World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions: Round 2 notebook

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Nov. 6, 2009
By Joel Schuchmann, PGA TOUR Staff

SHANGHAI -- Here is a look at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions leaderboard through 36 holes and where each player is currently ranked in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Position Player OWGR
T1 Tiger Woods No. 1
T1 Nick Watney No. 32
T3 Phil Mickelson No. 2
T3 Ryan Moore No. 75
T3 Alvaro Quiros No. 51
6 Anthony Kim No. 22
7 Pat Perez No. 87
T8 Brian Gay No. 40
T8 Jyoti Randhawa No. 235
T10 Camilo Villegas No. 19
T10 Ryo Ishikawa No. 36
T10 Koumei Oda No. 131
T10 Lin Wen-Tang No. 104

• Of the four past winners of the HSBC Champions, Y.E. Yang was the lowest ranked the week before winning this event:

Year Winner OWGR entering
2008 Sergio Garcia No. 3
2007 Phil Mickelson No. 2
2006 Y.E. Yang No. 77
2005 David Howell No. 19

• Sergio Garcia is the youngest winner in HSBC Champions history at the age of 28 years, 10 months, 1 day. Of the players currently in the top 10, Nick Watney (age 28/6/14 on Sunday); Ryan Moore (age 26/11/3 on Sunday); Anthony Kim (age 24/4/20 on Sunday); Camilo Villegas (age 27/10/1 on Sunday); and Ryo Ishikawa (age 18/1/22 on Sunday) have a chance to establish a new record should they go on to win this week.

• After a 1-under 35 on the front nine, Tiger Woods played his last 11 holes in 4 under to post a 6-under 67 and move into a tie for the lead with Nick Watney. Woods is a six-time winner on the PGA TOUR in 2009 and is making his third appearance at the HSBC Champions, but the first since 2006. He finished as runner up in both appearances (2005, 2006).

• Woods has 16 wins and 27 top-10 finishes in 30 World Golf Championship starts. He has at least one victory per season in a World Golf Championship event since the inception of the series in 1999.

Tiger Woods: 16 Official World Golf Championship victories
Event Years won
Bridgestone Invitational 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Accenture Match Play Championship 2003, 2004, 2008
CA Championship 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007

Nick Watney has now held at least a share of the 36-hole lead at four PGA TOUR events -- three this season (including the HSBC Champions). But this is the first time he has been able to maintain one of his five first-round leads into Round 2.

Year Tournament Eventual finish Rd. 1-2
2009 HSBC Champions   64-70
2009 Transitions Championship T12 69-67
2009 FBR Open T12 70-63
2006 Chrysler-Greensboro Open T6 64-71

• Watney is one of eight players from the United States in their 20s with two or more TOUR victories. The others are: Dustin Johnson, Troy Matteson, Lucas Glover, J.B. Holmes, D.J. Trahan, Sean O'Hair and Anthony Kim.

Alvaro Quiros shot the low round of the day. Quiros' 66 included an eagle-3 on No. 2, three consecutive birdies on Nos. 7-9, and a bogey on No. 15 followed by birdies on No. 16-17.

• Quiros qualified for the HSBC Champions via his win at the Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy on the European Tour. He is making his third appearance at this event, with his best finish coming last year in a tie 10th.

Phil Mickelson, the 2007 HSBC Champions winner, recorded the only bogey-free round of the day, which was also the low round of the day (with Alvaro Quiros). The score helped Mickelson jump up the leaderboard from a tie for 13th after Round 1 to tied for third heading into the weekend.

Ryan Moore (T3) is competing in his first World Golf Championship this week at the HSBC Champions. Moore qualified by winning the Wyndham Championship, the final event in the PGA TOUR Regular Season.

Watney (T1), Moore (T3) and Pat Perez (seventh), are all winners on the PGA TOUR in 2009, which is how they earned a spot in this week's field. They are all playing the HSBC Champions for the first time in their careers.

• Ernie Els made a hole-in-one during the second round at the 198-yard sixth. He used a 6-iron for the ace.

• The 23 countries represent the most international field of the World Championships this year. Midway through the event, the top 10 includes six countries: USA (Woods, Watney, Mickelson, Moore, Kim, Perez, Gay); Spain (Alvaro Quiros); India (Jyoti Randhawa); Colombia (Camilo Villegas); Japan (Ryo Ishikawa, Koumei Oda); and Chinese Taipei (Lin Wen-tang).

• No player in the HSBC Champions field has finished in the top 10 in all three previous World Golf Championships this season; below is a list of those who have posted two top-10 finishes and where they stand through 36 holes of the HSBC Champions.

Player Accenture CA Bridgestone HSBC (through 36 holes)
Phil Mickelson T9 Won T58 T3
Camilo Villegas T9 T5 T36 T10
Oliver Wilson T9 T5 T11 T37
Tiger Woods T17 T9 Won T1
Stewart Cink 3 T59 T6 T45

• There were 11 eagles on the day, including Ernie Els' hole-in-one, compared to three during the first round. Eagles were made on six different holes; on Thursday, all three eagles occurred on the 14th.

Hole Players with eagles
Par-5 second Alvaro Quiros, Scott Strange
Par-3 sixth Ernie Els (hole-in-one)
Par-4 13th James Kingston
Par-5 14th Ryo Ishikawa
Par-4 16th Ricardo Gonzalez
Par-5 18th Ryan Moore, Jeppe Huldahl, Richard Sterne, Prayad Marksaeng, Anthony Kim

• There were no bogey-free rounds during Round 1, and only Mickelson went bogey-free on Friday. Perez came close but made bogey on No. 9, his final hole of the day.

• Ishikawa and Robert Allenby posted the best birdie streaks of the second round with four consecutive. Ishikawa birdied Nos. 5-8; Allenby birdied No. 1-4;

• Round Two: 22 of the 78 players in the field broke 70 in the second round, while 40 players broke par and 51 were at par or better.

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