Hoch takes midway lead at Tour Championship
By RON SIRAK / AP Golf Writer
HOUSTON (AP) -- Scott Hoch, who would go over $2 million in winnings for the year if he won the Tour Championship and still not catch Tiger Woods on the money list, shot a 65 Friday to take the midway lead.
Hoch's 36-hole total of 9-under-par 133 was one stroke ahead of Jim Furyk and two better than Mark Calcavecchia and David Duval, who was trying to become the first player to win three consecutive starts on tour since 1993.
Hoch, a rock-solid player with a great short game who made the cut in all 21 tournaments he played on the PGA Tour this year, made four consecutive birdies and five in six holes beginning on No. 8.
"I left it in some good spots where I was going uphill," he said about his approach shots to those greens. "The key was that on the holes I made good reads, I made good putts."
The only blemish on Hoch's round was a bogey on the final hole when he drove into the rough.
"I let one shot get away from me a little bit," Hoch said, "and I had a terrible lie in the rough."
Hoch would finish the year with $2,002,988 if he picked up the $720,000 first prize. But the $64,000 last-place checks means the worst Woods could end the year with was $2,033,233.
Tom Lehman set the season earnings record last year with $1.7 million.
Woods would break Lehman's record by nearly $1 million if he won here and he made that a possibility Friday when he moved into contention with a 68 to get to 5-under-par 137, four strokes behind Hoch.
The only two players who could overtake Woods on the money list are Davis Love III, who was at 136, and Justin Leonard, who was at 139.
Furyk, who has won nearly $1.2 million this year without a victory, finished both nines with a birdie and shot 34 on both sides as he put together a 68.
"My entire game was rock solid," Furyk said. "I saved myself a couple of times with my short game. I just have to keep it going and play well on the weekend."
Duval got to 9-under at one point but made a double bogey on No. 14 when he had to take a penalty drop from behind a tree and a bogey on the 16th to squander a chance to go into the weekend with at least a piece of the lead.
"I'm right there, two shots back," Duval said. "That's where anyone would like to be going into the weekend."
Calcavecchia started the round with three consecutive birdies and four in the first five holes, then ended it with another on No. 18 as he shot a 66 to pull into the hunt.
"I got off to a nice fast start," Calcavecchia said. "My day was set up from the first five holes. After that I just kept plugging away."
Calcavecchia hit all 18 greens but "these greens are so large some of them would have been misses anywhere else," he said. "I had three or four 40- and 50-footers."
Divots: Todd Gleaton, a two-time winner on the Nike Tour this year with $94,733 in earnings, signed with Cambridge Sports International as his management company. ... Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Justin Leonard and Davis Love III, the four major championship winners this year, will next hook up in the MasterCard PGA Grand Slam in Hawaii on Nov. 17-18. ... Calcavecchia's 3-year-old son Eric flew home to Florida for Halloween. "He's going to be Jeremy Roenick, the hockey player," Calcavecchia said. ... Calcavecchia answered the door one Halloween dressed as Goofy. "I got a lot of aren't-you-a-little-old-for-this looks," he said. ... Jesper Parnevik, who started the day tied for the lead, shot a 73 and slipped six strokes behind.