Dunlap leads Atwal by three after 36
PANAMA CITY, Panama – Scott Dunlap called his first two rounds at the
Panama Movistar Championship “tidy golf.” The 44-year old veteran hasn’t
ventured too far off the fairways or the greens, made some short par putts
when he needed them and rolled in a birdie putt now and then. As a result,
Dunlap stands atop the leaderboard at the halfway point of the first stop
on the Nationwide Tour’s 30-tournament schedule for 2008.
Dunlap posted a 2-under-par 68 Friday at the Panama Golf Club and is at
7-under 133 through 36 holes, three shots better than Arjun Atwal (66). Ben
Bates (71), Chris Smith (70) and first-round leader Jeff Klauk (73) are
four shots back in third place. Bill Lunde (70) is at 2-under par and alone
in sixth place.
“The first tournament of the year is a bit of an unknown. I tend to find
my game where I left it,” said Dunlap, who missed the cut in both the
Argentina Open and the South African Open in December. “It feels pretty
good in the range and you think if you can do that on the course it’ll be
good. You just don’t know if you’ll be able to do that once the gun goes
off. It’s just aim and fire sometimes. You don’t know what you should or
shouldn’t be doing.”
Dunlap moved into contention late Thursday morning with birdies on his
final three holes for a 5-under 65, one behind Klauk’s leading 64. After
two birdies and two bogeys on his first four holes, he settled down on a
windy Friday afternoon and slowly moved forward while most of the field had
it in reverse on a course that annually ranks among the toughest on Tour.
Friday’s scoring average at the par-70 layout was 73.118.
“You’re only going to hit about half the fairways out here and so you
have to play that flier-knuckleball-y shot to the right part of the green
or give yourself a good up-and-down chance because you can’t hit the
green,” said the leader. “You really have to think your way around. You
don’t fire at the pins. I hit a lot of good-looking iron shots to give
myself chances. (At 7-under)…that’s’ the best I’ve played in a long time.”
Solid, steady play has given Dunlap his first 36-hole lead in 145 career
starts on Tour. His only win came at the 2004 Mark Christopher Charity
Classic, where he came from three strokes behind on the final day and won
by three.
“I’ve exceeded my expectations,” he said. “But to be perfectly honest,
the first tournament of the year, you don’t even know what your
expectations are.”
Nobody really expected low scores during the wind-swept afternoon rounds,
but Atwal had it to 5-under par before a bogey on the closing hole dropped
him one stroke further back of Dunlap.
“The fairways are hard, the greens are hard, the rough’s brutal and the
wind was up,” said Atwal. “There’s nothing easy to it. Looking at it, it
looks playable but if you don’t hit these fairways, you’re done.”
Sixty-two players aren’t done, having survived the 36-hole cut, which
came at 5-over par 145, the highest cut in the tournament’s five-year
history. Only nine players are under par heading into the weekend.
“I’m hitting it well and putting unbelievably and I’m only 3-under par,”
Bates chuckled afterwards. “Most of the tournaments on the Nationwide Tour
after two days, it’s 12- to 15-under par. This golf course is just brutal.
It tests you mentally. If you’re not thinking your way around, you’re going
to get beat.”
Second-Round News & Notes: Patrick Damron was disqualified when he did not
show up for his morning tee time and failed to notify officials…Friday’s
second-round scoring average of 73.118 was the highest second-day average
in tournament history and the second-toughest single day (2004, final
round, 73.238)…The 36-hole cut came at 5-over 145 and is the highest on the
Nationwide Tour since a 6-over par cut at the 2006 LaSalle Bank Open. The
highest cut on Tour in 2007 was 4-over par – Livermore Valley Wine Country
Championship and Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational…Saturday’s
pairings will be twosomes and tee times begin at 8:03 a.m.
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