Casey shoots 64 to take lead in California
Woods makes cut, trails by 7 – Frys.com Open
SAN MARTIN, Calif. – Paul Casey overcame jet lag and posted a 7 under par 64 on Friday to stand at minus-8 overall, good enough for a one-stroke lead over Bud Cauley and two shots clear of Garrett Willis. Billy Mayfair, Chris Stroud, Rod Pampling and Nate Smith were all at minus-5.Nearly half the field did not finish due to a fog-delay at the start of the day, including Ernie Els, who was 7 under par through sixteen holes.
Casey, a winner in Korea last week, bounced back from the 16-hour time change and 20-hour flight to register eight birdies and a lone bogey during the second round at the CordeValle Golf Club.
“Yeah, the 16-hour time change was -- it's been kicking my ass this week,” Casey said. “Yeah, waking up in the middle of the night, which is probably the middle of the day.
“Yesterday (Thursday) I think I played -- actually played great golf, and the mistakes you saw and the bogeys I made really were myself, maybe a lack of concentration, a bit of fatigue. And today was maybe an example of another day to get over that jet lag, and I eliminated those mistakes.
Casey had given thought to sacking his putter, but his good play on the greens will prevent that, at least for the short term.
“The back nine, my front nine this morning, the greens were perfect,” he added. “You're not going to get greens any better than that. They are soft, and they do -- they do get a little bumpy in the afternoon because of how soft they are and how many guys are out there. You can get going. It was nice.”
Casey’s last top-40 finish on the U.S. PGA Tour came at the Masters in April, mostly a result, or lack thereof, attributable to a problem with turf-toe. He feels he is at about 70 percent of where he should be after recently taking a major step forward.
“I had a big breakthrough after I missed out on the FedExCup, went out to see some guys, Gary Gray, Dave Tiberio,” Casey said. “I've actually done a lot of work with Nike on some golf fitness stuff, but these guys are legends in the fitness and physio world, and helped my trainer sort of get the toe going in the right direction. It's not perfect, but now I can walk without limping and I feel like I'm -- to be honest it's probably the best I've hit the golf ball all year, and even though the toe isn't 100 percent, it's great news.”
The news was great for fans and followers of Tiger Woods, too.
Woods, making his first start since the PGA Championship, rebounded nicely from an opening round 73 to shoot 68 with six birdies and three bogeys on the card.
“Well, the number was 64 today,” Woods sad after assuring himself of two more rounds here. “That was kind of the goal. I figured if I shot 64, I'd probably be between two and four back. That was kind of my mindset going out. I had it going early there, three in a row to get to 3-under par for the day, and if we could just keep it going here, I could shoot my number.
“I made a couple mistakes there at 18 and 1, but overall I'm still within seven shots of it right now.”
Woods started on the back nine and the run he spoke of, birdies on Nos. 14, 15 and 16, had put him at 3 under par for the round and put him in red numbers for the tournament at minus-1.
But, the bogeys at 18 and 1 prevented him from going low. He added birdies at 2 and 9, his final hole of the day, to finish seven back of Casey.
Woods now feels he has gone from potentially missing the cut in a second straight event for the first time in his career to having a chance at another title.
“I don't like missing cuts, period,” Woods said of the possibility that existed after the first round. “If I miss the cut, that means you can't win the tournament on the weekend. I've got a shot at it this weekend.”
Return to Tournament Notebook archives