Woods nine back at end of second round
By RON SIRAK
AP Golf Writer
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Steve Elkington, a past winner
of The Players Championship, balanced two back-nine bogeys with
precise iron play and solid putting for a 69 on Friday and the
36-hole lead over a couple of guys who know all about losing at
the TPC.
Taking advantage of near-perfect playing conditions in the
early morning, Elkington made five birdie putts all from 20 feet
or less as he finished two rounds at 9-under-par 135, one stroke
ahead of Larry Mize and two better than Tommy Tolles and David
Edwards.
"I had a couple of loose shots on the back, but other
than that I played real steady," said Elkington, who won
here in 1991 and took the Doral tournament three weeks ago.
Elkington's loose shots leading to bogeys came at No. 10, when
he drove into a bunker and then missed the green with his approach,
and No. 15, when he drove way right of the fairway and could only
chip back out of the thick rough.
British Open champion Tom Lehman, one of the few to survive
the afternoon wind, Craig Parry and Davis Love III, who had a
66, were at 138, while Ernie Els and Fuzzy Zoeller were in a group
at 139.
Tiger Woods stumbled to a 38 on the back nine and finished
with a 1-over 73, leaving him nine strokes back at even-par 144.
"I was worse off at Pebble Beach," Woods said. "If
I shoot well tomorrow and Sunday, who knows?"
Woods was 10 strokes back after two rounds at Pebble Beach,
then closed with a 63-64 and finished one stroke back of Mark
O'Meara.
But he'll need some help from Mother Nature this weekend if
he is to have a chance. Swirling winds in the afternoon kept scores
higher than in the morning.
"If the wind blows, it will be tough to go low,"
Woods said. "But it will be tough for everyone."
Masters champion Nick Faldo and Greg Norman were at 143. Defending
champion Fred Couples was at 145. All four played in the windy
afternoon.
"Obviously, teeing off early this morning, the conditions
of the course were perfect," Elkington said. "It's gotten
a little breezy out there now and the course is starting to dry
out a little bit."
Mize and Tolles were also able to take advantage of the soft
course and gentle breeze in the morning, Mize shooting a 68 and
Tolles a 67. Edwards, playing in the afternoon, held steady with
a 70.
Tolles, who tied for second last year behind Couples after
taking a two-stroke lead into the final round, got into the thick
of things with an eagle-birdie-birdie finish to be at 137.
"I'd probably give a little over $300,000 to have that
finish last year," Tolles said, referring to the difference
between first-place and second-place money in the tournament in
which the winner gets $630,000.
Mize, who squandered an even bigger lead even longer ago in
The Players Championship, birdied three holes in a row on Friday,
the final one coming on No. 5 when his 30-yard flop shot "trickled
in the hole just like a putt."
Mize, who 10 years ago won the Masters when he holed a 140-foot
chip on the second playoff hole to beat Norman, was runnerup to
John Mahaffey in the 1986 Players Championship after being three
strokes ahead with four holes to play.
"Choke is a word a lot of us don't like," Mize said
in 1986 after he shot a final-round 76. "But, yeah, I guess
I did."
Mize, who got his final birdie of the day with a 15-foot putt
on the island-green 17th hole, said he has been able to put memories
of his 1986 collapse behind him.
"That did gnaw at me a little bit after the fact but I
have been able to put it to bed and put it to rest," Mize
said. "Obviously, winning at Augusta the next year helped
that."
Few good scores were shot in the afternoon when the wind came
up and the course played more like the firm track it was meant
to be.
"Serious change," Lehman said raising his eyebrows
as he described the weather.
"The wind has been strong all afternoon. It's been difficult.
I feel like I spent all day trying to get up and down," Lehman
said after missing nine greens and using only 25 putts. "I
felt like 71 was a pretty good score."
Elkington, known for a picture-perfect swing and excellent
ball-striking, hit a wedge to 10 feet on No. 4 for a birdie and
picked up another stroke on par with a 7-iron to 10 feet on No.
6.
Turning the front nine in 34 to get to 8-under-par, it appeared
Elkington would pull away from the rest of the field. But he started
the back nine with a bogey when he missed the 10-foot, par-saving
putt.
He got birdies back on Nos. 11 and 12 on putts of 6 and 20
feet.
The bogey on No. 15 was erased on the par-5 16th hole when
he hit a 2-iron second shot just off the back edge, chipped to
five feet and made the putt for a birdie.
"I guess my round could have been better if I had made
more putts," Elkington said after needing 29 putts, four
more than he used in Thursday's first round. "It was a good
round under the conditions, I thought."
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