Defending champion Vijay Singh missed the cut on Friday at the Chrysler Championship, where Steve Lowery seized the second-round lead with a five-under-par 66.
Singh, ranked No 2 in the world, missed the cut for a second straight week. A four-time winner on the US tour this year, Singh followed up his first-round 74 with a 71 on the Westin Innisbrook Resort's Copperhead Course, missing the cut which fell at 144 by one stroke.
The Fijian, who claimed his ninth title of 2004 here last year, had hoped to rebound after missing his third cut of the season at last week's Funai Classic.
While Singh struggled, Lowery was storming up the leaderboard.
He carded a birdie and a bogey on the front nine, but came home with a blistering 30 that included five birdies as he completed 36 holes in eight-under 134.
Lowery started the back nine with three consecutive birdies and added birdies at 14 and 16 to take two-shot lead over Bo Van Pelt.
A 31-foot birdie putt at the 10th launched Lowery's run.
He followed it up on the par-five 11th with a birdie from two feet after blasting out of a bunker, and he stuck a nine-iron to 15 feet on 12 and converted for another. At the par-five 14th, he two-putted for birdie from 35 feet, and a 25-foot birdie putt on 16 capped his run.
"I got a good start there on 10 and drove it in the fairway a lot on the back nine," Lowery said. "It's a great golf course, very tough. If you're in the fairway, obviously, you can shoot some good scores."
A two-time winner on the PGA Tour, Lowery has only made 15 cuts in 30 events entering this tournament.
"I've started to play a lot better at the end of the year," Lowery said. "It's more fun. I've felt a lot more competitive."
Van Pelt posted a six-under 65 for 136. He carded a bogey-free round with three birdies on each side.
LEADING SECOND-ROUND SCORES (USA unless noted):
134 - Steve Lowery 68-66
136 - Bo Van Pelt 71-65
137 - Davis Love 68-69, Bernhard Langer (GER) 68-69, Carl Pettersson (SWE) 69-68, Tom Pernice 71-66
138 - Justin Rose (GBR) 70-68, Retief Goosen (RSA) 67-71, Tim Herron 71-67, Charles Howell 67-71, Tom Lehman 67-71
139 - Rocco Mediate 68-71, Jeff Brehaut 65-74, Dean Wilson 67-72, John Huston 71-68, Daniel Chopra (SWE) 71-68
140 - Peter Lonard (AUS) 68-72, Chris Riley 69-71, Robert Gamez 70-70, Chad Campbell 70-70, Lucas Glover 68-72, Heath Slocum 71-69, Hidemichi Tanaka (JPN) 73-67
141 - Steve Allan (AUS) 68-73, Adam Scott (AUS) 69-72, John Senden (AUS) 71-70
142 - Stephen Ames (CAN) 70-72
143 - Alex Cejka (GER) 70-73, Stephen Leaney 73-70
144 - Jesper Parnevik (SWE) 68-76, Stuart Appleby (AUS) 72-72, Nick Price (ZIM) 72-72, Shigeki Maruyama (JPN) 71-73, Greg Owen (GBR) 73-71, Brian Davis (GBR) 73-71
Failed to qualify
145 - Vijay Singh (FIJ) 74-71, Rory Sabbatini (RSA) 74-71
146 - Carlos Franco (PAR) 72-74, Mike Weir (CAN) 72-74, Robert Allenby (AUS) 71-75
148 - Aaron Baddeley (AUS) 72-76, Steve Elkington (AUS) 73-75, Tim Clark (RSA) 77-71
149 - Jose Coceres (ARG) 71-78, Craig Perks (NZL) 76-73
150 - Geoff Ogilvy (AUS) 75-75
152 - Rod Pampling (AUS) 71-81
157 - Tjaart Van Der Walt (RSA) 79-78
WD - Thomas Levet (FRA) 78, KJ Choi (KOR) 79.
Comments
Comments are closed.