Sabbatini races into four-shot lead in California
Rory Sabbatini carded a six-under-par 65 to claim a stunning four-shot lead at the halfway stage of the Nissan Open in California.
Sabbatini showed excellent form at the Riviera Country Club to move to 10-under on 132 - four shots clear of Craig Barlow and Thomas Levet.
Tom Lehman, Trevor Immelman, Bob Estes, Jason Schultz, Lee Westwood, Tim Clark and Dean Wilson ended the day a further stroke back.
Dubliner Paul McGinley had his second successive 70 to be two under, but Ulsterman Graeme McDowell and Brian Davis missed the cut.
McGinley said: “I played good – lots of greens, lots of fairways – and while it’s not world-class it’s something to build on.
“I’ve been in the game long enough. If you have two or three wins in a year it’s an unbelievable year. That means there are 27 events you’re not winning and the key in them is to build up for the weeks when you are hot.
“I’ve made the cut again and have an opportunity for a good finish. It helps to reach the buzz.”
McDowell, set to play either Woods or Vijay Singh in next week’s world match play in San Diego depending on whether Retief Goosen pulls out, commented: “I’m very close.
“I’m just having a few teething problems with equipment, but it’s getting better every week even if the scores have not shown it. I’m still positive.”
Tiger Woods, winner of his first two tournaments this year, was relieved just to survive the halfway cut at the Nissan Open in Los Angeles today.
Caught without an umbrella in his bag when a rainstorm hit the Riviera Country Club, Woods missed putts of five and eight feet for a 74 that left him on one over par.
Those two errors dropped the ’flu-suffering world number one from 54th to 72nd.
Only the top 70 and ties qualify for the final two rounds, but there were still a number of players to finish and mistakes by others let him back in.
“It was very frustrating,” said Woods, who putted on the ninth – his final hole – with his hat on backwards because of the rain. “I just couldn’t shake anything in on the greens, I had a hard time on the greens.”
“I’m pretty cold right now, it was a little wet and a little cold coming in,” Woods said. “I can barely talk right now.”
Ernie Els’ problems began straightaway. He carved his opening drive into the trees and in the end did well to scramble a par five on the easiest hole on the entire Riviera course.
Els then three-putted the second for bogey and double-bogeyed the next. From the rough his second shot hopped into a greenside bunker and was so close to the back lip his only option was to knock it further forward in the sand.
Els hit the hole with his next shot from the trap, but the ball rolled on four feet and he missed the return.
That was as bad as it got, though, and his inward 33 kept alive his hopes of staying in the event he won in 1999 by beating Woods – another of the later starters and two under overnight.
While Sabbatini had the low round of the day, the most impressive round was turned in by Westwood.
The Briton had an afternoon tee time and played most of his round in the rain but still shot a five-under 65, including a back-nine 33.
Nevertheless, todays’ performance added weight to Sabbatini’s as one of the hottest golfers on the Tour right now, having played in five events prior to this tournament and finished no worse than a tie for 20th.
He tied for second at the Sony Open, tied for 10th at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and finished second last week at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
“Well even coming into this week, my body felt pretty fatigued,” Sabbatini admitted. “This is my sixth week in a row. I’m already pretty tired.”
