SILVIS (Illinois), July 27: J.P. Hayes fired a course-record 10-under-par 61 Friday to join Fred Funk at the top of the leaderboard after two rounds of the John Deere Classic.
Hayes and Funk are each at 14-under-par and broke the 36-hole tournament record to give them a one-shot advantage over Robert Gamez, who went round in 64.
At number 32, Funk is the highest-ranked player on the PGA Tour money list in the field and he and Hayes are three shots ahead of Briny Baird (64) and Nolan Henke (65) in joint fourth at 11-under.
Hayes was a pedestrian one-under through the first three holes and then reeled off birdies on holes four through seven before a bogey at the par-four eighth slowed his charge.
He then birdied the first three holes on the back nine and closed with three more on the last four holes.
Hayes’ back-nine six-under 30 tied Tim Petrovic’s 30 earlier in the day for the back nine course record.
“It was a lot of fun,” Hayes said.
“I felt like I was going to play well but you never expect something like that.
Hayes needed just 22 putts, and admitted he had three others hit a good portion of the hole only to lip out.
Funk, who last won on the PGA Tour in 1998 and is coming off a second-place finish at the B.C. Open, has played the TPC at Deere Run without a bogey through the first two rounds.
Funk opened his round with a birdie putt from 12 feet, then added birdies at the sixth and eighth holes for an outward three-under 35.
He then birdied three of the first four holes on the back nine and added his seventh birdie at the par-five 17th.
Through the first two rounds, Funk has hit 35 greens in regulations and 27 of 28 fairways, which has allowed him get by with averaging 30 putts per round.
128 - Fred Funk 64-64, J.P. Hayes 67-61
129 - Robert Gamez 65-64
131 - Briny Baird 67-64, Nolan Henke 66-65
132 - Lucas Glover 66-66, Tim Petrovic 67-65, Gene Sauers 66-66, Pat Bates 70-62, Mike Heinen 63-69
133 - Pat Perez 68-65, Tripp Isenhour 65-68, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 67-66, Chris Riley 69-64, Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 67-66, Bob Burns 69-64, Joe Durant 67-66, Peter Jacobsen 66-67, Spike McRoy 66-67, Carl Paulson 69-64
136 - John Senden (Aus) 68-68
138 - Richard Zokol (Can) 68-70, David Frost (Rsa) 68-70
139 - Michael Long (Nzl) 66-73
FAILED TO QUALIFY
140 - Edward Fryatt (Gbr) 68-72, Stephen Allan (Aus) 72-68, Wayne Grady (Aus) 73-67.
TNT OPEN GOLF SCORES
HILVERSUM (Netherlands): Second-round results Friday from the 1.8 million euro TNT Open here (par 70; British or Irish unless stated).
127 - Tobias Dier (Ger) 60-67
130 - Jamie Spence (Eng) 66-64, Peter Lonard (Aus) 67-63
131 - Mark Roe (Eng) 67-64
133 - Padraig Harrington (Irl) 66-67, Gary Evans (Eng) 69-64, Pierre Fulke (Swe) 68-65, Jarrod Moseley (Aus) 69-67
134 - Justin Rose (Eng) 67-67, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 68-66, David Gilford (Eng) 65-69
135 - Raymond Russell (Sco) 65-70, Matt Kuchar (USA) 69-66, David Lynn (Eng) 68-67, Kenneth Ferrie (Eng) 68-67
136 - John Bickerton 67-69, Steen Tinning (Den) 70-66, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 66-70, Peter O’Malley (Aus) 71-65, Lee Westwood 70-66, Ian Poulter 67-69, Gary Orr 71-65, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 67-69, Nick Faldo 68-68
137 - Ian Garbutt 68-69, Jamie Donaldson 70-67, Anders Hansen (Den) 69-68, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 69-68, Warren Bennett 68-69, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 70-67, Jerry Pate (USA) 68-69, Andrew Oldcorn 68-69, John Daly (USA) 70-67, Alastair Forsyth 68-69, Ronan Rafferty 65-72, Jonathan Lomas 70-67, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 69-68, Nick O’Hern (Aus) 71-66.—Reuters/AFP































