Saturday, March 17, 2001
Goydos leading, with everyone
lurking
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — For Paul Goydos,
the Bay Hill Invitational has a familiar look to it. He was in
the lead, and just about everyone else — including Tiger
Woods — was lurking.
Five years after Goydos emerged from a large
pack to win Bay Hill for his only PGA Tour victory, he put together
another round of 4-under 68 on Friday and took a one-stroke lead
into the weekend.
“The round kind of fell into place
more than I went out and beat the golf course or played better
than anybody else,” Goydos said.
Goydos was at 136, the highest 36-hole score
to lead a PGA Tour event this year. An even bigger surprise is
that it held up during a blustery afternoon that featured disastrous
mistakes by Phil Mickelson, Mark Calcavecchia and David Frost.
There was none by Woods. He flinched in
pain because of an awkward swing on his opening tee shot, but
recovered quickly for a bogey-free 67 and was among 17 players
within three strokes of the lead.
Sergio Garcia and Chris Perry, who each
had a 66, were among five players at 137. Woods, Mickelson and
Calcavecchia were among a half-dozen players at 138, while Lee
Janzen and Steve Pate were another stroke back.
“It was a pretty good day,” Woods
said. “I hit the ball all right and I didn't make 7.”
Woods had a 7 — his first triple bogey
in 1,201 holes of official competition — in the opening round.
On Friday, such misfortune belonged to everyone else.
Frost was at 9 under and leading the tournament
until he hit 5-iron into the par-3 17th, flared it out to the
right and over the water and saw it splash. He wound with a triple
bogey and finished with a 70, two strokes behind.
Mickelson had only five pars in his round
of 72. He was 3 over for his round when he got it together by
pitching in for eagle on No. 12 and making birdie on the next
two holes. But he went for the green in two on the par-5 16th
and the ball rolled back into the water.
With the ball only an inch or so deep, Mickelson
put on his rain gear, stepped into the pond and tried to blast
it out. He barely made it out and wound up with a bogey.
Typical of his afternoon, he chipped in
for birdie on the 18th.
“It was a weird round, up and down
all day,” Mickelson said. “All in all, it evened out
and I'll take a 72.”
Calcavecchia was tied with Goydos until
his ball roll back toward the water on his 17th hole, No. 8, and
he figured enough of the ball was dry to give it a whack.
He whacked it, all right — over the
green, into the grandstand and over the seats. He chipped through
the green, chipped back and walked off with a double bogey for
72.
Goydos wasn't immune from mistakes, missing
the green on Nos. 14 and 15 for bogeys, but they were tame compared
to the others who struggled through warm gusts throughout the
afternoon.
“I kept missing it in the right place,”
Goydos said. “It was one of those 'in the right place at
the right time' kind of deals, which you have to do sometimes.”
Goydos was in the right place five years
ago.
In a tournament where the leaders changed
seemingly every hole, Goydos wound up a winner as 22 players finished
within six strokes of him.
That's what he could be facing this weekend,
with the big difference between now and five years ago being that
Woods was still in college.
“Someone asked me the difference between
the game pre-Tiger and post-Tiger,” Goydos said. “And
it's just a different game we play than when I won out here. It's
just a group of players with the ability to play well each week.”
That's what is facing him now, and even
though Woods has yet to win this year, his name so close to the
lead with 36 holes to play is still an attention-grabber.
Woods only came seriously close to bogey
once during his round. He hit 3-iron into the wind on the ninth
hole and was caught in the thick rough facing a severely downhill
chip. He took a full swing 40 feet from the hole, the ball popping
out some 20 feet high and stopping 10 feet behind the hole.
The rest of the round was simple —
two-putt birdies on three of the par 5s, and a couple of 25-foot
birdie putts early in the round.
The only scare was the opening tee shot
with a 2-iron. Woods winced like he had just struck a rock, and
blamed that on a bad swing.
“When you almost hit your right foot
coming down, it's not going to feel good,” he said. “It
was like a half-shank, skank out to the right, a dying quail.
Not one of your natural shots.”
Divots:
The cut was at 1-over 145, the highest score to make the cut this
year on the PGA Tour. ... Robert Damron tied the tournament record
with a 30 on the front nine. It was last matched one day earlier
by Dennis Paulson. ... Tiger Woods, caddie Steve Williams and
Mark O'Meara all waited outside a portable toilet behind the 13th
tee box with a “PLAYERS ONLY” sign attached to the door.
When the door finally opened, a red-faced fan emerged and ducked
back under the ropes. ... Two-time winner Joe Durant had a 75,
breaking his streak of 19 consecutive rounds under par. ... Tournament
host Arnold Palmer had a 78 and finished at 163. He last made
the cut in 1993.
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