Associated Press
Sunday, April 16
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Dana Quigley's second shot stopped 5 feet from the pin on the par-4 No. 12.
The gallery applauded. Quigley's playing partner, Hubert Green, turned to him and said, "Welcome back." His caddie offered similar words of encouragement. Quigley returned a piercing stare, a "dirty look."
Overcoming a quadruple bogey on the 11th, Quigley shot a 6-under 66 Sunday in the second round of the PGA Seniors' Championship to move within one stroke of Doug Tewell.
Quigley was 9-under through one hole in the third round before play was suspended for the seventh time in four days. Tom Kite and Larry Nelson were 7-under, and Gibby Gilbert was 6-under.
"It's going to be a real horse race to the end," Tewell said.
More than 9 inches of rain has drenched the Champion course at the PGA National Resort & Spa. The weather will prevent the tournament from completing 72 holes.
PGA of America officials reduced the championship to 54 holes following Sunday's delay, marking the first time the event has been shortened since its expansion to 72 holes in 1958.
"The players have been through a hard week," said Kerry Haigh, the PGA's senior director of tournaments.
It has been a tournament to remember, though, especially for Quigley, who carded an 8 on No. 11.
"I'll remember this for the rest of my life," said Quigley, a former club pro from nearby West Palm Beach.
He will remember the tournament, in which players struggled to finish 36 holes in four days. He will remember the round, in which he made 10 birdies. But more than anything, he will remember the
412-yard, par-4 No. 11.
It has been the toughest hole at the 61st annual Seniors' Championship, playing nearly half a stroke over par. Quigley knows why.
A three-time winner on the Senior Tour, Quigley was 6-under Sunday through 10 holes in the second round -- 9-under for the tournament and one stroke behind Tewell -- when he approached the 11th tee.
"I hit eight consecutive terrible golf shots," he said of the next moments.
Quigley hit a 3-wood off the tee at No. 11, hooking it left and getting a bad bounce off the cart path and into a hazard. With the ball sitting up, he was able to play it out of the hazard with a wedge.
He bladed the shot across the fairway and into the rough on the other side. From there, he tried to slice a 6-iron onto the green, but the shot went dead straight and came up about 20 yards short of
the green.
"I was really going to be content to take a 5, but now 5 was starting to look a little scary," he said.
Quigley chunked his first chip shot and then needed two more to get on the green, landing about 8 feet from the hole. He two-putted from there.
"It was a disaster. My whole body was numb," he said.
He rebounded, though, and birdied Nos. 12, 14, 15 and 16 to get back to 9-under.
The quadruple bogey was Quigley's second this year. He made one on the 7th hole in the final round of The Tradition in Scottsdale, Ariz., two weeks ago.
It highlighted -- or lowlighted -- an exciting second round for Quigley.
He had one his best days with the putter, which he attributed to a new grip he picked up from watching Vijay Singh win The Masters.
He had 10 birdies, which -- if not for the quadruple bogey -- would have been enough to break Arnold Palmer's course record of 63 set in 1984.
And he got a front-row seat of an alligator not-so-subtly attacking and eating a large fish just a few feet from the 18th tee.
"That was pretty cool," Quigley said.
Divots
The cut was 6-over 150.
Two-time Seniors' Championship winner Lee Trevino withdrew after finishing the second round at 3-over 147. In all, seven players have withdrawn from the 144-man field.
Hale Irwin, who won three consecutive Seniors' Championships from 1996-98, said he will not be able to finish the tournament. Irwin, 4-under through two holes in the third round, has a commitment to a charity event in St. Louis.
Japan's Seiji Ebihara, a first-round co-leader at 4-under, fell to 1-over after the second round.
The back nine played a lot tougher than the front through two rounds, with six of the seven highest-scoring holes on that side.
Sunday, April 16
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Dana Quigley's second shot stopped 5 feet from the pin on the par-4 No. 12.
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| Vicente Fernandez, left, and Hale Irwin are driven away from the third hole during the seventh rain delay. |
