PALM HARBOR (Florida), Oct 28: Jeff Brehaut seized a two-stroke first-round lead at the 5.3 million-dollar Chrysler Championship, where a victory would put him on the road to a Tour Championship berth and a spot in next year’s Masters.
It’s a far cry from a year ago, when Brehaut sank a five-foot putt to finish tied for 30th here, a finish that at least let him skip to the finals of qualifying school.
Brehaut must reach the top 30 to be eligible for next month’s Tour Championship. The climb is a bit less steep for The Masters, which invites the top 40 on the money list.
Starting on the back nine of the Westin Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course, Brehaut got to one-under with birdies at both par-fivess. Making the turn, he had an eagle at the par-five first hole by sinking a breaking 30-foot putt before adding three birdies en route to a 65.
He had a two-stroke cushion over over a group of five that included South African Retief Goosen, veteran Tom Lehman, Ben Crane, Charles Howell and Dean Wilson.
Lehman is also trying to get back to the Tour Championship, where he last played in 2001.
Davis Love, Jesper Parnevik and Bernhard Langer were among those another shot back on 68.
Defending champion Vijay Singh was well off the pace after a three-over 74.
A four-time winner this year, Singh missed the cut for the third time this season at last week’s Funai Classic.
First-round scores:
65 - Jeff Brehaut
67 - Ben Crane, Retief Goosen, Charles Howell, Tom Lehman, Dean Wilson
68 - Steve Allan, Lucas Glover, Bernhard Langer, Peter Lonard, Davis Love, Steve Lowery, Billy Mayfair, Rocco Mediate, Jesper Parnevik
69 - Marco Dawson, Steve Flesch, Neal Lancaster, Carl Pettersson, Chris Riley, Adam Scott, Charles Warren, Mark Wilson
70 - Stephen Ames, Alex Cejka, Justin Rose
71 - Robert Allenby, Daniel Chopra, Jose Coceres, Shigeki Maruyama, Rod Pampling, John Senden
72 - Stuart Appleby, Aaron Baddeley, Carlos Franco, Nick Price, Mike Weir
73 - Steve Elkington, Greg Owen, Hidemichi Tanaka
74 - Rory Sabbatini, Vijay Singh
75 - Geoff Ogilvy
76 - Craig Perks
77 - Tim Clark
78 - Thomas Levet
79 - KJ Choi, Tjaart Van Der Walt
Monty set for crown
SOTOGRANDE (Spain): Colin Montgomerie all but sealed a record eighth European Order of Merit title at the Volvo Masters on Friday when he moved eight shots clear of Michael Campbell the only man left who can deny him.
The 42-year-old Scot was five shots ahead of the New Zealander at the start of the day and after another magnificent five-under 66 he added three strokes to the mountain left for Campbell to climb at the weekend.
The US Open champion did little wrong, however, hitting five birdies and three bogeys for a two-under 69, three shots better than his opening round.
It was just that Montgomerie, who has battled back to the top of his game in the last few months, was once again in sublime form as he moved into an outright two strokes lead in the season-ending tournament.
Second Round scores:
133 - Colin Montgomerie 67-66
135 - Sergio Garcia 68-67, Ian Poulter 67-68
138 - Bradley Dredge 70-68
139 - Nick O’Hern 72-67, Henrik Stenson 70-69
140 - Paul Broadhurst 71-69, Lee Westwood 71-69, Niclas Fasth 70-70, Jose Maria Olazabal 68-72
141 - Michael Campbell 72-69, Nick Dougherty 71-70, Luke Donald 68-73
142 - Paul McGinley 74-68, Stephen Gallacher 73-69, Paul Casey 70-72, Steve Webster 69-73, Robert Karlsson 69-73
143 - Simon Khan 75-68, Graeme McDowell 72-71, Charl Schwartzel 72-71, David Howell 71-72, Stephen Dodd 71-72
144 - Robert-Jan Derksen 73-71, Gonzalo Fernandez Castano 73-71, Kenneth Ferrie 72-72, Thongchai Jaidee 72-72, Raphael Jacquelin 70-74
Indian Open
NEW DELHI: Leading second-round scores from the US$300,000 Indian Open Golf at the par-72 Delhi Golf Club on Friday:
134 - Thaworn Wiratchant (THA) 68-66
135 - Gerald Rosales (PHI) 68-67, Harmeet Kahlon (IND) 71-64
136 - Hendrik Buhrmann (RSA) 66-70, Prom Meesawat (THA) 69-67, Marcus Both (AUS) 70-66, Digvijay Singh (IND) 66-70
137 - Gary Rusnak (USA) 69-68, Terry Pilkadaris (AUS) 67-70, Atthaphon Prathummanee (THA) 68-69, Gary Simpson (AUS) 68-69
138 - Craig Warren (AUS) 65-73, Arjun Atwal (IND) 70-68, Bryan Saltus (USA) 68-70
Scott Taylor (USA) 71-67, Rick Gibson (CAN) 73-65
139 - Shamim Khan (IND) 71-68, Anura Rohana (SRI) 64-75, Alistair Presnell (AUS) 69-70, Jaiveer Virk (IND) 68-71, C. Muniyappa (IND) 70-69, Somkiat Srisanga (THA) 71-68, Yusuf Ali (IND) 72-67, Shiv Kapur (IND) 70-69, Jyoti Randhawa (IND) 69-70, Gaurav Ghei (IND) 67-72.—Agencies