Notebook: Impressive names miss cut


ESPN Golf Online news services
Saturday, March 24

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The Players Championship features the best field of any tournament all season, but many of the big names won't be around for the weekend.

 
  Love

Davis Love III, Ernie Els, Greg Norman, Justin Leonard, Lee Westwood, Mark Calcavecchia, Jesper Parnevik, Thomas Bjorn, Stewart Cink, John Huston and John Daly are among those who missed the cut, which came at 3-over 147.

Love, the 1992 Players Championship winner, missed the tournament for the first time in a decade. And that's changed his plans leading up to The Masters.

Love wasn't sure he would play the BellSouth Classic outside Atlanta next week, but he now wants the practice before heading to Augusta National.

"You hate to have your worst tournament be one of the biggest," said Love, who had five bogeys on his first nine holes Friday and shot 76. He finished at 4-over 148, a stroke off the cut line.

Love was "wishy-washy on Atlanta," he said. He had not played the Bay Hill Invitational last week and hoped four rounds here would carry him into The Masters.

Instead, Love said he sprayed drives and rattled around the trees and rough more than he expected.

"That's what's killing me. I never got anything going," he said. "I need to keep playing."

Westwood appeared headed for the weekend as he reached the 18th hole. But he put two balls in the water and made a quadruple-bogey 8, leaving him at 4-over.

All is not lost for Westwood, however, who planned to catch the next flight home to England where his wife is expecting their first child later this month.

Change of attitude
When changing his clubs didn't work, Paul Azinger decided to change his state of mind.

 
  Azinger

"I realized I was maybe going through the motions a little too much," he said Friday. "Going to these tournaments out of a sense of obligation rather than being committed."

Azinger's work with sports psychologist Bob Rotella seems to have worked.

"I'm going more maybe with a purpose," said Azinger, the former PGA champion who is a a stroke behind leader Jerry Kelly after two rounds of The Players Championship.

What's improved the most, Azinger says, is his consistency.

"Even when I played my best back in the late '80s and early '90s, I would still miss six or seven cuts a year," he said. "I only missed a cut one time last year, which is pretty good."

Azinger also improved his ranking from 73rd on the money list in 1999 to 27th a year ago.

This year, Azinger's only missed the cut came at the Sony Open.

Sutton's stumble
A little fall wasn't going to keep Hal Sutton from defending The Players Championship title.

 
  Sutton

Sutton said he was coming out of the PGA Tour's new physical fitness trailer when he slipped and fell down the stairs.

"The whole right side of my body is black and blue, so I feel good about just making the cut," said Sutton, who shot a 71 and stood at 1-under 143 through two rounds Friday.

Any chance he might have withdrawn from his tumble?

"No. I was going to tough it out. I'd almost have to be crippled before (withdrawing)," Sutton said.

Sutton said he was so sore Wednesday, he did very little. But that didn't keep the 42-year-old from going back to the trailer.

"I've spent more time in that trailer this week getting treatment than I have all year almost."

No. 1 and No. 2
The two top players in the World Rankings will be paired together during the third round of The Players Championship.

 
  Mickelson

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will be the spotlight pairing as the tournament switches to twosomes for the weekend. Both begin the third round at 3-under 141, six shots out of the lead in a tie for eighth.

Woods and Mickelson dueled to the finish last week at the Bay Hill Invitational, with Mickelson overtaking Woods on the back nine before Woods birdied three of the final five holes for a one-shot victory.

Divots
  • Lee Janzen, the 1995 champion, says it was simple to see why he went from Thursday's 77 to Friday's 67. "I didn't hit any balls in the water. That cost me five shots yesterday," he said.

  • Rory Sabbatini, who played with Woods, hit seven balls in the water during his two rounds at Sawgrass. He missed the cut at 14-over 158.

  • When Woods asked for groundskeepers to blow some debris off the eighth green, Sabbatini asked them if they could blow more on "to slow this putt down."

  • The par-3 17th hole gets more oohs, but it's the par-4 18th hole that's done the most damage. It's scoring average through two rounds is 4.482. There have been nine dreaded "others" -- scores higher than a double-bogey -- on the finishing hole, the most for the course.