Distracted Woods still within striking distance
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Don Pooley, who hasn't won a title in a
decade and has to scramble just to get into tournaments this year,
shot a 3-under-par 68 Friday to take the Nissan Open lead.
Pooley went to 7-under through two rounds at Riviera Country
Club, with some of the tour's biggest names, including Tiger Woods,
within striking distance of the lead.
Nick Faldo, Mark O'Meara and Scott Hoch were in a group one
shot off the pace, along with Tom Tryba. Defending champion Craig
Stadler and Payne Stewart another stroke back.
Fred Couples and Tom Watson, both two-time champions at Riviera,
were at 4-under, and Woods, who shot his second consecutive 70,
was in a group five shots behind Pooley
Woods, his mind not completely on his game because his father,
Earl, is hospitalized in nearby UCLA Medical Center following
heart bypass surgery nine days ago, shot his second consecutive
70, a rather routine round in which he had three birdies and two
bogeys.
Woods, 21, has won three of the 12 events he's played since
turning pro last fall, including the first event in California
this year, the Tournament of Champions.
At the other end of the spectrum, the 45-year-old Pooley, who
came on tour in 1976, lost his exempt status by finishing 169th
on the 1996 money list. So he gets into tournaments this year
only via a sponsor's exemption or a top 10 finish the week before.
He's still had a fine year so far, with fifth-place finishes
at Indian Wells, Calif., and Tucson, Ariz., and a couple of sponsor's
exemptions, he's made it into four events and won $134,126.
On a day when the stately, cypress-lined Riviera Country Club
course was made more difficult by shifting wind, Pooley moved
ahead with a steady round, two birdies on the front nine and two
more birdies and a lone bogey on the back.
That contrasted with some up-and-down performances.
Faldo, the defending Masters champion, opened a two-shot lead
when he birdied the 10th hole to go to 9-under, but he didn't
last long at the top of the leader board.
Faldo pushed his second shot on the par-4, 413-yard 12th hole
out of bounds and hit his third shot into the barranca to the
left of the green on his way to a double bogey. He lost another
shot to par at No. 16 and finished with a 70.
Watson, who began his round on the 10th tee, got on a roll,
going to 8-under and into the lead with a birdie on No. 1. But
then he slipped back, too, bogeying three of his last six holes
and finishing with a 71.
O'Meara, a two-time winner already this year, had a 69, and
Hoch, who shared the first-round lead with Stewart, a 71. Tryba
shot a 66.
Missing the cut, which came at 145 and beyond, were fomer U.S.
Open champions Lee Jansen and Ernie Els.
|
