Green Leads Sawgrass Assault On Mickelson

Sun Herald

Sunday May 13, 2007

By Andrew Both Ponte Vedra, Florida

NATHAN Green heads a strong Australian challenge, one stroke behind tournament leader Phil Mickelson, after an enthralling second round.

Mickelson eagled the par-five 16th to take the lead with an even-par 72 at TPC Sawgrass, with Green alone in second place after a 69. But Green is far from the only Australian in the hunt, with Peter Lonard (72) and Rod Pampling (71) only two strokes behind.

The unassuming Green has none of the slick public image of Mickelson, and he seemed surprised to be ahead of all but one player in the star-studded field.

"I didn't drive it well but just managed to scrap it around and I came out with a good round," he said.

"I made a lot of good par saves, got a lot of good breaks, and that's pretty much why I shot the score I did.

"I'll definitely have to hit a few more fairways and greens on the weekend to make it easier. Once they start tucking the pins, it's going to be pretty hard to play from the rough.

"I'm looking forward to the weekend. Hopefully I can hit the ball a little better and my putting stays the way it is."

Lonard had the lead when he got to six under after 10 holes, but he made two double bogeys coming home, the worst at the par-three eighth, his 17th hole, where he caught his tee shot fat.

"I just hit a very ordinary shot and it was up against the lip of the bunker," said Lonard, joking that his divot was so big he needed a truckload of sand to replace it.

Asked whether he felt good because he was close to the lead, or bad because he surrendered it, he said: "If I had a psychologist, I would say the glass is half full, but if I was pessimistic, like I am, I'd say the other way.

"I hit three crap shots near the end and paid the penalty. It wasn't very nice. I'll fix it on the range this afternoon and come back and have another go tomorrow."

Pampling had reason to believe he should have been leading, after he wasted several golden birdie chances.

On a positive note, his long game is superb and he knows that he will be a contender over the final two rounds if he can hole some putts.

Several other Australians are within striking distance of the lead, with Mathew Goggin trailing by four shots, Aaron Baddeley and Steve Elkington by five.

And Geoff Ogilvy, Adam Scott and Stuart Appleby are not completely out of it either, six shots off the pace.

Mickelson, meanwhile, conjured up his noted short game magic to take the lead at five-under 139.

The tournament was setting up as a chance for Mickelson to make a major statement about the state of his game since linking with Butch Harmon for swing instruction. Mickelson wasn't at his best, as he hit only six of 18 greens in regulation.

But he did some nice scrambling, and then jumped into the lead with an eagle on the par-five 16th.

"Yesterday I hit a lot of great shots and played aggressively," Mickelson said. "Today I played some very poor shots on the tee and didn't give myself very many chances to make birdie. I'll have to improve on that. I don't feel like it's far off."

Tiger Woods didn't hit many good shots and flirted with having the weekend off, but his round of 73 left him at four over, one shot from the cut.

His best shot came off the golf course - a stinger directed at South African Rory Sabbatini.

Woods suffers from a case of burning ears, always keenly aware of what people say about him.

So it came as no surprise that he was fully versed on Sabbatini's jab at him after the first round on Thursday when Sabbatini said Woods was "very beatable" these days and that he wanted another shot at the No. 1 player in the world.

Keep in mind Sabbatini's remarks came after he folded in the final pairing of the Wachovia Championship last Sunday, shooting 74 as Woods went on to claim victory.

"I've seen him when he figures it out [referring to his 1999-2001 run]. It's scary," Sabbatini said. "I like the new Tiger. I'm waiting for him to have kids to really test his patience."

Well, Woods doesn't take kindly to anyone questioning his game. He appeared primed for a retort when Sabbatini's name came up on Friday.

"Well, if I remember the quote correctly, he said he likes the new Tiger," Woods said.

"I figure I've won nine out of [the last 12 on the PGA Tour] and I've won three times this year, the same amount he has won in his career. So I like the new Tiger as well."

It turns out Sabbatini almost had a chance to play with Woods yesterday after a round of 79 dropped him from five under to two over. His day completely unravelled when he hit two balls into the water on the par-three 17th, leading to a seven.

Afterwards, Sabbatini was confronted with Tiger's comments about him. He insisted that he wasn't taking a "dig at Tiger".

"If you challenge yourself, you need to challenge yourself against the best," Sabbatini said.

"I stated I want to compete against him. He's No. 1 in the world and I think I have the ability to get to No. 1."

LEADERBOARD

139 Phil Mickelson

140 Nathan Green (AUS)

141 Peter Lonard (AUS), Sean O'Hair, Rod Pampling (AUS), Carl Pettersson (SWE)

142 Chris DiMarco, Tom Pernice

143 Stewart Cink, Jose Coceres (ARG), Jim Furyk, Mathew Goggin (AUS), Tom Lehman, Rocco Mediate, Kirk Triplett

144 Aaron Baddeley (AUS), Steve Elkington (AUS), Jose Maria Olazabal (ESP)

145 Stuart Appleby (AUS), KJ Choi (KOR), Daniel Chopra (SWE), Tim Clark (RSA), Retief Goosen (RSA), Robert Karlsson (SWE), Geoff Ogilvy (AUS), Adam Scott (AUS), Vijay Singh (FIJ)

* US player unless stated