CASTLE ROCK (Colorado), Aug 9: Davis Love set two records and matched another Friday, building a handy 10-point lead after the second round of The International.
Love, who had a brilliant opening-round 63, followed with an unofficial six-under-par 66 under the modified Stableford scoring system at Castle Pines.
Love picked up 17 points, setting a two-round tournament record with 36 points. At one point, he had a 25-point lead. By day’s end, John Rollins was only 10 behind after a none-too-shabby 65 that was worth 15 points.
Still, Love’s lead was the largest halfway margin in the 18-year history of the event.
Phil Mickelson was third, 14 points behind, after a 66 that included two eagles.
The key to Love’s round was three eagles in a sizzling six-hole stretch that matched the PGA Tour mark for eagles in an entire round.
A double-bogey at his penultimate hole, the par-five eighth, marred a day to remember. He hit his only poor drive of the round, pulling it into a bush and taking a penalty drop.
Love adopted a conservative strategy off the tee in an effort to find the fairways. But once he did, he attacked the pins with his irons. He picked up two birdies in his first three holes before making an eagle at the par-five 14th, where he struck a four-iron to 22 feet.
Second round scores
36 - Davis Love +19 +17
26 - John Rollins +11 +15
22 - Phil Mickelson +8 +14
19 - Kent Jones +5 +14, Vijay Singh (FIJ) +4 +15
18 - Bob Tway +12 +6, Charles Howell +14 +4
17 - Retief Goosen (RSA) +2 +15
16 - Paul Casey +7 +9, Stewart Cink +5 +11, J.J. Henry +6 +10
15 - Chris DiMarco +8 +7
14 - Mathew Goggin (AUS) +4 +10
13 - Stuart Appleby (AUS) +9 +4, Justin Leonard +1 +12, Tim Petrovic +2 +11.
NORDIC OPEN
COPENHAGEN: Leading scores after the third round of the Nordic Open at the par-72 Simon’s Golf Club on Saturday:
199 Soren Hansen 71 66 62, Colin Montgomerie 70 65 64
200 David Gilford 66 67 67, Gregory Havret 68 63 69, Ian Poulter 68 67 65
201 Brian Davis 66 68 67, Patrik Sjoland 69 64 68
203 Miguel Angel Jimenez 65 70 68, Kevin Na 70 64 69
204 John Bickerton 67 70 67, Andrew Coltart 66 69 69, Mark Foster 69 68 67, Marten Olander 66 73 65, Fredrik Widmark 67 70 67
205 Philip Archer 65 69 71, Stephen Gallacher 71 65 69, Miles Tunnicliff 73 64 68
206 Francois Delamontagne 67 70 69, David Lynn 67 66 73, Malcolm Mackenzie 72 67 67, David Park 67 71 68, Steve Webster 66 71 69.—AFP/Reuters