Round 2 Notes - Clark ends round with ace – Zurich Classic of New Orleans
Tim Clark recorded a hole-in-one on the par-3 ninth hole (his 18th) on Friday using a 6-iron from 174 yards. This is the seventh hole-in-one recorded on the PGA TOUR in 2007 and the fourth at the TPC Louisiana. In addition, this marks the first hole-in-one recorded at the par-3 ninth. Clark's 66 was the low round of the day on Friday and allowed him to move from a tie for 73rd to a tie for seventh. Briny Baird fired a second-round 69 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans on Friday and will take a one-shot lead over Peter Lonard and Jay Williamson into Saturday's third round.
The 36-hole cut fell at even-par 144, with 81 players making it to Saturday. Under the PGA TOUR's revised cut policy, the field will again be cut to the low 70 players and ties after the third round. All players who fail to make the secondary cut will receive official money and FedExCup points.
This is the fifth time in Briny Baird's PGA TOUR career in which he has been a leader/co-leader through 36 holes of a TOUR event. He went on to tie for eighth at the 2005 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, tie for second at the 2004 Children's Miracle Network Classic, tie for 30th at the 2003 Barclays and tie for 18th at the 2002 Travelers Championship.
Baird's last overnight lead of any sort on the PGA TOUR came at last year's Viking Classic, where a first-round 63 gave him a two-shot lead over Cameron Beckman. He would eventually finish tied for 44th on the week.
Baird is making his 254th career start on the PGA TOUR this week and is still looking for his first victory. He has three runner-up finishes to his name, with the last coming at the 2004 Children's Miracle Network Classic.
The last time a second-round leader went on to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans was in 2000, when Carlos Franco was tied with Blaine McCallister after 36 holes. Franco went on to defeat McCallister in a playoff with a par on the second playoff hole. Only once in the last 15 years has a 36-hole leader gone on to win in New Orleans. There have been 10 playoffs in the history of the event, including in 2005, when Tim Petrovic defeated James Driscoll with a par on the first playoff hole at TPC Louisiana.
Peter Lonard climbed as high as 10 under for the tournament on Friday morning and at one point had a four-shot lead before bogeys on three of his last four holes left him at 7-under 137 for the event.
Through two rounds of the Zurich Classic, nine players currently in the top 10 are still looking for their first PGA TOUR win. Last year, Nick Watney became the 16th player to win his first PGA TOUR event at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and the third consecutive, joining Bill Collins (1959), Bo Wininger (1962), Larry Hinson (1969), Jim Simons (1977), Lon Hinkle (1978), Bob Eastwood (1984), Ian Woosnam (1991), Mike Standly (1993), Scott McCarron (1996), Lee Westwood (1998), Carlos Franco (1999), K.J. Choi (2002), Steve Flesch (2003), Tim Petrovic (2005), and Chris Couch (2006).
Defending champion Nick Watney used an eagle at the par-5 seventh to jumpstart a second-round 67 on Friday. He is currently at 6-under 138 for the tournament, two shots behind his 36-hole pace from his victorious 2007 tournament (69-67--136).
This marks the third consecutive week in which the defending champion has been in good position through 36 holes. Vijay Singh was leading through 36 holes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and Tiger Woods was solo second through 36 holes at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship.
Only two shots out of the lead, Watney is in position to make a run at a title defense at the Zurich Classic. Since the start of the 2007 season, the only player not named Tiger Woods to defend his title was Jim Furyk at the RBC Canadian Open (2006-2007).
History has not been kind to Tommy Armour III (70-68--138) at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. In 15 starts at the event prior to this week, he has zero top-10 finishes, eight missed cuts, and a DQ in 1991.
Players who were bogey free during the second round: Tommy Armour III (68), Cliff Kresge (68), Matt Jones (68), Nathan Green (69), Paul Goydos (70) and Carl Pettersson (70).
Among the past champions in the field this week, Nick Watney is tied for fourth at the halfway point, Steve Flesch and Carlos Franco are tied for 25th and Tim Petrovic is tied for 32nd, while Scott McCarron and Davis Love III both missed the cut.
The players in the morning wave took advantage of the benign conditions and it showed on the leaderboard. Thirteen players in the top 10 played in the morning, while only three (Jay Williamson, Shigeki Maruyama, and Steve Elkington) played in the afternoon. The morning wave averaged 71.42, while the afternoon wave averaged 72.89.
For the second straight day, the par-4 sixth played as the most difficult hole on the course with an average of 4.389. Luckily for players who struggle at the sixth, the par-5 seventh comes next and has played as the easiest hole on the course in each of the first two rounds.
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