Golf roundup
Tiger alive after two round of Match Play Championship CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) – Tiger Woods hasn’t made a bogey in two days and is playing better than anyone at La Costa. All that meant Thursday was he advanced to the third round of the Match Play Championship, same as 15 other guys.
As rain pelted the top of his hat, Woods hit 5-iron into 3 feet and 2 inches on consecutive holes and was never challenged in a 4-and-3 victory over K.J. Choi.
“When you’re playing in conditions like this, you don’t want to ever give your opponent a hole,” Woods said. “You know if you don’t make any mistakes, you’re more than likely going to win the match. That’s what I tried to do the last couple of days.”
So far, the strategy has worked to perfection.
Other players have taken different routes – some of them way off the map.
Defending champion Kevin Sutherland made a par on the 18th hole by playing down the first fairway, but still beat Justin Rose of England.
Phil Mickelson hit a tee shot into the hazard on No. 14, but it struck a rock and came out into the rough. He wound up holing a 35-foot putt from off the green for par on his way to a 3-and-2 victory over Brad Faxon.
David Toms was on the ropes against Chris Riley until he holed a 90-foot chip for birdie on the 18th hole by using his 3-wood.
No matter how they got it done, all of them start from scratch on Friday.
A dream pairing between Woods-Ernie Els never materialized when the Big Easy was beaten in the first round. Just as tantalizing is Woods-Mickelson, a distinct possibility.
Mickelson, a former U.S. Amateur champion and strong Ryder Cup player, has never advanced beyond the third round.
He next plays Jerry Kelly, who advanced with a 2-and-1 victory over Mike Weir.
“That’s a hurdle for me,” Mickelson said. “I want to focus on that match and see if I can get past that.”
Don’t forget about Darren Clarke. He won in 2000 by whipping Woods in the finals, and the burly, cigar-smoking Clarke is looking good through two rounds after a 7-and-6 rout of Davis Love III.
Still, Woods could be tough to beat.
“If Tiger hasn’t made a bogey … that’s very impressive,” Mickelson said. “That means you have to make a birdie to win the hole, and that’s very difficult out here.”
In other matches Friday:
_ Jay Haas, at 49 the oldest player in the Accenture Match Play Championship, disposed of Shigeki Maruyama. Next up is Nick Price, 46, a third-round pairing between two guys who are combined 95 years old.
_ Scott Hoch, who usually complains about cold, rainy weather, was all smiles after easily beating Padraig Harrington, 3 and 2.
_ Stephen Leaney had the easiest time, going 4 up after four holes – all of them bogeys by Justin Leonard. He won, 6 and 5, and joined three other Australians in the third round. Robert Allenby, Adam Scott and Peter Lonard also advanced.
While none of the matches went extra holes, two were as wild as it gets.
Sutherland improved to 8-0 at La Costa with an unusual par on the 18th. He was in the trees and figured his best rout was down the adjacent first fairway. He narrowly avoided some puddles, but still had no idea how far he had left.
His caddie, John Wood, walked about halfway to the green, did some quick calculations and came up with 149 yards to the front of the green, 165 to the hole. Sutherland’s 6-iron stopped 20 feet from the hole for a two-putt par and a 1-up victory.
“He got me great yardage,” Sutherland said. “I don’t know how he got it, but it was right on the money.”
Toms also was clinging to a 1-up lead when his third shot landed in the short cut of rough at the front right of the green – a problem since the hole was back left, 90 feet away.
Riley, one of the best putters on the PGA Tour, had a 20-footer for birdie.
Toms used his 3-wood to chip the ball out of the rough, and it dropped in the right side of the hole on its final turn, allowing him to advance to the third round.
“I got out of the there,” Toms said, which is all anyone wants to do.
Clarke tied the tournament record with the most lopsided victory, 7 and 6, over Love.
“I got all the breaks, and Davis got none,” Clarke said.
Love got plenty of breaks – all of them bad.
