AXLEY AND MITCHELL IN TOP 12
DALLAS — Wind or no wind, Marc Leishman likes his chances at the AT&T Byron Nelson after breaking the 36-hole record previously shared by Tiger Woods.
Hometown star Jordan Spieth really wants it to blow.
Leishman followed the best round of his PGA Tour career with a 5-under-par 66 Friday at Trinity Forest Golf Club, reaching the halfway point at 15-under 127 for a one-shot lead over 21-yearold rookie Aaron Wise — and keeping Spieth eight back on the links-style layout where the Dallas native is a member.
Spieth isn’t the only one who feels comfortable at the tournament’s new home, though.
“This course has got a real Australian feel to it,” said Leishman, the 34-yearold Aussie who opened with a 10-under 61. “Reminds me a lot of home. So that might have something to do with it.”
Winds were stronger on the treeless tract, but not until late in the morning rounds of Leishman and most of the others near the top of the secondround leaderboard.
The wind didn’t bother Wise, who shot a bogey-free 63 in the afternoon.
“It makes this course play way different just because of how firm and fast it is,” said Wise, who tied for second at the Wells Fargo Championship two weekends ago. “You’re really out there with the wind. I just felt like we did a great job of managing it, leaving our ball in good spots.”
Brian Gay, who also played in calmer morning conditions, matched his tour low at 62 to reach 13 under. Tied for fourth at 11 under were Eric Axley (65), Kevin Na (65) and Jimmy Walker (67). Axley — a native of Athens, Tennessee, who now lives in Knoxville — plays most often on the Web. com Tour and earned his second career Web.com victory when he finished first at the Rex Hospital Open this month after weather wiped out the final round.
Axley’s only PGA Tour win came in 2006, and it was in the Lone Star State — a threestroke victory at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio.
Baylor School graduate Keith Mitchell (68) was tied for 12th at 9 under, but two other former Red Raiders missed the 4-under cut by two strokes. Harris English had a 71, with Stephan Jaeger — coming off a win at the Web.com Tour’s Knoxville Open — shooting a 68.
Gay, who has played every Nelson except one since 2000, took note of the weather.
“I was telling my caddie it’s never this calm in Dallas three days in a row,” he explained. “Looks like it might start picking up now.”
That’s what Spieth figures he needs, because the three-time major champion is more familiar with wind and firmer greens on a course named for the 6,000 acres of thick trees surrounding the undulating layout a few miles south of downtown Dallas. The Nelson spent the past 35 years in suburban Irving.
Spieth, tied for 20th at 7-under 135 after matching Leishman’s 66, would feel a little better about making a run if he hadn’t missed two putts inside three feet for two of his three bogeys.
The first was from 15 inches early in the round when he was lurking around the cut line. The second came on his final hole, the ninth, while ending a run of four straight birdies.
The forecast for today has wind gusts reaching 25 mph, and the player with the highest world ranking in the field at No. 3 is hoping for at least that. Spieth is trying to improve his best Nelson finish of a tie for 16th as a 16-year-old amateur in 2010.
“If the wind really does pick up — which I really hope it does and the course can show some teeth — you’re looking at a potential winning score at under 20 under, even though it took 15 for the first two,” said Spieth, who missed the cut in the final Nelson at the TPC Four Seasons last year. “Just dicey.”
The previous 36-hole record for the Nelson was 12-under 128 at the par-70 Four Seasons. Woods, who did it twice, had shared the mark with four others.
“I’m not disappointed that the wind’s forecast to get up,” said Leishman, a three-time PGA Tour winner. “With it down, I’ve done OK.”
Tradition tied at top
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Gene Sauers shot a 5-under 67 to move into a first-place tie with Miguel Angel Jimenez in the second round of the Regions Tradition, the first of five PGA Tour Champions majors.
Jimenez and Sauers were at 11-under 133. It’s the first time either has held the lead after two rounds at a major.
Sauers, who had four birdies on the first seven holes, completed his second straight bogey-free round. Jimenez had four birdies and a bogey for a 69 at Greystone Golf & Country Club. He had matched the course record with his opening 64.
Jerry Kelly (69), Scott McCarron (68) and Kevin Sutherland (66) were two strokes back in third. McCarron and Sutherland each had an eagle: McCarron on the par-5 13th — after an eagle on No. 11 in the first round — and Sutherland on the par-4 eighth.
Bernhard Langer (72) was tied for 39th and nine shots out of the lead, making more challenging his bid to become the first golfer to win three straight titles at the Tradition since it began in 1989. He was six shots back at the midpoint last year but closed with a 64.
Rainy day for LPGA
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — In Gee Chun shot a 5-under 66 to take the lead in the suspended second round of the LPGA Tour’s Kingsmill Championship.
Three-quarters of an inch of rain fell overnight on Kingsmill Resort’s River Course, delaying the start of play an hour. Storms developed again in the afternoon, and play was suspended for more than hour, then finally called for the day at 7:25 p.m.
Chun, who played in the morning, had six birdies and a bogey to get to 11-under 131. Austin Ernst (65) and Nasa Hataoka (66) were a stroke back after bogey-free rounds.
BKO qualifying over
ANTWERP, Belgium — Jorge Campillo led the field after two days of stroke-play qualifying at the European Tour’s Belgian Knockout.
Campillo shot his second straight 67 in the inaugural event and was at 8-under 134 to hold a one-stroke lead over James Heath, who also had a 67 in the second round.
Belgium’s Thomas Detry (69) was another stroke back and tied for third with Soren Kjeldsen (66), Dimitrios Papadatos (67), Victor Perez (67) and Jeff Winther (69).
The top 64 from qualifying advanced to 9-hole knockout stroke-play matches this weekend. David Lipsky (68), tied for 15th at 139, was the only U.S. golfer to make the cut.