Four players share halfway lead at Rex Hospital Open
RALEIGH, N.C. – Four players share the 36-hole lead at 9 under par, including first-round co-leaders Jeff Gallagher and Bradley Iles. Also at the top of the leaderboard are Jeff Curl and Scott Gardiner. Five others are one shot back at 8 under.Iles (New Zealand) and Gallagher (Marion, Ind.) both shot 2-under 69s to maintain their position, while Gardiner (Australia) went low with an 8-under-par 63 on Friday after being tied for 60th after Round 1.
Gardiner began the day by completing the final hole of his first round, which was suspended on Thursday evening due to darkness. It was a good start – he made a birdie on No. 18 to finish at 1 under, then went on to make another five birdies in his first nine holes of Round 2.
“Making that first putt was great. I was even par for the Tournament at that point and knew I had to play well Friday just to make the cut,” he said. His final 63 for the day is just one stroke shy of the course record of 62 set by Rob Bradley in 2003.
Iles, playing his second full year on the Nationwide Tour, has never held a share of the lead on Tour until this week. He had an erratic round with four birdies and four bogeys through 16 holes.
“I looked up at the leaderboard after No. 15 and saw that I was two shots back,” he said. “I knew I had to birdie the last two – I’ve never had the lead before and I didn’t want to lose it.” He did just that with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 17 and 18.
Gallagher is the veteran in the mix. He is playing his 11th full season on the Nationwide Tour and has been a member of the PGA Tour five times in his career.
Current Nationwide Tour money leader Michael Sim finished the day two shots behind the leaders at 7 under after firing a 2-under-par 69 in the second round. Sim is looking for his third win of the season and an instant promotion to the PGA Tour.
The first round was suspended on Thursday shortly after 8 p.m. The 21 players still on the course resumed play at 8 a.m. Friday and completed their rounds at 8:54 a.m. The second round began as scheduled at 7:05 a.m. and ended at approximately 7:15 p.m.
The field was cut to 72 players at 3-under-par 139 or better. The difference between the cut line and the leaders is six strokes. Nineteen players finished at 2 under and missed the cut by a shot.
For the second consecutive day, Tournament officials implemented a local rule that allowed players to lift, clean and replace their ball in closely-mown areas through the green (areas cut to fairway height or less).
It was partly cloudy with lots of sunshine on Friday and high temperatures reached the mid-80s. Winds were out of the west at 7 to 15 mph. A cold front will move through the region this evening and usher in drier air for the weekend, greatly reducing the chance of precipitation.
The third round begins at 7:50 a.m. Saturday morning with twosomes going off the first tee in nine-minute intervals. The leaders will be in the last two groups at 1:05 and 1:15 p.m.
Second-round notes:
* Numerous 2008 Nationwide Tour graduates are in the field this week, including David Mathis (7 under, tied for ninth), Brendon De Jonge, Darron Stiles and Brendon Todd (each at 3 under, tied for 58th). Also playing is 2005 graduate Jason Gore (6 under, tied for 19th). These players did not get into the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial on the PGA Tour and still have status on the Nationwide Tour. Playing competitive Tournament rounds here helps to keep their games in top form.
* Major Manning (Daytona Beach, Fla.) matched Gardiner’s 8-under-par 63 in the second round. Manning’s 63 followed a 1-over-par 72 in Round 1, catapulting him from tied for 115th to tied for 9th at 7 under overall.
* David Branshaw (Oswego, N.Y.) made a hole-in-one on No. 3 from 215 yards with a cut hybrid. This is the seventh ace since the event moved to TPC Wakefield Plantation in 2001 and the third on this hole.
* Sixteen-year-old Andrew Knoxof Cary, N.C. shot 2 under in the second round and finished at even-par 142 for the Tournament. Although he missed the cut by 3 strokes, Knox outplayed 44 professionals in the field. He gained a sponsor exemption by winning the Junior Invitational event held at TPC Wakefield Plantation last Sunday. North Carolina’s top-16 high school girls and top-56 high school boys were invited to participate.
* Scoring averages at TPC Wakefield Plantation:
Round 1 - 70.1
Round 2 - 70.3
Cumulative - 70.2
Return to Other Tours archives