Second-round notes: THE TOUR Championship

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Sep. 26, 2008
By Doug Milne Jr., PGA TOUR

Anthony Kim carded a 1-under-par 69 at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola on Friday and will take a two-shot lead over Sergio Garcia into Saturday's third-round as the PGA TOUR concludes the Playoffs for the FedExCup.

Kim's two-stroke lead is just two back of the all-time 36-hole record held by Tom Watson (1987), Tom Kite (1989) and Tom Lehman (1996).

• This is first time in Kim's PGA TOUR career, in his 50th start, that he has been leader/co-leader after 36 holes of a TOUR event.

• Should Kim go on and win THE TOUR Championship, he would become the youngest player in the event's history to do so at the age of 23 years, 3 months, 9 days. Currently, that distinction belongs to Tiger Woods, who won THE TOUR Championship in 1999 at 24 years, 10 months, 1 day.

• In the 21 year-history of THE TOUR Championship, only five players have won going wire-to-wire.

Year Player
1987 Tom Watson
1988 Curtis Strange
1991 Craig Stadler
1996 Tom Lehman
2005 Bart Bryant

Eight of the players in the 30-player field are in their 20s, and three of those eight are at the top of the leaderboard. Leader Anthony Kim (23 years, 3 months, 7 days) is the youngest player in the field, followed by Camilo Villegas (26 years, 8 months, 19 days), the second-youngest. Sergio Garcia (28 years, 8 months, 17 days) is the sixth-youngest.

Through 36 holes of the 2007 TOUR Championship, an impressive 26 players were under par after two rounds. In 2008, only six players find themselves below par with 36 holes left to play.

Kim is making his first career start at THE TOUR Championship and is looking to become the first player since Bart Bryant in 2005 to capture the title in his first start at the event.

• After 36 holes at the Wachovia Championship and AT&T National, where Anthony Kim claimed his first and second PGA TOUR wins earlier this year, he was second and T3, respectively, headed into the weekend.

• Sergio Garcia got off to the hottest start in round two with five birdies and no bogeys on the outward nine en route to a five-under 65. Garcia began the round six shots off Anthony Kim's first-round lead. By the time Garcia made the turn, however, he trailed by just a single shot. When it was all said and done, Garcia ended up trailing Anthony Kim by just two strokes.

• A large part of Garcia's success in round two came with his accuracy from the fairway. Ranked 25th in Greens in Regulation in 2008, Garcia was 100 percent through 10 holes in round 2. Of his last eight holes, he hit five greens in regulation for a total of 15/18.

• BMW Championship winner Camilo Villegas rebounded nicely in round two with a four-under-par 66.

• Following Phil Mickelson's opening-round, 2-under 68 in round one, he struggled early with a two-over 37 on the front nine in round two, caused by a pair of bogeys. In typical Mickelson fashion, however, he rallied on the back with birdies on Nos. 12, 13, 15, 16 and 17 to post a two-under 68. The 2000 champion has not posted a top-10 finish at THE TOUR Championship since T5 honors in 2002.

• Accuracy seemed to be Phil Mickelson's issue on the front-nine in round two. He found just three of seven fairways and hit just four of nine in greens in regulation. On the inward-nine, finding fairways remained a struggle, going just two-for-seven. The biggest difference was his greens-in-regulation percentage. After missing the green on number 10, Mickelson hit seven of his remaining eight greens in regulation, leading to five birdies between 12 and 17, en route to a second-round two-under-par 68.

• Following his second-round, 1-under 69, good for a T5 headed into the weekend, Mike Weir is looking to become the winningest Canadian in PGA TOUR history. Currently Weir is tied with George Knudson, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, with eight PGA TOUR titles. Knudson won eight times between 1961 and 1972.

Honda Classic champion Ernie Els wasn't able to get much going in round-two. Els, who began the day T2, fired a second-round three-over 73 to finish the day T8.

• Of the five past champions in the field in round-two; Chad Campbell (2003), Vijay Singh (2002), Mike Weir (2001), Phil Mickelson (2000) and Billy Mayfair (1995), only Mickelson (3) and Weir (T5) found themselves in the top 10 through 18 holes.

Round-by-round scoring averages for THE TOUR Championship at East Lake
Year Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Cumulative
1998 71.067 71.433 71.100 71.267 71.218
2000 70.034 69.379 70.207 69.552 69.793
2002 70.300 70.033 70.133 68.367 69.707
2004 70.633 70.867 69.931 69.345 70.203
2005 69.414 69.069 69.103 70.069 69.414
2006 72.074 71.370 69.852 69.741 70.760
2007 67.500 67.833 67.800 70.167 68.325
2008 72.233* 70.830      
*Highest single-round scoring average in tournament history at East Lake Golf Club.
NOTE: Through two rounds, East Lake has yet to give up a bogey-free round.
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