Saturday, December 2, 2000
Garcia's 64 keeps him ahead
of Love, Woods
By KEN PETERS
AP Sports Writer
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) — Sergio
Garcia kept going lower and lower and watching Davis Love III
and Tiger Woods do the same.
Garcia finished Friday's second round of
the Williams World Challenge with a course-record 8-under 64,
but so did Love and Woods.
“I was watching the leaderboard and
they were just making birdie after birdie after birdie and I had
to do the same thing,” said Garcia, who was at 15-under 129
midway through the tournament, two shots ahead of Love and three
in front of Woods.
Garcia had a 65 the first day at Sherwood
Country Club, a course record that lasted just 24 hours.
He was a bit amazed at the way he and his
two closest pursuers were playing.
“If I have to shoot a 62 or 63 to win,
I'll try,” Garcia said. “But I'd rather know that I
could shoot two 66s.”
Woods, who had what is extremely rare for
him, an out-of-bounds shot on the second hole on his way to a
bogey, was seven shots behind Garcia through the fifth hole, but
closed the gap with a 5-under 31 on the back nine.
“If I had made a couple more putts
I would really have had it going,” said Woods, who had three
putts lip out after having five go in-and-out of the cup the first
day.
Love had an extremely steady day, with a
bogey-free round that included four birdies on the front nine
and four more on the back.
“I'm getting a little confidence in
my putter,” Love said. “I took a few weeks off and feel
really relaxed now, and this is a fun tournament.”
Garcia began the second round with three
consecutive birdies, and finished with seven birdies, an eagle
and a bogey.
The 20-year-old Spanish star again was extremely
accurate with his irons, and also had some luck. On the par-3,
166-yard 16th hole, a car honked somewhere off in the distance
on his backswing, and, distracted, he pushed the ball 20 yards
to the right of the green.
But the ball hit the steep slope and bounced
at a 90-degree angle, leaving him a 6-foot putt that he made for
birdie.
Garcia, who birdied four of his last five
holes in the first round, picked up where he left off with birdies
on four of his first five Friday on the way to a 31 at the turn.
His eagle came on the par-5, 541-yard 13th,
where he sank a 45-foot putt.
Woods' round included an eagle on No. 11,
where he made an 18-foot putt, and a 15-foot chip for a birdie
on No. 13.
Although Garcia, Love and Woods shot extremely
low scores, the Jack Nicklaus-designed Sherwood Country Club course,
a stately oak- and sycamore-lined layout in the foothills of the
Santa Monica Mountains, was not playing easy for the rest of the
players.
There was an eight-shot gap back to fourth
place behind Woods, and five of the 12 players in the select field
failed to break par through the first 36 holes.
“This course is not easy, but the fairways
are running now and the greens are soft and receptive,” Woods
said. “You can go at the flag with every shot, and the ball
stops right there.”
Vijay Singh, one shot behind Garcia beginning
the second round, birdied No. 1 to begin the second day, then
had an awful run of three holes where he lost a total of five
shots to par. He struggled to consecutive double-bogeys on the
second and third hole, then bogeyed No. 4 to abruptly go to 2
under and fall eight shots behind Garcia.
Singh, the Masters champion, finished with
a 76 and was at 142 — 13 shots off the lead — through
36 holes.
Tom Lehman, who won the inaugural Williams
World Challenge last January in Scottsdale, Ariz., had his second
consecutive 70, and Fred Couples had a 72 as they tied for fourth
at 140.
Mark O'Meara was at 143, with Jesper Parnevik
at 144, followed by David Duval at 145, Hal Sutton and Justin
Leonard at 147, and Stewart Cink at 149.,
The $3.5 million, 72-hole tournament has
a $1 million winner's purse and rewards even the last-place finisher
with a $120,000 check. The event benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation,
and Woods will donate his prize money to the foundation.
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