Perez has 36-hole lead at 12 under
CHARLOTTE – Pat Perez heard lots of cheers on his front-nine Friday. The only problem was they were for his playing partner, Lucas Glover. Glover carded a 5-under-par 31 on his outward nine, but Perez grabbed the attention with an inward 31 of his own.Perez has the halfway lead at the Wells Fargo Championship after a second-round 65 got him to 12-under-par 132, two better than Bill Haas and Jonathan Byrd, three clear of Phil Mickelson and Glover and four ahead of Vijay Singh, Carl Pettersson and Stewart Cink.
Perez has reworked his swing and the results have been impressive. In four starts since the overhaul, Perez has a tie for fifth in Texas, a tie for sixth at Hilton Head, and he missed the cut in New Orleans last week. Now he heads to the weekend here with the lead. This after a second-round 80 at the Northern Trust Open in February made him realize something had to be done.
“I probably quit on the third hole,” said Perez, recalling that 80. “It doesn't even matter. When you can't hit it, it doesn't matter. When it's raining, the whole show, you've got rain and you can't hit it anyway and you're hitting it 250 off the tee, it's pointless to be out there. That was a low for me because it just sucked. It sucked, because I know where I can play, and that just wasn't it.”
So he took three weeks off and worked with a new coach, spending eight hours a day on the range trying to perfect the changes. He then had little trouble doing what most pros are challenged with -- taking the changes to the course with confidence.
“Once I see something that works right, I go with it,” he said. “I don't care what it is. It's just going to go because I know what I was doing before ain't going to work. So I had no problem taking it to the course. It's just been great.”
Haas was trying to do what has always been very difficult in golf -- go low after having posted a low score the day before. He isn’t one to get out of sorts for any reason. He’s usually playing with a cool demeanor, rarely getting flustered. He also knows a 70 around the Quail Hollow Club is almost always a good score.
“It's hard to shoot 64-64-64,” he said. “I mean, it's just -- the ball doesn't go in the hole that much. But I just basically wanted to try to hit it like I hit it [Thursday] and give myself chances, which I felt like I did today pretty well. Driving the ball is key on this course. If you get it in the fairway then you can hit the greens. The greens are somewhat receptive right now, especially after that rain. But they'll suck the water out of them. I know they have that SubAir around here, and they'll get firm this afternoon with the sun, and it'll definitely get a little tougher.”
Haas used to play here a couple of times a year with his dad Jay, a member of the club and someone who was instrumental in helping to get this event on the tour schedule. He considers it to be somewhat of a “home game” and would love to get his third career win here this week.
“Yeah, I've said this would probably be -- outside of the majors, this would be my number one tournament to win, just because of the people involved with the tournament,” said Haas. “When I walk in the clubhouse, everybody I see I know. It's just the feelings I would have on Sunday night hanging around with all those guys would probably be unlike any other tournament. I don't think that adds any extra pressure because it's just there's the pressure of winning any tournament that will be on me on the weekend. But to put myself in that situation to where I even have that chance to even talk about it is nice.”
Haas, now in his fifth year on tour, knows the feeling. He has improved in winnings every year since joining the tour in 2007, finishing last year with two victories and more than $2.9 million.
Mickelson looked like he could have shot anything in the first round as he struggled to a 3-under 69. But he turned it around quickly as he is prone to do after a layoff, and on Friday looked like he could shoot nothing with exceptional iron play and his usual great short game.
“Well, today was a lot more fun,” Mickelson said, “because yesterday was an important round, when I didn't quite have it. To keep myself around par, a couple under, [then] if I get a day like today, where I was playing well, it moves me up the leaderboard. Today was really a fun day. Putts went in early, and it's going to be a fun weekend.”
As his round wore on Mickelson started hitting good drives and gave himself more chances for birdies. And the short game was as good as ever, so he was able to convert and post a 66.
“I've been working on it, and my touch has been good,” he said. “The putts, either they're going in or they're catching the lip. They're rolling much better. Starting to see the break a lot better, so I've had a good two days on the greens.”
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