Turning Stone Resort Championship, Round 2
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| Turning Stone Resort Championship | ||
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By PGATOUR.COM Staff
SECOND ROUND COMPLETE (6:10 p.m.): The second round is in the books at the Turning Stone Championship, where the story of the day was again the weather. This time it was the good weather, which allowed players to score much better on Friday.
How much better? Nearly two full strokes for the entire field. It was chilly, and there were periods of rain and wind, but overall, the conditions were ideal for scoring. That allowed Vaughn Taylor, who was out early, to take advantage. He owns a one-shot lead through the first 36 holes.
Nichloas Thompson, whose younger sister Alexis is competing in the LPGA Tour's event in Alabama this week, is right behind Taylor, along with Matt Kuchar and first-round co-leader Leif Olson.
In all, 10 players are within three shots of the lead heading to the weekend, which, by the way, should bring better weather with only a 30 percent chance of rain Saturday and Sunday. -- Brian Wacker
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KUCHAR CLIMBS TO TOP OF BOARD (4:55 p.m.): The second round of the Turning Stone Resort Championship is winding down, but not before Matt Kuchar has moved into contention. Actually, he's tied for the lead at 10 under after making four birdies, an eagle and one bogey through his first 15 holes today. And with the par-5 18th still to play, Kuchar could be in the lead by himself by the time play ends today.
Leif Olson, who shared the overnight lead with Tim Petrovic, isn't far back either -- he's 2 under through 13 holes and is two off the lead. Petrovic, on the other hand, had an up-and-down day with four birdies (all the back), a double bogey and a bogey to finish with a 71, leaving him three back of the lead. -- Brian Wacker
STAT OF THE DAY (4:20 p.m.): Here's a pretty good reason, actually a few of them, that help show why Vaughn Taylor leads in the second round of the Turning Stone Resort Championship:
• Taylor hit all 14 fairways today (and 11 of them yesterday).
• He hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation for a second straight day.
• He's 10th in the field in putts per green in regulation. -- Brian Wacker
GOLF IN THE OLYMPICS (4:05 p.m.): Now that the host city -- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil -- has been chosen for the 2016 Olympic Games, the attention will turn to what new sport -- golf and/or rugby -- will be added, if any. That vote will take place a week from today.
PGA TOUR executive vice president of communications and international affairs Ty Votaw, who was in Denmark when the announcement was made earlier today, was pleased with the announcement, but was adamant that golf's inclusion in the 2016 Games isn't concrete.
"As far as golf is concerned, we think this is great for golf in the region," Votaw told GOLF CHANNEL via telephone Friday afternoon. "It's a wonderful choice by the IOC. Having the opportunity to go to South America for the first time in Olympic history is big for Rio de Janeiro. If we're fortunate enough to get in, we think it's going to be great for golf."
As for where golf would be played should it get in -- Itanhangà G.C. in Rio de Janeiro ranked No. 100 on Golf Digest's 2007 list of 100 Best Courses Outside the U.S. -- Votaw didn't give any hints, noting the process behind choosing a host course or courses.
"It's very premature," Votaw said. "We're not going to talk about specific options until we're in. Even after that, we'll have to talk to the organizing committee." -- Brian Wacker
NORMAN ON SCOTT (3:45 p.m.): For those of you wondering what Presidents Cup International Team Captain Greg Norman thought of Adam's Scott's first round, here are his thoughts:
"I know Adam is very determined to move ahead, and yesterday was just a great indicator of it," Norman said during his Shark Shootout media day. "He told me that he's going to work extremely hard on his game the three weeks up to this tournament, and with that I think he's proven his case.
"As I said, one round can be the catapult to getting your confidence back very quickly. An invitation to be one of the two spots in the Presidents Cup could have been a confidence builder for him, who knows.
Norman has been vastly second-guessed for choosing the struggling Scott as one of his two Captain's Picks. Even with all that, the Shark isn't backing down.
"All I know is he deserves a spot," Norman said. "It's a captain's choice." -- Nick Zaccardi
TAYLOR STILL ON TOP (3:30 p.m.): Vaughn Taylor, who took advantage of an early tee time in good weather with a second-straight 67 to grrab the lead, is looking for just his second top-10 finish of the season.
Taylor, who is No. 131 on the TOUR money list with $519,282, has earned over $1 million his first five seasons on the PGA TOUR and if he keeps playing like this, will top that mark again.
The only other time Taylor led after two rounds, was at the 2005 Reno-Tahoe Open, which he went on to win. Prior to today, the last time Taylor held a lead after any round was the third round of the 2007 Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he finished third. -- Mark Williams
SOLID AGAIN (3 p.m.): Maybe a break, and the confidence of Greg Norman, is all Adam Scott needed.
A day after shooting a very solid 68, Scott continues to play well with four birdies through his first 10 holes. His round is marred only by a double bogey on the par-4 fourth, where it took Scott three strokes from just over 17 feet to find the hole.
Still, the last round-plus has been almost all positive for the Aussie, whose season has been much maligned.
