Overton still ahead at Turning Stone
VERONA, N.Y. (AP) -- Jeff Overton said he felt like he was back in college. He played like it, too.
The former Big 10 player of the year at Indiana shot a 3-under 69 on Friday to take a one-shot lead over Tag Ridings (68) in the blustery second round of the Turning Stone Resort Championship.
Playing through wind, rain and even a brief shower of hail, Overton was at 8-under 136. Two weather delays totaling nearly an hour and a half prevented the entire field from finishing before darkness fell, but Overton's lead was safe.
Among the players still on the course was Steve Allan at 3 under with three holes to play.
In the clubhouse and alone in third at 6 under was Australian rookie Jason Day (69), one shot ahead of Robert Allenby (68), Mark Hensby (69) and Charles Howell III (68). Dustin Johnson (68), Brad Elder (69), Brian Davis (69), and Kyle Thompson (69) were tied for seventh at 4 under.
Defending Turning Stone champ Steve Flesch (73) finished the two rounds at 3-over 147, good enough to make the projected cut by a shot.
Overton, who began the day with a one-shot lead, had held or shared the lead after the opening round only one other time, at the 2007 Reno-Tahoe Open, and tied for 37th. He showed no signs of faltering here, even in some of the roughest weather on TOUR this year.
"It reminded me of playing college golf at Indiana," Overton said. "I can remember playing at Ohio State a few years back the golf tournament got snowed out. I've had quite a lot of experience playing in these kinds of conditions."
It showed. Overton reached all 18 greens in regulation and if he hadn't struggled with his putter -- he needed 34 putts to complete the round -- would have made it that much more difficult for his rivals to catch him.
After bogeying his first hole, Overton birdied Nos. 4, 8, 9 and reached 8 under after hitting 5-iron to 20 feet at the par-5 12th hole, waiting for the wind to die down, and two-putting for birdie. He felt fortunate because both times play was halted he was lining up a putt.
"Neither one of the delays really bothered me much," Overton said. "I'm sure it really bothered some guys if they were right in the middle of a shot."
Friday was nearly a carbon copy of Thursday. It was in the mid-40s at the start of play, the wind was blowing at 10-15 mph, an intermittent rain dampened the 7,482-yard Atunyote Golf Club course, and the sun peaked through the gloomy sky now and again.
"The sun was shining coming up to 16, but I think the temperature dropped 15 degrees," Johnson said. "You've just got to go with it."
In late morning a front moved through and Mother Nature threw another obstacle in there, unleashing a brief torrent of hail that halted play for 16 minutes.
"It was actually kind of nice," said Johnson, who was on the green at No. 18 when play was suspended. "I got to go inside and warm up. It didn't help, though. I missed the putt."
Day wasn't fazed. Just before the hail began falling, he made a hole-in-one, his first ace on the PGA TOUR, at the par-3 sixth hole to reach 5 under.
"I never played in hail before. I guess there's a first time for everything," said the 20-year-old Day, who hit 6-iron off the tee of the 180-yard hole and watched the ball hit the green and bounce back in the cup. "But I kept the momentum going."
While Day was celebrating, playing partner Michael Allen (74) was moping after making triple bogey at the hole after driving into a greenside bunker.
"I three-putted from 6 feet," lamented Allen, who began the day one shot off the lead and finished it trailing Overton by six. "It was hailing, and I didn't know if I should stop or keep going."
"I think he should have called it then and got a ruling, but he putted through it," Day said.
A half hour later, a rainstorm halted play again, this time for 71 minutes, which pushed afternoon tee times back more than an hour.
The sun broke through for good in the afternoon for the second straight day, lifting the temperature into the mid-50s. But the wind also picked up, making it still a challenge to get around the course unscathed.
Allan, tied for second to start the day, teed off just after 2 p.m. and made three bogeys on the first four holes of the back side to derail his chances of moving up.
The top 125 players on the money list at the end of the season will retain fully exempt status to play on the PGA TOUR in 2009. That makes this event, the richest in the Fall Series with a $6 million purse and million-dollar payday, a big deal for guys like Overton, who's ranked 142nd.
"It is about the money list, but you're just simply going after it to win golf tournaments," Overton said. "It's all about having that passion and drive to hopefully one day capture a trophy."
Divots: Second-round play was to resume at 8:45 a.m. Saturday. Third-round tee times will begin at 10:30 a.m., with players in threesomes starting on Nos. 1 and 10.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
XM Satellite Radio announcer Bob Stevens offers these observations from Thursday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
"It wasn't supposed to have to come down to this."
It's not a phrase you ever hear from PGA TOUR players. But a look at the leaderboard at the (almost) halfway mark of the Turning Stone Resort Championship is chock full of guys who expected not to be in the state they're in, not the state of New York, the state of desperation. Hoping they can make $850,000 just to keep their jobs next year.
But out of that desperation has come excellence for a number of guys who've gone through hail and back this week, and hell and back this year. You'd have thought 20-year-old Aussie Jason Day and 24-year-old Carolinian Dustin Johnson would be battling for Rookie of the Year after they finished sixth and seventh, respectively, at Pebble Beach back in February. But neither has had a top-10 since and they're now No. 128 and 129 on the money list, with only 125 guaranteed of their cards next year. Forget Rookie of the Year, they came to upstate New York not guaranteed of anything next year. Johnson and Day pretty much admitted to me that they caught a case of "Anthony Kim last year" after their hot starts. The game came easy and they quit practicing, quit doing the things that led to all that early success.
Maybe they should have asked Michael Allen and Mark Hensby how hard it is to survive on TOUR. Michael's claim to fame had been making it through q-school a record nine times, until he finished second here a year ago, finally locking up a card for 2008. Now he's back on the bubble, ranked 132nd with just five chances left if this one gets away. At least he took care of things early a year ago.
Mark Hensby waited until the third-to-last event last year to post a runner-up finish at the Fry's Electronics Open in Scottsdale and save his card. He even did it without the safety net of a paid-up q-school application just in case. With this year's q-school applications due next week, I asked this year's No. 164 after he climbed to fourth place on Friday if he was going to walk the fine line again. Nope. He sent the application in two weeks ago. He knows there are plenty of guys just as good as he is, and just as desperate.
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