Wetterich still in good spot at Nelson
without a share of lead
(AP) - For the first time in three
years, Brett Wetterich didn't go into the weekend tied for the lead at
the Byron Nelson Championship.
The defending champion was still in a good spot.
A bogey-free 68 Friday got Wetterich to 6-under 134 through two rounds
and tied him with Sean O'Hair and Fredrik Jacobsen only a stroke behind
Luke Donald, whose 43-foot chip at the 17th hole finally put him in the
lead at the Nelson.
"I wasn't real sure what to expect coming into this week," said
Wetterich, who is defending his only PGA Tour victory. "It's not a
different tournament, but it's a different year, so you need to go out
and do the things that you did last year to win."
Wetterich had another steady round, this time with 10 straight pars
between his only birdies at Nos. 2 and 13 on Cottonwood Valley,
supposedly the easier of the two courses used for the first two rounds
of the Nelson.
In his opening round at the TPC Four
Seasons, where all weekend rounds will be played and the tournament will
be played exclusively in the future, Wetterich opened with six straight
pars and had only one bogey in his round of 66.
"It was slow, but at the same time, I didn't feel like I was playing
that bad," Wetterich said. "I'm happy where I'm at."
Donald took over sole possession of the lead with his second chip-in,
off the edge of the green at the 196-yard 17th. That was a hole after he
missed his only fairway and had to settle for par at the 554-yard 16th,
the easiest at the TPC Four Seasons.
The 66 was Donald's 10th straight subpar round at the Nelson, where he'd
never finished a round in the lead.
"Yeah, I suppose it's a course I just enjoy," Donald said. "You don't
have to overpower it, you don't have to be ultra-long to be successful.
It's more about placing it. I have good thoughts and good feelings about
this place when I play here, and it shows."
Kent Jones (66) and Scott Verplank (68) were two strokes back, and Vijay
Singh (67) was in a group of five players at 4 under.
This is the first time the tournament has been played without Byron
Nelson, the champion golfer known as "Lord Byron" and in 1968 the first
to have a PGA Tour event named after him. He died Sept. 26 at age 94.
During the third round Saturday afternoon, play will stop for a moment
of silence in honor of Nelson. There will also be a flyover by a
squadron of fighter jets.
Seven of the last eight Nelson winners played their first rounds at
Cottonwood Valley, like O'Hair and Donald this year.
|
