Round 2 Notes – Travelers Championship
* The low round in the morning wave belonged to Ryan Moore, who carded six birdies and just one bogey en route to a five-under 65. On the heels of his opening-round 4-under 66, Moore finds himself trailing Kenny Perry’s 11-under lead by two.* Ryan Moore is competing in his fourth Travelers Championship, with his best finish coming in his first start here in 2006 (T2). He missed the cut in 2008 and finished T33 in 2007.
* Ryan Moore is riding a high following his T10 finish in last week’s U.S. Open at Bethpage Black. It was his fourth start and best finish in a U.S. Open. He finished T57 in 2005 and missed the cut in 2007 and 2002.
* While Ryan Moore has yet to win on the PGA Tour he has quite the impressive career as an amateur. Among his amateur achievements include being named All-American four times (two-time first team) and being named Jack Nicklaus collegiate player of the year in 2005. In 2004, he won the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Public Links, NCAA Championship, Western Amateur and Sahalee Players Championship.
* In the morning wave, round-one leader Kenny Perry maintained his grip on the lead following a 2-under 68. Following his round, he remained the leader by two at 11-under.
* Should Kenny Perry’s lead hold up, it would be the 19th event in which he has held at least a share of the 36-hole lead. Of the previous 18, he managed to parlay seven into victories.
* Kenny Perry is competing in his 21st Travelers Championship with a best finish being a T4 in 2003. He has not missed a cut since 1999.
* Kenny Perry’s lead after 36 holes is his first since holding a share of the lead at the Masters in April with Chad Campbell. Both Campbell and Perry would ultimately succumb to Angel Cabrera in a playoff. According to Perry, since that finish he has received “over 1,000 letters of support.”
* In round two, Kenny Perry hit every fairway and 16 of 18 greens in regulation. However, the difference between round one’s 9-under 61 and round-two’s 2-under 68 came down to putting. In round-one, he needed just 25 putts as opposed to 32 in round-two.
* Boo Weekley, who rattled off six consecutive birdies over his first six holes in round-one, didn’t enjoy the same start in round-two. Despite a birdie at the par-four second, he posted three consecutive bogeys at five, six and seven en-route to a 1-over 71. Should Kenny Perry’s lead hold, Weekley will head into the weekend trailing by six.
* PGA Tour rookie Aaron Watkins finds himself in solid position headed into the weekend. Following an opening-round, 5-under 65, he backed it up in round-two with a 3-under 67 to trail Kenny Perry’s lead by three at 8-under.
* Aaron Watkins, who gained access to the PGA Tour through Qualifying School, has previously played in nine PGA Tour events, having missed the cut in six. His best previous finish was a T7 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
* The early-round scoring average in round two was 69.80 as opposed to 68.49, nearly a full stroke and a half higher than in the morning of round-one.
* Despite a second-round 5-under 65 to get to 1-under for the Tournament, 2005 Travelers champion Brad Faxon will not likely be around for the weekend. 2009 marked the 25th Travelers Championship start for the Rhode Island resident, matching Mark Calcavecchia for the most starts in Tournament history.
* Black ribbons were worn at the Travelers Championship on Friday for players and caddies to wear in a show of support for Chris Smith.
* A number of Chris Smith’s friends went a step further to show their support by writing their individual favorite/lucky number on their hats. Kris Blanks donned a hat which revealed the number 15 along with the names of each of Smith’s family members.
* Ben Crane withdrew prior to the second-round because of a knee injury.
* 1999 Travelers Championship winner Brent Geiberger withdrew before the second-round due to a back injury.
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