And, at least statistically, things should only get better for him the rest of the weekend -- his scoring average is much better over the final two rounds (70.86 and 70.14) than it is in the first two (72.76 and 73.12). -- Brian Wacker
SCORING EASIER (2 p.m.): As mentioned by Nicholas Thompson, and others, scoring today at Turning Stone is much better than yesterday when it was not only cold, but wet, rainy and windy. How much easier is it today? Consider that yesterday, the course played over par (72.275), while today it's playing under par (70.146).
Though rain is on the way for much of the afternoon, don't expect the scoring to change much. Even tough short hitters will be at a little bit of a disadvantage since there won't be much run-off in the fairways, the greens will certainly be receptive to long-iron approaches. -- Brian Wacker
TIDBITS FROM THOMPSON (1:30 p.m.): Nicholas Thompson, whose younger sister Alexis is in contention at the LPGA's Navistar Classic, might get some ribbing from his fellow PGA TOUR players if she finishes higher than him this week, but he doesn't mind one bit.
"Whatever I do, I hope my brother and sister always trump me and they do better," Nicholas said. "I have no problem taking the back seat to both of them."
He might this week, too. Much like Turning Stone, the Robert Trent Jones Trail in Pratville, Ala., is playing equally soft and conditions are ideal for scoring.
"I don't know how much warmer the actual temperature number was, but it feels like it was warmer because it didn't really rain on us," the elder Thompson said. "It was pretty good scoring conditions other than the temperature."
Scoring was better than pretty good, actually, with the top six names on the leaderboard at Turning Stone shooting at least 5 under. -- Brian Wacker
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SIBLING RIVALRY (12:30 p.m.): Right now, the golf world belongs to the Thompson family and everyone else is apparently just living in it. As noted yesterday, Nicholas Thompson and his 14-year-older wunderkind sister Alexis are both playing well in their respective PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour events, and that's continued today.
Nicholas shot a 67 today and is alone in second place at the Turning Stone Resort Championship, where he's made 11 birdies and just two bogeys through the first two rounds. Meanwhile, Alexis is tied for the lead at the Navistar LPGA Classic. She'll tee off in the second round in about 20 minutes from now.
"That's pretty awesome," Nicholas said yesterday.
Wonder if he'll get any ribbing if his sister finishes higher than him? -- Brian Wacker
FRAZAR GOES LOW (12:10 p.m.): Bubble boy Harrison Frazar, No. 125 on the money list, just finished the low round of the tournament thus far, a 7-under 65 featuring five birdies and an eagle. He started the day outside of the top 100 on the leaderboard. Now, he's in the top 20.
Frazar fell one shot shy of the tournament record shared by Jeff Maggert and Jarrod Lyle, who both shot 64s in the second round in 2007 at Atunyote. For Frazar, the 65 matched his low round of the year (St. Jude Classic, second round). The last time he went lower was his 59 at q-school last year, which he won.
The key for Frazar was keeping it together on the front nine. In the first round, the Texan carded four bogeys in his first nine holes. On Friday, he started out blistering the back nine with four birdies and an eagle and went bogey-free on the front.
Frazar needed only 23 putts, helped by a 16-yard chip-in from the rough for eagle on the par-5 12th. -- Nick Zaccardi
Below is a look at Frazar's scorecard from today:
BYE, BYE CHICAGO (11:50 a.m.): Though golf's Olympic hopes are still live, the city of Chicago's aren't, at least for 2016. In an announcement that came just a little while ago, the Windy City, along with Tokyo, was eliminated from consideration to host the 2016 Games. That means it's down to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Madrid, Spain.
As noted by Jon Show of the Sports Business Journal on his Twitter feed, there are no golfers in the top 500 in the Official World Golf Rankings from Brazil, though Rio has one golf course among Golf Digest's 100 Best Courses Outside the U.S. -- Itanhangà G.C. in Rio de Janeiro.
Spain, meanwhile, certainly has a lot of connections with golf, most notably with Sergio Garcia, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, José María Olazábal and of course Seve Ballesteros. (Click here to read more from the PGA TOUR's Ty Votaw, who is in Denmark for the IOC's annoucement of the host city and new sports for 2016.) -- Brian Wacker
TURNING AROUND (11:30 a.m.): The second round of the Turning Stone Resort Championship is already in full swing, after a handful of players finished up the first round early this morning. The major difference between yesterday and today? A lot more players seem to be making a run up the leaderboard.
Vaughn Taylor is 5 under through his first 13 holes today -- and in the lead, for now, at 10 under -- and Scott Piercy is 6 under through 13. In fact, six of the top seven names on the leaderboard at the moment are at least 3 under today. Harrison Frazar, who came into the week 125th on the money list, is moving up, too, with a round of 7 under with a couple of holes left in his round.
So what's the difference? Weather. They played in pretty poor conditions yesterday with a lot of rain and wind. Take that away, but still keep preferred lies, and better scoring is what you get.
Don't expect conditions to stay that way, though. Rain, and a lot of it, is on the way this afternoon. -- Brian Wacker
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