's the name of the game when the wind is blowing 20, 30 mph," said Kim, who took the last two weeks off. "I'm just starting to score a little better. I don't know what it is."
Part of what it is is a putting lesson that Kim got from Brad Faxon.
"I worked on my set-up and that helped me a little bit this week," Kim said. -- Brian Wacker
EQUIPMENT CHANGES (2:17: p.m.): Joe Ogilvie knows his stats -- "I know I'm the 175th best driver of the golf ball on TOUR," he said Friday.
He also knew, or at least thought, he needed a change. Ogilvie put TaylorMade's new SuperTri driver in his bag for the second round. He also swapped his TaylorMade putter for a Callaway 2-Ball. Finally, he bumped all his clubs up a degree.
"I've been having trouble with certain things this year, swing being one of them" Ogilvie said. "So I've switched more this year than in the past."
Ogilvie did say, however, that he won't make any more switches this week, at least not with the putter, which he plans to use for the final two rounds as well. -- Brian Wacker
FROM THE INTERVIEW ROOM (2:03 p.m.): Here are some snippets from Joe Ogilvie, who shot a 67 early Friday to grab a share of the clubhouse lead at 7 under with Anthony Kim, Lee Westwood and Alex Prugh...
On his round ...
"I'm looking at my stats here. Hit 75 percent of my fairways last two rounds, and I hit somewhere around 70 percent of my greens. Normally I'm sub-60 on both accounts. I put a lot of pressure on my putting."
The putter delivered for Ogilvie. He took just 26 putts.
On the potential of getting two very good trips should he win ...
"Augusta, the beaches aren't as good as Kapalua. My daughters would certainly me go to Kapalua than they would the Masters. I would prefer to go to the Masters, but it would be fun to have a family vacation next year."
If Ogilvie wins this week, he'll not only secure a spot in the Masters field, but the winner's-only SBS Championship next January. -- Brian Wacker
MOVIN' ON UP (1:35 p.m.): The latest player to make a huge leap up the leaderboard by taking advantage of an early tee time? Bubba Watson. He jumped 53 spots into a tie for seventh thanks to a 5-under 67.
That's six shots better than Thursday for Watson, who had three birdies, an eagle and zero bogeys. He also took just 26 pus. -- Brian Wacker
PERCY ON POINT (1:26 p.m.): Joe Ogilvie and Lee Westwood share the clubhouse lead at 7 under right now, but Cameron Percy is the one who is currently atop the leaderboard with just one bogey and nine birdies through his first 30 holes (he's through 12 holes today).
Percy is a rookie on the PGA TOUR this season -- his only other start came in the 2003 British Open, where he missed the cut -- but he's had some success before. Percy had eight top-10s on the Nationwide Tour last season, including a pair of second-place finishes, on his way to finishing eighth on the money list.
This week, Percy hasn't missed much. He's ninth in the field in greens in regulation and 18th in putting and with five holes to go could be closing in on the solo lead. -- Brian Wacker
OGILVIE IN WITH 67 (1:05 p.m.): Joe Ogilvie's name has always been once that's been kicked around when discussing who the next PGA TOUR Commissioner might be. Tim Finchem obviously isn't going anywhere right now and apparently neither is Ogilvie. Unless you count up the leaderboard.
Ogilvie shot the day's low round, a 5-under 67 and he is now tied for the clubhouse lead at 7 under at Redstone, where low numbers are going to be increasingly difficult to come by as the day wears on.
As for Ogilvie's round, it was as clean as could be. He had five birdies, no bogeys, hit 86 percent of his fairways and took just 26 putts. Below is a look at his scorecard. Click here to replay the round with Shot Tracker. -- Brian Wacker
ACES UP (12:47 p.m.): Earlier, Lucas Glover aced the 199-yard 16th hole here in the second round of the Shell Houston Open. It is the first ace in the tournament since 2005 and the first on the Redstone Tournament Course. Glover used a 6-iron for the third hole-in-one of his career (2004/Cialis Western Open, 2006/Mercedes Benz Championship). -- Mark Williams
YOU TWEET, WE ANSWER (12:35 p.m.): "Are the touring pros friends with each other or do they just happen to work together? Example?" -- @JustShake
It depends. Some just work together, some are good friends. Just like your office. For example, Thursday night Aaron Baddeley and Bubba Watson were barbecuing together. Both are Christian and Watson's wife, Angie, played basketball in Australia, so it all sort of adds up.
EARLY TEE TIMES GET THE BIRDIES (12:20 p.m.): With the wind expected to pick up this afternoon, much the way it did on Thursday, players who had good, late opening rounds should be at an advantage here in the second round.
So far, many of those players -- Anthony Kim, Bubba Watson, Alex Prugh -- are taking full advantage of the opportunity.
Australia's Cameron Percy still leads, but the three aforementioned players are currently a combined 11 under with Watson leading the way at 5 under through 15 holes. -- Brian Wacker
ANOTHER WD (12 p.m.): The second round is in full swing at Redstone -- except for Briny Baird. He withdrew prior to the start of today's round with a neck injury. Baird shot a 78 in the opening round.
Baird is the fifth player to withdraw this week. Rod Pampling pulled out to be with his family after his father-in-law passed away, while defending champion Paul Casey also withdrew prior to the opening round with a left shoulder injury (he was replaced by Steve Wheatcroft).
Vijay Singh withdrew after nine holes with a back injury on Thursday, marking the third consecutive tournament from which he has withdrawn. Singh pulled out of the Transitions Championship 20 minutes before his tee time and withdrew early in the week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.
Greg Owen withdrew due to illness after the first round. -- Brian Wacker
| Groups We're Watching | ||||||||||||
|
Shop your favorite brand name golf equipment and accessories at SHOP.PGATOUR.COM
FANTASY
PGATOUR.com is part of Turner Sports Digital, part of the Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network 