84 Lumber Classic contenders
FARMINGTON – The top five golfers after two rounds of the 84 Lumber Classic have one common theme: all are under 30 years old. In fact, three of them are under 25.
Co-leaders Ryan Moore and Ben Curtis are 23 and 29, respectively.
Of the trio that trails them by one shot, Nicholas Thompson is 23, Sean O’Hair is 24 and Charles Howell III is 27.
“I’m old compared to some of them,” Howell said on Friday of his counterparts atop the leaderboard. “I wouldn’t say we’re a fraternity, all of the young guys, but you can see there’s a lot more good, young players now. I think it’s a credit to the talent we have out there coming up through the ranks. They’re having an impact.”
One of the keys to excelling as a younger player is having the right mindset, which O’Hair credits for his recent run of success.
“I’m just a little more consistent with my mental approach,” said O’Hair, who made his eighth consecutive cut and has risen to No. 49 on the money list with $1,332,050 so far this year. “I’m trying to keep things very much business-like out there. I’ve been reading a lot of books and stuff. That’s helped quite a bit.”
O’Hair was in a bit of a sophomore jinx early in the season after finishing 18th on the money list in his first full year on the PGA Tour in 2005, which included a win at the John Deere Classic.
“At the beginning (of this year) I wasn’t playing well, but I wasn’t playing well because I was trying to change things. So I made the adjustment at Doral and got a new guy that was instructing me, Gary Gilchrist, who’s very much more of a coach than he is an instructor. He’s just kind of guiding me along, teaching me about my swing and how to do things that I want to do with it.”
A switch to his old caddy helped as well.
“Especially the last month, I’ve been really comfortable on the golf course because I’ve got my father-in-law back on the bag,” said O’Hair, who had a falling out with his own father. The two are not on speaking terms.
“I’m just playing well,” O’Hair added. “It just feels good.”
O’Hair and Howell both shot 69 on Friday, while Thompson followed up his sparkling 64 on Thursday with an even-par 72. All three are at 8-under par.
Howell’s card included two birdies and two bogeys.
Howell began the day at 5-under par and started off with a bang before faltering later on the front nine.
“I birdied the first hole, but then I struggled a little bit,” Howell said. “I bogeyed 2, 6 and 7, but I hung in there.”
Howell caught fire on the back nine, ringing up consecutive birdies on 15, 16 and 17 before ending with a bogey on 18.
“I hit my tee shot in the right rough on 18,” Howell said. “I hit a nice wedge and a nice putt, but it just didn’t go in. But I think I offset that with the nice string of birdies I had.”
O’Hair could easily be atop the leaderboard if not for two lapses on the back nine.
O’Hair birdied the first two holes and added another on No. 8 to get to 8-under, before bogeying the par-4 ninth hole.
“Nine kind of shocked me because I’ve been hitting the ball so well and I just made a bad swing, just flipped the hands,” O’Hair said. “I was trying to hit a draw and just flipped my hands and it went right in the water.”
The hole could’ve turned out worse, but O’Hair hung tough. He took a drop, then hit his third shot 233 yards onto the green and two-putted from 44 feet.
“I made a great, great save for bogey,” O’Hair said. “So I was pretty happy with that.
O’Hair birdied No. 11 and No. 13 to pull into a tie for the lead at 9-under. A bogey on No. 15 dropped him back one stroke and he parred out from there.
“I’m hitting all these great shots and then all of a sudden I hit a little waiver and pushed a 3 wood out,” O’Hair said of his bogey on the 15th. “I actually had a shot. I had about three options, and I took the wrong option. I tried to go high and cut it around a tree, and I probably should have went low and left it short of the green. I hit it in the left side of the bunker and had a tough up-and-down and missed about an eight-footer for par.”
The five young guns will be battling in the final three groups today.
Thompson and 30-year-old Rory Sabbatini are scheduled to tee off at 1:12 p.m., O’Hair is paired with Howell at 1:21 p.m., with the final pair of co-leaders Moore and Curtis beginning at 1:30 p.m.