The Live Report, Round 2: Arnold Palmer Invitational

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Robert Allenby had the only bogey-free round of the day on Friday, shooting a 5-under 65 to move into contention.

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Arnold Palmer Invitational

PGATOUR.COM's The Live Report is on the scene at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard and we'll provide updates all day long for each round, so check back often. (All timestamps are Eastern Time.) PGA TOUR Shot Tracker | Live Scoring | PGA TOUR Network | Facebook | Twitter

BOGEY FREE (5:25 p.m.): There was only one bogey-free round here today, a 5-under 65 by Robert Allenby. Not surprisingly, that moved the Aussie from 41st at the start of the day into third heading to the weekend.

Sean O'Hair, meanwhile, had a chance to have the only other bogey-free round, but just missed his par putt on No. 9, his final hole of the day. Still, his 5 under matched Allenby's as the lowest scores of the day on an extremely difficult day of scoring.

O'Hair, who played Bay Hill a lot as a kid, finished third last year and was the first player in the field to show up here this week, will take a three-shot lead to Saturday as he tries to win for the first time since last year's PODS Championship. -- Brian Wacker

Here's a look at Allenby's scorecard from today:

TIDBITS FROM TIGER (4:55 p.m.): Tiger Woods finished his session with the media earlier today thanks to an early tee time and had an interesting Masters story to share.

"I remember my first champions' dinner, I'm hosting it in '98, and I'm sitting next to Ben Crenshaw and Mr. Nelson," Woods said. "So we start talking about how you hold a club and blah blah blah. At the time I was changing my grip a little bit, and Mr. Nelson says, 'This is how I hold it.' We have knives out. 'This is how I hold it. Back in 1934 I changed it to this,' and I'm thinking, '34, that's a long time ago. And Ben says, 'No, you've got to hold it like a dove' and the whole deal and the feel and the flow.

"He's got a knife in his hand. That was pretty neat. To me that's more special than anything else, to be able to go into the champions' locker room and the champions' dinner, to hear the stories of a bygone era."

Indeed. -- Brian Wacker

FRONT-ROW SEAT (4:25 p.m.): Mark Wilson and his buddies back home in Elmhurst, Ill., have a Masters pool each year. Small wonder, then, that his friends plan to pick Wilson's brain after he played with two of the favorites -- Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington -- in the first two rounds of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Woods finished 36 holes at 3 under while Harrington is 2 under. Wilson hung with the two marquee players in shooting 2 under, as well, so he has the scoop.

"I'm like, I'll let you guys know how they look, see if you want to pick them or not," the UNC graduate said. "So I was paying a little bit of attention, and I think they're both guys I'd pick.

"Tiger has got that little draw working, hits the ball up in the air that's impressive; obviously you need that at Augusta. I've never played there, but from what everyone tells me, you like to be able to hit it up in the air and draw it, so he's working on that. Looks fantastic.

"And then Padraig, he played so solid today and he's hitting it up in the air, as well. He's hitting his 3-wood a long way off the tee and hitting his irons up in the air. I made the comment to my caddie that I usually need to flight it into the wind, 5-, 6-irons, to actually hit the ball low, whereas those guys hit it up in the air, and maybe they're hitting it so solid with a little spin that it goes right through the wind. So they're compressing the ball very well."

If Wilson, who won the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun earlier this year, continues playing the way he is this week, his buddies might have a conflict. A win at Bay Hill or next week at the Shell Houston Open would put him in the field at Augusta National.

"Unless I play in the tournament, yeah, I'm in (the pool)," Wilson said. "I'd be picking (Woods or Harrington), so I've got to figure out what I'm going to tell my buddies. I'll probably give them a good scouting report.

"My wife beats me in that every day. You'd think I'd have a better chance of picking the right guy, but it's kind of pot luck." -- Helen Ross

FISHER DISQUALIFIED (4:10 p.m.): England's Ross Fisher, who reached the consolation match of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship a few weeks ago, wasn't so fortunate this week. Fisher was disqualified today after signing for a 3 on No. 14. Unfortunately, he actually made a 4.

