Soule leads roommate by one

Ted Soule fired a 7-under-par 65 Friday to jump ahead of college roommate J.J. Henry and lead the $450,000 BUY.COM Monterrey Open.

Soule stands at 11-under-par 133, one shot ahead of Henry (66) and Dave Barr (68). Tim Clark (67), Tripp Isenhour (66), Briny Baird (69) and Kevin Johnson (68) are two shots back, while Eric Rustand (70) and Danny Briggs (69) trail by four.

Seventy players made the 2-under-par cut.

Soule has made the most of squeaking into the tournament as the 14th and last Monday qualifier. To earn the final spot, the Texas Christian University graduate had to fight his way through a 10-player, 11-hole playoff that carried over to Tuesday morning .

"It was very strange seeing my name on the leaderboard [Thursday] because I have only played in two big tournaments," said Soule. "When I saw my name on the leaderboard, I got a little nervous, and I'm not sure where I ended up yesterday, but I was comfortable where I was."

Soule made the turn Friday at 7 under before seeing Henry, who was at 10 under, playing the eighth tee. Soule pointed to Henry, indicating he thought he would be playing with him in the final group Saturday.

"One of my best friends caddied for me on Monday and he said, 'You are playing well enough, you might as well go out and win it. Now's your chance,'" said Soule.

Henry had a chance to match his career-best 63, which he set during the second round of last year's event, but he found both the rough and a bunker on the eighth hole.

"I had very good memories when I came back here this year," said Henry, who made it through 34 holes of bogey-free golf before his bogey on No. 8. "For some reason, I like the golf course and seem to play well here. Plus, it's St. Patrick's Day, so I had a little luck of the Irish."

What really helped Henry was a birdie on his first hole and an eagle on No. 18.

"I think the important part, the key, is to keep the ball in the fairway," Henry said. "If you keep the ball in the fairways, you are going to have some good birdie opportunities."

Opportunities were there for Barr, but he could not make the most of them.

"I couldn't make any putts," said Barr, who managed five birdies on the afternoon. "I missed a few and then just couldn't capitalize on some of those shorter birdie putts."

The key for Barr through the first two rounds has been finding the greens, which he has done with great success.

"It's nice to see the ball go where it is supposed to be going," said Barr, who has hit 33 of 36 greens so far. "Playing solid, hitting lots of fairways and lots of greens, if you get those two combinations going, you don't have to putt spectacular to have a good score. Hopefully, I can run the tables one of the next two days and really shoot a low one if I keep doing what I am doing."

Clark fought his way back into contention after a double bogey on the 13th hole, his fourth hole of the day.

"After that double, I thought, whoa," said Clark. "I dropped down to 2 under ,and knew I was way back, but I knew I had been playing well, so I wanted to make sure I kept hitting greens, and after that, I only missed one more. So I had a lot more birdie opportunities."

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