Round 2 Notes – WGC - CA Championship
Due to the threat of afternoon thunderstorms, tee times have been moved up
for Saturday’s third round with threesomes playing off of split tees
between 8:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Geoff Ogilvy (65-67—132) posted his second consecutive bogey-free round to
take a one-shot lead over Tiger Woods. It represents just the second
36-hole lead of Ogilvy’s career in a PGA TOUR event, with the first leading
to a win at the 2005 Chrysler Classic of Tucson. Ogilvy finished T3 and
four strokes behind Woods in his WGC-CA Championship a year ago.
In 2008, the second-round leader/co-leader has won five of 11 stroke-play
events on the PGA TOUR, with the most recent being Phil Mickelson’s victory
at the Northern Trust Open. At the WGC-CA Championship, the second-round
leader/co-leader has won six of eight times, including Ernie Els’ victory
in 2004 and Tiger Woods’ wins in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007.
Tiger Woods posted the round of the day with a 6-under 66, falling just one
stroke shy of holding the lead for the 19th time in 34 rounds at the WGC-CA
Championship.
Six countries are represented among the top nine players on the
leaderboard, including the United States (Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Mark
Calcavecchia), Australia (Geoff Ogilvy, Adam Scott), Denmark (Anders
Hansen), India (Jeev Singh), Spain (Miguel Angel Jimenez) and Sweden
(Robert Karlsson).
Despite a double bogey on his final hole, 11-time international winner Jeev
Singh (70) moved into the top five on the leaderboard at 6-under 138. Singh
is making the 18th start of his career on the PGA TOUR and is hoping to top
a career-best T28 he posted at the 2007 WGC-CA Championship.
Tiger Woods eagled Nos. 1 and 12 on Friday to become the first player in
the field with two eagles in a round this week. It represents the first
time since the 2007 Buick Invitational that Woods has performed the feat.
Overall, there have been 13 eagles so far this week, compared to just 12
the entire tournament a year ago.
Of the 25 players making their first appearance at the WGC-CA Championship,
Andres Romero and Chapchai Nirat are currently in the best position at
4-under 140. Both players are hoping to become the first player to win a
WGC event in his first start since Jeff Maggert claimed the inaugural 1999
Accenture Match Play Championship.
All three past champions of the WGC-CA Championship are participating this
week, including six-time winner Tiger Woods (2nd), Mike Weir (T32) and
Ernie Els (T72).
The second-round course average at the par-72 Doral Golf Resort & Spa’s
Blue Course was 72.329. The toughest hole on Friday was the par-4 18th hole
with a 4.544 average. That hole ranked as the hardest hole on TOUR in 2004
and 2007.
Geoff Ogilvy (67) and Vijay Singh (68) managed the only bogey-free rounds
on Friday, bringing the total of such rounds to four this week. Ogilvy has
played his first 36 holes without a bogey.
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