It was a particularly ugly back nine for Fisher, who sandwiched that bogey on No. 14 with a bogey on 13 and a double on 15 on his way to a back-nine 42. -- Brian Wacker

THE KING'S FAVORITE MOMENT (4:00 p.m.): Want to know one of the reasons why Arnold Palmer, host of this week's tournament, has made a career-and-a-half since his days on the PGA TOUR? When Palmer was asked by the GOLF CHANNEL crew what his favorite memory from Bay Hill was, he paused for a second, then said, "buying it." Absolutely classic.

Think about that for a second and think about all the great moments that have taken place at Bay Hill -- Robert Gamez holing out from the 18th fairway to beat Greg Norman, almost any of Tiger's five wins here, including last year's 24-foot birdie putt to win. Yet the most memorable moment for Palmer was buying the place, which he did in 1976. The man clearly has a vision and that vision has obviously been pretty far-reaching. Now it'll be interesting to see what changes he has in store for the place next year. -- Brian Wacker

CUT CHECK (3:50 p.m.): Good news for Vijay Singh fans: The cut line is now at 4 over (which should give you an idea of just how tough Bay Hill is playing). Singh is through 11 holes and is right on the cut line and is looking to extend his streak of never missing the cut in 16 appearances here. -- Brian Wacker

MORE GORE (3:30 p.m.): Jason Gore had an adventurous round that included four bogeys and four birdies, the last coming courtesy of a delicately curving 8-footer on the 18th hole.

"(The) putt broke a little bit more, but thank God I had a gold-glove winning hole there and it just kind of grabbed it and pulled it down," Gore said.

The affable Californian was the clubhouse leader when he finished at 5 under, although Sean O'Hair soon eclipsed him with birdies on his first three holes. Regardless, Gore will be among the leaders as the action heats up this weekend.

Gore, who has been revamping his swing, has one PGA TOUR victory, but that came back in 2005 -- the same year that he shared the second-round lead at the U.S. Open, won three times on the Nationwide Tour and captured the 84 LUMBER Classic.

"The good news is it's been a long time, but I've been there before, and you know, I'm such a streaky player that I'm just crazy enough or stupid enough or stubborn enough or whatever you want to call it to go out and play well this weekend," Gore said.

"I'm just going to do the same thing and stay focused and know that this golf course is playing pretty difficult and just focus on what I'm doing and keep moving forward. ... Bogeys are there to be made and there's also birdies. The greens are rolling perfect, so you just have to be patient and do what you have to do when you have the opportunity."

Even so, Gore knows Bay Hill can yield a low score. After all, his opening 65 is the low of the tournament to date, so he just wants to keep moving forward.

"Somebody is going to get hot and shoot it, that's just the way it goes," Gore said. "It's difficult to do. You just have to keep plugging along. You know that there's only going to be a few random guys that shoot it, you just hope that they're barely making the cut." -- Helen Ross

Here's a look at Gore's scorecard from Friday:

A sip of Maginnes

HARRINGTON HITS THE RANGE (3:10 p.m.): Padraig Harrington has been on the driving range for the better part of an hour, but he hasn't hit many shots, at least not conventionally. His session started with his driver in his right hand and his 3-wood in his left. He made full swings attempting to keep the clubs an equal distance apart throughout the swing. If you tried that, you would scar both clubs and probably tear a rotator cuff. He then dropped the 3-wood and pounded a few drives. Still not satisfied, the reigning British Open and PGA Champ put the head cover back on his driver and made a few swings utilizing the added weight. These swings were fierce with full body turn and maximum effort. Then back to the rock pile to hit more drives that bounded off the end of the range. Padraig clearly has his sights set on creating more width in his golf swing -- in other words, he is trying to have his hands farther from his right shoulder at the top of his golf swing. This is where power lives, and he is certainly generating plenty. We know the putter works, even under the most extreme pressure. Although he hasn't looked like he has when he won the last two majors, things are starting to round into form. When people started talking about the "Paddy Slam" I thought that it was a new dish at Denny's. Now I am not so sure. -- John Maginnes

GORE AT THE HALFWAY MARK (3:05 p.m.): Defending champion Tiger Woods fired a 1-under 69 to take the early clubhouse lead at 3-under 137 before being overtaken by Jason Gore (65-70--135). His round included chip-ins for birdie-3s at Nos. 8 AND 10. At the halfway point last year, Woods was T20.

