Associated Press
Friday, March 10
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. -- Heron Bay's trademark wind was back Friday, but several players continued to breeze through the Honda Classic.
J.P. Hayes shot a second-round 67 and moved to 12-under-par, one stroke ahead of David Sutherland and Hal Sutton.
Rick Fehr, Carlos Franco, Dudley Hart, Skip Kendall
and Kevin Wentworth were at 10-under.
"There is a tremendous amount of golf left," said Hayes, 34. "Who knows what the weekend weather is going to bring us. There is a ton of guys within three or four or five shots of the lead, but
... I would like to think that I am going to have a chance on Sunday afternoon."
Only 17 players in the 144-man field were over par after the second round at the TPCat Heron Bay. The cut was 4-under, most notably sending Franklin Langham -- last week's runner-up in the Doral Open -- home for the weekend.
The cut is the lowest on tour this year and matched the lowest in the 28-year history of the tournament.
Davis Love III, the highest-ranked player in the event, and Stuart Appleby were 7-under, and Bernhard Langer and defending champion Vijay Singh were 5-under headed into the weekend.
"I don't think I played that much better, but I'm making progress," said Love, who shot a 68 Friday to become one of 39 players within five strokes of the leader.
Hayes, whose only PGA Tour victory was the 1998 Buick Open, had seven birdies and two bogeys Friday. He was deadlocked with Sutherland and Sutton until he birdied the par-5 ninth hole.
"You would really have to have a four- or five-shot lead to feel any kind of momentum or confidence that you have a really good chance to win because so many things can happen and there are so many good players," Hayes said.
After a PGA Tour-record eight players tied for the opening-round lead at 7-under, tour officials did all they could Friday to keep the scores from reaching record lows.
They moved the tees back and placed the pins in tougher-to-reach positions, tucking many of them behind greenside bunkers.
"This is the PGA Tour; they are going to find edges," Sutton said. "I expect them to do that. It was playing quite bit more difficult today. There were tough pins that were hard to get at and the tees that were up yesterday ... they didn't have them up today. They had them all back."
The extra wind did an equal amount of damage.
Wind which subsided for most of the opening round was back Friday, gusting to 15 mph. And strong wind equals hard greens, which make for tougher putting.
"The wind was blowing just a little bit harder today," Kendall said. "It did play a lot more difficult. It was impossible to get the ball close. You'd land five feet short of the hole and it would go all the way to the back edge. You had no chance.
"Just the way it played, the way the wind was, you had to take what you could get."
Sutherland, who carded a rare double eagle Thursday, and Sutton shot 66s Friday. Sutherland birdied No. 14, doubling his score on the par-5 hole from the previous day.
"Part of me says this could be my week," said Sutherland, whose double eagle was his first ever and the first on tour this year. "But then again, I've gotten a hole-in-one and missed the cut before."
Sutton, a PGA Tour veteran and member of last year's winning Ryder Cup team, had a bogey-free round.
Casey Martin was even par Friday and remained 6-under. Martin, the first player to use a cart on tour, triple bogeyed No. 18, the fifth-toughest finishing hole on tour last year.
The 27-year-old Martin, who has a rare circulatory condition in his right leg that makes it difficult for him to walk 18 holes, drove his tee shot into a fairway bunker, then took two shots to get out of the sand.
His third shot landed behind a bush in a waste bunker just next to the green. He punched out to just in front of the green. Then he chipped onto the green and two-putted from 10 feet.
"I played 17 really good holes and then one really bad one," Martin said. "It was pretty easy to do, but it came at a bad time when I was darn near leading the tournament. It stings, but I hope to learn from it and never do it again ever. Ever."
Martin started on the back nine and was 9-under before the 18th.
He rebounded with a birdie on the par-5 No. 4 and just missed birdie putts on Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 9.
Divots
Australian sensation Aaron Baddeley shot a 4-under 68 and easily made the cut at 7-under. Baddeley, the 1999 Australian Open winner, is the only amateur playing in the event.
Franco said the tendinitis in his left wrist is getting worse.
Kendall didn't arrive in South Florida until Wednesday night, just hours before his tee time in the opening round.
John Daly is 5-under and drawing some of the largest galleries.
Friday, March 10
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. -- Heron Bay's trademark wind was back Friday, but several players continued to breeze through the Honda Classic.
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| Leader J.P. Hayes has made 14 birdies over the first two rounds. |
