Sindelar back to form to take lead

Joey Sindelar, mired in a slump that has seen him miss the cut in his six events this year, had a hot putter again today and built a one-shot lead halfway through the BellSouth Classic.

His 6-under-par 66 gave him a 10-under 134 total for two trips around the rugged hills of the 7,259-yard TPC Sugarloaf club and the lead over John Huston, who shot 67 for 135.

"It is quite a project out there," said Sindelar, who has six PGA Tour victories but none since winning the Hardee's Classic in 1990. "You better be on your toes. You better be either pretty crisp with your game or making a lot of putts because it is a pretty good battle."

First-round leader Paul Stankowski, who played in the morning, had a 70 and was tied at 136 with Phil Mickelson, who shot 69.

Sindelar said anyone who has been on the tour for 15-17 years is going to go through cycles in their game.

"For a few weeks a year, it is just not going to go the way you want," he said. "The bad shots are going to be awful and the good shots are going to be medium. Then it swings back around and your misses kind of kick back into play and your good shots turn out to be gimmees. That is what happened to me this week. I hope it lasts for a couple more days at least."

Starting on the back side, Sindelar parred the first four holes before putting together consecutive birdies from 8 and 15 feet. He missed a 3 1/2-footer for birdie on No. 16.

Sindelar scored from 30 feet on No. 2 and 10 feet on No. 3, then closed his round by getting another birdie on a short putt at No. 7 and his sixth of the day from six feet on the ninth green.

"I am as interested as you are to see what goes on tomorrow," he said.

Huston had seven birdies and two bogeys in his round, sinking two putts of 20 feet and another from 30 feet.

"I putted extremely well today," Huston said.

"Today was pretty much the same kind of day as yesterday," Stankowski said. "I didn't hit it that great. It wasn't what I wanted tee to green. The course played a little tougher. It was kind of swirly out there."

He had a hot putter in the first round and knocked in one Friday from 25 feet, but his three bogeys all came on three-putts - from 30, 50 and 30 feet on Nos. 2, 11 and 17.

Six others were tied at 137 - Harrison Frazar with a 68, Dave Stockton and Gary Nicklaus with 69s and Jean Van de Velde, Blaine McCallister and Kenny Perry with 70s.

It took a score of even-par 144 to make the cut, but one player didn't finish his round because of darkness and will play the 18th hole early Saturday. Jimmy Green stood at 1-under through 35 holes.

Defending champion David Duval put together a 69 for 142.

Nick Price, who was two shots off the lead when the day began, ran into trouble early when he took a 10 on the par-4 No. 5, taking two penalty strokes when his ball rolled back off the green into a creek. He shot a 77 and, at 145, missed the cut.

It wasn't a pretty day for Greg Norman, either. He bogeyed his last four holes for a 73 but made the weekend with a 144.

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