Gore

Should he hold at least a share of the lead at day's end, Gore will have held the 36-hole lead/co-lead three times in his PGA TOUR career. He held a share of the lead at the halfway point of the 2005 U.S. Open Championship before eventually finishing T49. Most recently, he held the second-round lead at the 2007 Shell Houston Open, eventually finishing T19. The second-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win five of 12 stroke-play events on the TOUR this season, most recently Phil Mickelson at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship. -- Doug Milne

TIGER, PADDY AND MORE (2:50 p.m.): Mark Wilson said the "Tiger is back" comments thankfully trumped "You da man" on Thursday when he played with Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington in the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.

The excitement has been palpable and both Wilson and Harrington enjoyed their pairing for the first two rounds. Woods leads the group at 3 under while Wilson and Harrington each finished 36 holes in 2 under.

The Irishman thinks that adrenaline -- and the fact that he's in contention -- will help as he prepares for the Masters, where Harrington is seeking to win a third straight major.

"I think all the way through my game it was a good situation for me the last two days, having a bit more hype about and a bit more going on," he said. "We're somewhat in the tournament, as well, and I think that's the sort of position -- no doubt for me anyway, I don't win tournaments out of the blue.

"I need to be in that position and feeling that sort of tension for me to go and win the next time. I do need to be getting that feeling if I want to be there at the Masters, that's for sure."

The 2008 PGA TOUR Player of the Year is still looking for his first top-10 finish of the season. His best came in his last start, a tie for 20th at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship, but the Dubliner is focused on the larger prize.

The hard-working Harrington, who was the last man on the range Tuesday afternoon in his second practice session of the day, calls his game a "work in progress." He likes the direction he's headed, though, and his 68 Friday actually could have been better.

"It's always good to shoot 2-under par around here, but I am disappointed there, three-putting the last and missing three short birdie putts in the last six holes," Harrington said. "Things like that happen at times, but still happy with the score." -- Helen Ross

FAST COMPANY (2:35 p.m.): It's no secret that Ian Poulter likes fast cars. Apparently so does Pat Perez. According to Joe Diovisalvi, who works with Perez on his fitness, Perez comandeered Poulter's Bentley this week in Orlando.

Judging by the way Poulter is playing -- he's 8 over and headed for a missed cut -- and the way Perez is playing -- even par -- the Englishman might have a little more time with the car this weekend than Perez.

To see some pictures of Perez in the Bentley and more about Poulter's collection, click here. -- Brian Wacker

BASKETBALL ON THE BRAIN (2:25 p.m.): It looks like more than a few players from the Champions Tour, which is at Cap Cana this week, took a hit in their picks for the Final Four of the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament.

D.A. Weibring, R.W. Eaks, Mike Hulbert, Andy Bean and Loren Roberts all had Duke beating Villanova last night, while Roberts and Phil Blackmar had Memphis over Missouri. See how the rest of their picks fare by clicking here. -- Brian Wacker

CHECKING THE PICKS (2:05 p.m.): A quick check of our expert picks for this week reveals that Sean O'Hair is having the best week amongst the picks, since no one picked Jason Gore or Tim Herron. There's still plenty of golf to be played, however, and several players are still in the mix. Well, except for Anthony Kim since he pulled out with the flu.

