Kite & Baiocchi share halfway lead

Tom Kite shot a 4-under-par 68 on Friday to tie South African Hugh Baiocchi for the lead at 10-under 134 after two rounds of the Senior Players Championship.

They were two strokes ahead of defending champion Hale Irwin, who birdied the final two holes after two rain delays for a 68, and Dana Quigley, who eagled two of the first seven holes in a round of 65.

Dave Stockton, the winner in 1992 and 1994, was tied with England's Brian Barnes, South Africa's Simon Hobday and Jesse Patino at 137. Stockton shot a 66, Hobday and Barnes had 69s, and Patino had a 71.

Kite, in his first year on the senior circuit, is seeking his third victory of the season and his second in a major.

"I'm pleased with a 4 under, but I felt like a left a lot of good putts out there today," Kite said. "I had a chance to go much lower."

Baiocchi, who started the day tied for the lead with John Jacobs and Bruce Fleisher at 7-under 65, managed to control his putter as well as his temper for a second-round 69.

"The wind was up," said Baiocchi, who has three senior wins, but none since 1998. "I had to be a little scrappier than I was Thursday."

Baiocchi, 35th on the money list, had one bogey on each side, both the result of poor tee shots. He drove into the left rough on the 432-yard ninth and hit a 4-iron over the green, through a bunker and up the hill on the left side of the 192-yard 15th.

He was especially upset with the trouble at No. 15. With his temper almost at the boiling point, Baiocchi fluffed his second shot just a few feet -- into a greenside bunker. He was lucky to get up and down for bogey from there.

"I should maybe have hit 5-iron, and I was mumbling to my caddy and saying it was a bad play," said Baiocchi, who occasionally consults with sports psychologist Dedra Graham. "So, I got a bit mumbly and grumbly there, started acting badly.

"But, I managed to make bogey. I could quite easily have made double-bogey."

Kite, who will leave immediately after Sunday's final round to play in the British Open on the Old Course at St. Andrews, birdied four of five holes from Nos. 3-7 to reach 10 under.

Then the wind came up at the TPC of Michigan, a 6,966-yard course designed by Jack Nicklaus around wetlands near the world headquarters of sponsoring Ford Motor Co. The combination of sun and wind made it suddenly more of a Nicklaus golf course, and Kite cooled off.

As he walked up the slope to the 13th, Kite squinted at a leaderboard across the nearby 18th fairway. He could see that he and Baiocchi, who was finished, were tied. Yet, even with six holes to play, Kite couldn't pull away.

Instead, he 3-putted the 506-yard, par-5 13th, which Kite had reached in two. Over the roar of cars and trucks rumbling past on the freeway running beside No. 15, Kite had to curl in a downhill 12-footer to save par after finding a greenside bunker with his tee shot.

Kite continued to flirt with disaster and finally paid the price at No. 16. His blast from another greenside bunker rolled into the first cut on the far side of the green and his putt to save par went past on the high side of the cup, dropping Kite to 9 under.

"I felt like I left a lot on the table," Kite said. "I had an unforced error on No. 16, dumping that shot in the bunker."

But a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 17 pulled Kite back into a tie for the lead just moments before the first of two rain delays was called at 3:11 p.m. When play resumed, two hours, 56 minutes later, Kite's birdie putt from 10 feet at No. 18 just missed the left edge of the cup.

"Talk about slow play," he said. "It took nearly three hours to play three shots."

Play was suspended again at 6:40 p.m. and resumed 55 minutes later.

Winner will earn $315,000 from the $2.1 million purse.

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