Golf roundup: Yang leads Honda after two rounds
Published 11:30 pm Friday, March 6, 2009
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Y.E. Yang shot a bogey-free round of 5-under 65, moving to 7 under through two rounds of the Honda Classic at PGA National on Friday.
The South Korean was one shot ahead of Will MacKenzie (67), Jeff Overton (67) and Robert Allenby (68).
Ben Crane, winless since 2005, shot a 5-under 65 on his 33rd birthday to get to 5 under, two shots off Yang’s pace. David Mathis (68) was alone at 4 under, and six others were at 3 under, including Greg Chalmers (who shot 64, Friday’s best round) and Harrison Frazar (65).
Yang — who needed only 25 putts Friday, one-putting 11 times — hasn’t been in that position much so far.
He’s made one bogey in the first two rounds — the 12th hole on Thursday, and immediately followed that with a birdie. Yang started on the back side Friday, put together one birdie and eight pars before making the turn, and got rolling from there with three straight birdies that vaulted him up the leaderboard. A 12-footer on the par-3 seventh was his fifth birdie of the day, giving him the outright lead.
Erik Compton’s stirring run continued with his second straight round of 69, getting him to 2 under in his second PGA Tour event since undergoing heart-transplant surgery for the second time last year.
LPGA Tour
SINGAPORE — Americans Paula Creamer and Jane Park each shot 1-under 71 to share the second-round lead in the LPGA Tour’s HSBC Women’s Champions.
The third-ranked Creamer, coming off a third-place finish last week in Thailand, matched Park at 6-under 138 on the Tanah Merah Country Club’s Garden Course.
Creamer has eight LPGA Tour victories, four last season. Park, the former UCLA star who won the 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur, is seeking her first LPGA Tour victory.
Katherine Hull, the Australian Ladies Masters winner last month, shot a 69 to join Mi Hyun Kim (68) at 5 under. Sun Young Yoo (69) and Ai Miyazato (72) were 4 under, and Angela Stanford (72) was another stroke back along with Lindsey Wright (69), Shanshan Feng (71) and Se Ri Pak (72). Stanford won the season-opening SBS Open.
Top-ranked Lorena Ochoa, the defending champion coming off her 25th LPGA Tour victory last week in Thailand, was 2 under after a 73. Fourth-ranked Suzann Pettersen (70) and Hall of Famer Juli Inkster (70) also were 2 under.
Champions Tour
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Defending champion Bernhard Langer shot a 6-under 65 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Toshiba Classic.
Langer, a two-time Masters winner, was one stroke ahead of Jim Colbert, Bob Gilder and Eduardo Romero.
Mark O’Meara and Denis Watson were two shots off the lead.
Langer missed a chance to pad his lead on the closing hole. He hit a 5-wood second shot to five feet on the par 5 18th, but couldn’t get the putt to drop.
New Zealand PGA
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — American Steve Friesen shot a 3-under 69 to take a one-stroke lead over Australians Kurt Barnes and Steve Alker after the third round of the New Zealand PGA Championship.
Friesen, the former Nebraska star in his first full season on the Nationwide Tour, had an 11-under 205 total on the Bob Charles-designed Clearwater course. Barnes, the leader after each of the first two rounds, shot a 71, and Alker had a 67.
Danny Lee, the New Zealand amateur who won Johnnie Walker Classic last month, shot a 69 to top a group at 9 under. The 18-year-old Lee, also the U.S. Amateur champion, plans to turn pro after the Masters. Born in South Korea, he moved to New Zealand at age 8.
Fellow New Zealander David Smail (68) also was 9 under along with Americans Ryan Hietala (69) and Craig Bowden (70) and Australia’s Stephen Dartnall (68).
