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ORLANDO (Florida), March 16: Tiger Woods, playing in his hometown and showing a comfort he has lacked most of the season, built a four-stroke lead after two rounds of the Bay Hill Invitational by firing a 7-under-par 65 here Friday.
Woods began the day in a five-way tie for the lead but birdied four of his first seven holes and three in a row on the back nine on the way to a two-round total of 12-under par 132 in his bid for a third consecutive Bay Hill title.
World No. 1 Woods made three birdie putts of at least 15 feet, taking adantage of redesigned greens that are rewarding players who are rolling the ball well. He also two-putted for birdie on a pair of par-5s.
Scott McCarron, another American, was second at 136 after firing a 67 with South Africa’s Ernie Els and Argentina’s Angel Cabrera sharing third at 137.
Woods is trying to become the first player to win the tournament hosted by legend Arnold Palmer in three straight seasons. He already has accomplished the feat in a pair of PGA Tour events.
Woods, second to South African Ernie Els two weeks ago at Miami, has finished in the top three in six of seven starts in his home state entering this event.
That’s bad news for PGA rivals, who must face Woods defending titles at The Players Championship next week and next month at the Masters. But Woods rejects the notion he should run away with the title.
So far this year, no one is hotter than Els, whose world ranking has risen to third after three straight medal-play victories.
Tied for the lead after the first round, John Daly and John Huston shot 71s and fell to fifth at 138. Sergio Garcia of Spain leads a group of 10 players at 139.
Woods began the day on the back nine and birdied four of his first seven holes. Included in the mix were 20-foot putts at the 10th and 14th holes.
Woods narrowly missed an eagle at the par-5 16th after hooking his second shot from a fairway bunker around a tree and onto the green, 40 feet from the pin. He settled for a tap-in birdie at 16, made another at the first and began a run of three straight at the fourth as he started pulling away from the field.
Second round scores
132 Tiger Woods 67 65
136 Scott McCarron 69 67
137 Ernie Els 70 67, Angel Cabrera 67 70
138 John Daly 67 71, John Huston 67 71
139 Harrison Frazar 69 70, Len Mattiace 73 66, Jose Maria Olazabal 71 68, Jerry Kelly 70 69, Sergio Garcia 68 71, Rocco Mediate 69 70, Scott Hoch 71 68, Cameron Beckman 70 69, Stewart Cink 68 71, Pat Perez 70 69
140 Vijay Singh 69 71, Shigeki Maruyama 70 70, Michael Campbell 72 68, Robert Allenby 69 71, Stephen Ames (Canada) 69 71, Rod Pampling 68 72.
CHRISTCHURCH (New Zealand): Australian Peter O’Malley took the lead Saturday after three rounds of the Clearwater Classic.
O’Malley held a one-shot advantage going into the final round of the Christchurch tournament after shooting a third successive sub-70 round on Saturday.
Four early birdies had moved halfway leader Joel Kribel two clear of O’Malley after nine holes, but the American slipped up on the way home to hand O’Malley the overnight lead.
O’Malley had pursued the American for most of the day and a birdie on the 15th took him level before he assumed the lead when Kribel found trouble on the 16th.
Both players birdied the last, but O’Malley’s birdie, his fifth in a bogey-free round, gave him a 67 on Saturday.
South African Andrew McLardy sat in outright third after shooting a superb 66. His round included an eagle, five birdies and a bogey and put him only two shots behind O’Malley. He was the fourth player this week to shoot a 66, a course record for the new Clearwater layout.
Third round scores
203 Peter O’Malley 67 69 67 204 Joel Kribel (U.S.) 66 69 69
205 Andrew McLardy (South Africa) 69 70 66
208 Rich Barcelo (U.S.) 71 68 69, Anthony Painter 70 66 72, Brad Ott (U.S.) 69 67 72
209 Alex Cejka (Germany) 71 70 68
210 Darron Stiles (U.S.) 73 69 68, Terry Price 71 70 69, Nathan Green 70 71 69, Tony Carolan 68 73 69
211 Wayne Grady 73 70 68, Chris Downes 72 70 69, Scott Sterling (U.S.) 70 71 70, Tjaart Van Der Walt (South Africa) 68 72 71.
Leading scores after the third round of the Asian PGA tour’s $300,000 Indian Open golf tournament, being played at the par-72 Delhi Golf Club, on Saturday:
204 Vijay Kumar 70 66 68
207 Rick Gibson 69 71 67
209 Mardan Mamat 66 73 70, Soe Kyaw Naing 72 67 70, Thaworn Wiratchant 70 71 68
210 Dean Alaban 69 69 72, Digvijay Singh 72 69 69
211 Andrew Pitts 67 70 74, Vinod Kumar 67 77 67
212 Akio Sadakata 68 72 72
213 Craig Kamps 68 71 74, Danny Zarate 71 72 70, Pablo Del Olmo 66 74 73, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia 69 75 69, Thammanoon Sriroj 70 68 75
214 Clay Devers 75 68 71, Liang Wen-Chong, Lin Chie Hsiang 72 71 71, Mike Cunning 71 69 74, Moo Joong Kyung 68 78 68, Steve Jurgensen 69 75 70, Uttam Singh Mundy 75 70 69—Reuters