Tiger Woods is currently fourth with Nick Watney and Padraig Harrington one shot back in a logjam for fifth. Charles Howell and Kenny Perry are both tied for 23rd at even par for the week, while the rest of the picks -- Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen and Brett Quigley all appear to be headed for a missed cut. -- Brian Wacker

NEW LEADER ... FOR NOW (1:43 p.m.): Sean O'Hair has just taken the lead with a pair of birdies on Nos. 10 and 11 to begin his second round -- and he's in good position to make birdie on No. 12.

Looks like he's taking his own advice by taking advantage of hitting the green and making as many birdies as possible because "you know you're going to make bogeys out there," O'Hair said yesterday.

So far, so good for O'Hair, who finished T3 here last year and T14 the year before. -- Brian Wacker

WHAT WILL LUMPY DO (1:20 p.m.): With the wind blowing once again and not many low numbers being put up -- 2 under is the lowest on the board so far -- you have to wonder how Tim Herron will play.

Lumpy won here in 1999, but has won just once (at Colonial) since then. His 66 yesterday also broke a streak of 25 rounds of 70 or higher at Bay Hill. Herron tees off in about a half-hour with Jerry Kelly and Bubba Watson and you can follow his round live with Shot Tracker by clicking here. -- Brian Wacker

TIGER IN THE HOUSE (1:00 p.m.): Tiger Woods is in the clubhouse with a 1-under 69 today and as a result he's just two off the current lead.

His round was pretty similar to yesterday's -- he hit 9 out of 18 greens in regulation again and hit two more fairways, 8, than he did Thursday. Woods also took just one more putt today with 25.

Don't expect him to lose much more, if any, ground from the leader(s). It's been the topic of the morning, but Bay Hill continues to play extremely difficult today and it's only going to get harder and crustier as the day goes on. -- Brian Wacker

Here's a look at Woods' scorecard from today. To review his round shot-by-shot,click here.

A sip of Maginnes

MR. WILSON (12:55 p.m.): Indicative of nothing I have a friend in Greensboro named Mark Wilson. I have a friend on the PGA TOUR by the same name who walked shoulder to shoulder with Tiger Woods over the first two rounds. I met the Greensboro Wilson a couple of weeks after the TOUR player won The Honda Classic in 2007. On the first tee of Greensboro Country Club, we were introduced and I immediately congratulated him on winning The Honda Classic. As a nearly scratch player, he has a little game of his own but nothing compared to his namesake. The day went on and every time the Greensboro Wilson hit a bad shot we started joking..."How in the world did you win The Honda Classic a couple of weeks ago?" He took the ribbing in stride. By the time we made it to the 19th hole, he had a new nickname and since that day he has been known as Honda. That all changed a few weeks ago when the TOUR player won his second career TOUR event in Mexico. Now the other guy's nickname has been amended to either Nacho Honda or Macho Honda depending on who you ask. Or maybe it will just go back to Honda if the TOUR player Wilson wins the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. I mean, how do you turn that into a nickname? Either way, it has been good for more than a few laughs. Before he teed it up with Tiger on Thursday morning, I told this story to Mark Wilson on the range at Bay Hill. He laughed and that was good enough for me. -- John Maginnes

EVIL SIXTH HOLE (12:45 p.m.): The 18th at Bay Hill gets all the publicity (and is this week's Kodak Challenge hole), but the sixth hole here has been devilsh so far.

The 558-yard, par-5 sixth might've ranked as the 14th toughest hole on the course through Round 1, but it also produced 14 water balls -- more than any other hole on the course.

A dogleg left around the big lake at Bay Hill, the scoring average is right at par, but it yielded just two eagles -- compared to six double bogeys and two "others" -- through the first round. -- Brian Wacker

COMMITTMENTS (12:30 p.m.): Geoff Ogilvy isn't in the field this week and Anthony Kim withdrew earlier in the week with the flu, but yesterday both players committed to playing in next week's Shell Houston Open.

