Gomez shoots 68 to lead by one over trio in Panama
PANAMA CITY, Panama - Rafael Gomez finally put some sanity on the leaderboard during Friday’s second round of the $600,000 Panama Digicel Championship, the season-opening event on the Nationwide Tour schedule. Gomez, playing in the next-to-last group, posted a 2-under 68 to move to 5-under through 36 holes at the Panama Golf Club and one stroke better than Skip Kendall, 2005 champion Vance Veazey and Henrik Bjornstad.For most of the day, the leaderboard looked like it would be a repeat of Thursday’s opening round, which saw a record-tying eight players sharing the lead and 69 players bundled within four strokes. It only seemed like everybody either held or shared the lead.
Then Gomez stepped forward late in the day.
Gomez, a 41-year old from Buenos Aires, grabbed sole possession of the lead with three birdies over his final six holes. The birdies countered a nearly disastrous bogey, triple-bogey start on the inward nine.
“For some reason I lost my concentration on 10 and 11,” said Gomez through a translator. “I pulled my tee shot into the water and wound up making a seven. Easy. I was playing really well and then we got some rain showers to start the back nine. It affected my concentration and got me in a spin. I got myself squared away and refocused on what I needed to do.”
Gomez rolled in a 35-foot birdie putt on the par-3, 13th to turn things back around. He followed that up with two more birdies, including one at the par-3, 17th that gave him the lead outright.
While much of the field came into this week hoping to knock some rust off their game from a winter of practice, Gomez finished fourth a week ago in Chile and is using that to hopefully springboard his return to the Nationwide Tour.
“After I missed Q-school last year I told my managers that I was going to start being ready for everything,” said Gomez, who hasn’t been a regular on Tour since 2004. “I came here trying to win this tournament. I don’t know if I will but I have prepared for this particular week.”
Kendall, the first to reach the clubhouse at 4-under par early in the day, may not be in mid-season form but the 44-year old Wisconsin native has been anxious to get the 2009 season underway.
“I felt like I haven’t played well over the last couple of years,” said Kendall who finished No. 49 on the money list in 2008, thanks to just a pair of top-10 finishes scattered among 24 Nationwide Tour starts. “Not that I expected to come here and play really well, mainly because I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself. “
Kendall’s scores 67-69 have put the veteran in a good spot heading into the initial weekend of the tournament year.
“I think this is a great golf course to start on,” he said. “It really measures where you are at this point. Playing a golf course like this is a good measuring stick on where your game is. We’re all trying to shake the rust off a little bit from the off-season.”
Second Round Notes – David Peoples withdrew prior to the start of round two…Jeff Curl withdrew during the second round because of a shoulder injury…Jon Kimbell withdrew during the round due to a torn ligament in his finger…John Riegger has had the best birdie-eagle streak through two rounds. Riegger went E-B-B on holes 4-5-6 today. His 4-under streak tied the tournament record…Panama Golf Club head professional Mike Norman (73-74) missed the cut, as did defending champion Scott Dunlap.
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