He hit his tee shot left on the par-5 third hole, it struck a tree and ricocheted into thick rough on the side of the hill. Love never found his ball, and had to go back to the tee.
On the sixth, Love had 10 feet for birdie and was in position to change the tone of the match. Clarke, in trouble off the tee, squeezed his approach to the front of the green, chipped in for birdie and won the hole when Love missed his putt.
It never got any better for Love. He three-putted for bogey on No. 8, while Clarke’s bladed chip hit the pin and stopped inches away for a par.
“That’s what happens, unfortunately, in match play,” Clarke said.
Pride has first-round lead in Chrysler Classic
TUCSON, Ariz. – A life-threatening illness 11 months ago transformed Dicky Pride from an obsessed golfer to a man with a healthy new perspective on the game and his life.
Now he’s playing as well as ever – maybe better.
Pride shot a 7-under-par 65 Thursday to take a one-shot lead over Aaron Baddeley after the first round of the Chrysler Classic.
Pride birdied three of the first four holes and was at 5-under 31 at the turn in chilly, windy and occasionally rainy conditions on the 7,109-yard course at the Omni Tucson National Golf Resort and Spa.
“It’s just delightful,” he said. “It really is. I mean, just the whole year I’m trying to feed off the positive things that have happened to me.”
The 21-year-old Baddeley was born in New Hampshire, raised in Australia and now lives just up Interstate 10 in Scottsdale, Ariz. He finished second in the Sony Open in Hawaii on Jan. 19 when Ernie Els sank a 55-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole.
Playing the back nine first on Thursday, Baddeley nearly shared the lead with a spectacular 25-foot chip shot for birdie from the dormant rough on his last hole, the par-4, 440-yard ninth.
Although Baddeley couldn’t see the hole, the ball bounced off the pin and came to rest inches from the cup. He tapped it in for par to finish at 66.
“I hope it stays windy,” he said. “Because if it stays wet, windy and cold, a lot of guys don’t like it. I like it.”
Among Pride’s eight birdies was a 45-foot putt on the par-4, 405-yard 14th hole.
“My putting was phenomenal today,” said Pride, in the tournament because of a sponsor’s exemption. “I rolled the ball great. I didn’t make every putt I looked at, but I made a lot of them.”
Five players – Brian Bateman, Jeff Maggert, Brian Gay, Frank Lickliter II and New Zealander Grant Waite – were two shots back. Eight others were three back at 4-under 68.
Gay, Lickliter and Waite were among the first golfers to tee off in temperatures that barely got above 40 degrees early in the day.
“It’s like being in Ohio, cold and windy and nasty,” Lickliter said.
Pride finished his round well before the rain began in mid-afternoon, but Baddeley and Bateman had to endure the intermittent downpours in their final holes.
Pride missed four months of last year’s tour after he doubled over in pain while eating dinner at a friend’s house just before the Bay Hill Invitational last March. He was rushed to surgery and spent a month in an Orlando hospital recovering from gall stones and pancreatitis.
The experience left him with a new outlook.
“I’m definitely a little easier on myself than I was,” he said. “I’m definitely one of those guys who thought that it’s better to burn out than fade away. I would go out there and do everything, stay out until midnight hitting balls. Do whatever it takes.”
He is still serious about the game, just not manic about it.
“Figuring out that you don’t have to hit 10 million balls every day, you know. If it’s not just perfect, then don’t lose your mind. Go on about your business.”
The 2002 Tucson tournament was his last before the illness. A victory would be his second on the PGA Tour, nine years after he won the St. Jude’s Classic.
The lack of well-known players on the leader board was no surprise. Nearly all of the big names are competing at the Match Play Championship in California.
The Tucson stop has been overshadowed by the match play event since 1999. Even before that, what used to be called the Tucson Open had a reputation for first-time PGA winners.
The last three Tucson champions, and seven of the last 15, had never won a PGA event.
Among those absent from the 144-man field was defending champion Ian Leggatt. He withdrew Wednesday after aggravating an elbow injury while practicing.