That will mean another strong field for next week with eight of the top nine players in the world -- including Phil Mickelson -- and 15 of the top 20 committed for the tournament at Redstone. -- Brian Wacker

CUT CHECK (12:15 p.m.): The cut line here is currently at 3 over and that means some prominent players could be heading home early.

Among those on the outside looking in at the moment are: Vijay Singh, who shot a 4-over 74 yesterday and has yet to tee off today; Davis Love III, who is 6 over and with a missed cut would possibly miss qualifying for the Masters; Ryo Ishikawa, who shot 77 yesterday and is 1 over through 10 holes today; and Jim Furyk, who finished third at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship, but is 8 over so far this week. -- Brian Wacker

MORNING MOVERS (12:00 p.m.): Tiger Woods, along with some other notable players, got out to an early start today at Bay Hill. You can see highlights from today by checking out our Morning Movers segment by clicking here .

TIGER UPDATE (11:55 a.m.): Tiger Woods was out early today and got off to the same start he did yesterday with a birdie on his opening hole -- only this time he chipped in on No. 10 instead of pitching in from off the green on No. 1.

Woods added another birdie on No. 12, but has since given both of those back with bogeys on No. 16 and No. 1. That has him at even par for the day and 2 under for the tournament, but don't expect him to lose too much ground even if he doesn't make a birdie the rest of the way. Bay Hill continues to play difficult and no one is really going low. -- Brian Wacker

TOUGH TRACK (11:35 a.m.): There will be some changes made to Bay Hill for next year -- in fact they'll start ripping it up in May -- but it continues to play as one of the toughest courses on the PGA TOUR.

Both nines played a full stroke over par through yesterday's first round and there aren't exactly a lot of low numbers being thrown up today -- Round 1 leader Jason Gore is already 1 over through 10 holes and Lee Janzen, who got to 5 under has since given two strokes back.

Jeff Overton, meanwhile, is 4 over on his round after opening with a 66 yesterday and Scott Piercy, a sleeper pick this week, is 12 over with three double bogeys on the day (after a 71 yesterday). -- Brian Wacker

JANZEN MAKING MOST OF OPPORTUNITY (11:15 a.m.): The last time Lee Janzen won a tournament was in 1998 at the U.S. Open at Olympic Club. Not exactly a bad place to have your last victory, but Janzen is doing his best to notch at least one more this week at Bay Hill, a course he has never played all that well at or even really liked a lot.

Janzen can thank Arnold Palmer for playing this week because the only reason Janzen -- who hasn't finished better than 146th on the money list since 2004 -- is here is because The King extended him a sponsor's exemption.

So far, Janzen is delivering with three straight birdies to open the back nine to get to 5 under for the week and 3 under for the day. -- Brian Wacker

TAYLOR'S SWIFT START (10:50 a.m.): Vaughn Taylor had an eventful front nine. Taylor, who started the day at even par, traded birdies and bogeys twice -- at Nos. 1 and 2 and again at Nos. 5 and 6. He jump-started the round, though, with a 6-iron at the 191-yard seventh hole that found the cup for an ace.

Taylor wasn't content with the hole-in-one, either. He rolled in a 6-footer for birdie at No. 8 and a 24-footer at the next to make the turn in 31 and at 4 under for the tournament. Through three holes on the back nine, Taylor is one stroke behind Jason Gore, who is even for the day through his first six holes. -- Helen Ross

Groups We're Watching

Tee time Players   8:25 am ET No. 1 Mark Wilson, Padraig Harrington, Tiger Woods After struggling at Doral, Woods finally got his putter working Thursday. Now can the rest of his game catch up? Track 'em 8:25 pm ET No. 10 Nick Watney, Davis Love III, Stephen Ames Red-hot Watney hit 83 percent of his greens in regulation Thursday. If he does that all week, he could win again. Track 'em 1:06 pm ET No. 1 Kenny Perry, Stewart Cink, Adam Scott These three Steady Eddies spent Thursday idling along. Can any of them start making some putts and get into the chase? Track 'em

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