Collated second round scores and totals in the USPGA Tour Nissan Open, Riviera Country Club, Los Angeles, United States (USA unless stated, par 71):
132 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 67 65
136 Craig Barlow 67 69, Thomas Levet (Fra) 68 68
137 Tom Lehman 67 70, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 67 70, Bob Estes 66 71, Jason Schultz 67 70, Lee Westwood 71 66, Tim Clark (Rsa) 70 67, Dean Wilson 64 73
138 Paul Stankowski 70 68, Brian Gay 71 67, KJ Choi (Kor) 69 69, Arron Oberholser 68 70, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 71 67, Nick Watney 68 70, Kevin Sutherland 68 70, Fred Couples 66 72, Justin Rose (Gbr) 64 74
139 Chad Campbell 67 72, Mark Brooks 72 67, Sean O’Hair 70 69, Brandt Jobe 68 71, Adam Scott (Aus) 68 71, Billy Mayfair 66 73, Luke Donald (Gbr) 69 70
140 Paul McGinley (Irl) 70 70, David Duval 68 72, Corey Pavin 67 73, JJ Henry 71 69, Yasuharu Imano (Jpn) 70 70, Brad Faxon 69 71, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 70 70, Greg Owen (Gbr) 69 71, Joe Durant 70 70
141 Tag Ridings 69 72, Harrison Frazar 67 74, Bo Van Pelt 70 71, Jeff Brehaut 68 73, Shaun Micheel 70 71, Mark Hensby (Aus) 74 67, Ted Purdy 72 69, Bob Tway 72 69, Charles Howell 68 73, Olin Browne 68 73, Rod Pampling (Aus) 67 74, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 68 73, Jim Furyk 69 72, John Rollins 70 71
142 Briny Baird 74 6, Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 72, Tim Petrovic 70 72, Peter Lonard (Aus) 68 74, Steve Flesch 71 71, Scott Verplank 69 73, Robert Damron 72 70, Bill Haas 71 71, Tom Pernice 69 73, Pat Perez 68 74, Len Mattiace 71 71, Zach Johnson 71 71, Wes Short 71 71, Joey Sindelar 68 74, Stewart Cink 71 71, Bart Bryant 71 71, Chris Riley 70 72, JL Lewis 70 72, Jimmy Walker 71 71
143 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 72 71, Charles Warren 70 73, Mike Weir (Can) 71 72, Ben Curtis 74 69, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 72 71, Scott Miller 71 72, DJ Trahan 70 73, JB Holmes 71 72, Tiger Woods 69 74, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 72 71, Ryan Palmer 71 72, Steve Elkington (Aus) 72 71, Rich Beem 75 68, Doug Barron 69 74, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 66 77
The following Players missed the Cut:
144 Shane Bertsch 70 74, Jay Williamson 75 69, Alex Cejka (Ger) 72 72, Carlos Franco (Par) 71 73, Heath Slocum 70 74, Jason Gore 73 71, Chris DiMarco 73 71, Jerry Smith 71 73, Todd Fischer 73 71, Robert Allenby (Aus) 71 73, James Driscoll 70 74, Brent Geiberger 70 74, Jonathan Kaye 74 70, Todd Hamilton 71 73, Scott McCarron 71 73, Kevin Na 68 76
145 Tim Herron 71 74, Graeme McDowell (Gbr) 73 72, Kenny Perry 71 74, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 71 74, Chris Couch 74 71, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 74 71, Rocco Mediate 72 73, Jason Bohn 69 76, Justin Leonard 73 72, Lee Janzen 70 75, Nicholas Thomspon 75 70
146 Steve Jones 73 73, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 74 72, Jim Gormley 71 75, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 73 73, John Riegger 73 73, Vaughn Taylor 70 76, Robert Gamez 72 74
147 Jon Mills 73 74, John Daly 70 77, Duffy Waldorf 70 77, Woody Austin 73 74, Fred Funk 72 75
148 Billy Andrade 72 76, Brian Davis (Gbr) 72 76, Greg Kraft 72 76, Tim Parun 74 74, Brett Quigley 76 72, Kirk Triplett 72 76, Joe Ogilvie 72 76, Troy Matteson 73 75
149 Dudley Hart 78 71, Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 71 78, Hal Sutton 74 75
151 Ian Leggatt (Can) 76 75, Daisuke Maruyama (Jpn) 76 75, Joey Snyder 75 76
152 Richard Johnson 80 72, Keiichiro Fukabori (Jpn) 76 76
153 Hank Kuehne 76 77
155 DA Points 76 79
157 Eric Axley 76 81
Withdrew: Tommy Armour, Steve Bowditch (Aus)
Disqualified: Stephen Ames (Can).
