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Leonard opens three shot
advantage
Twenty-five tournaments
so far this year and Justin Leonard is still without a victory. Small wonder he's
happy to be where he's a proven winner.
Leonard shot a 7-under-par
64 Friday to take a three-stroke lead in the Texas Open, scene of his only triumph
in 2000. The win last year broke a dry spell dating to 1998.
The Dallas native and former
University of Texas star had 10 birdies on a cloudless but breezy day to finish
with a two-day total of 13-under 129 on the LaCantera Golf Club course.
``Fifteen great holes and
three others,'' Leonard summed up his day. ``Making those three bogeys cost me.
``I really started playing
well on my second nine. I made some putts. It was a lot of fun out there.''
First-round leader Marco
Dawson (68) and Carl Paulson (66) were 10 under after two rounds. Paulson shot
a 32 on his final nine holes to climb into contention.
What will it take to reel
in Leonard?
``A lot of birdies,'' Paulson
said. ``He's in his home state, he feels comfortable here.
``It seems like everybody's
got their tournaments they feel good in. This is kind of a second home to him
and he feels really comfortable out here. He's obviously got his game in shape.''
Sweden's Jesper Parnevik
(66), Jay Williamson (68) and Tripp Isenhour (65) were four strokes back at 9
under.
Williamson (105th), Paulson
(130th) and Isenhour (158th) are among those players fighting to finish in the
top 125 on the money list, the cutoff for retaining a tour exemption for 2002.
But Leonard, 39th in winnings
at $1.1 million, has only so much sympathy for their situation.
``I'm just doing my job
and they're doing their job,'' he said. ``If we butt heads at the end of that,
that's great.''
Leonard's best finish this
season was fourth-place tie in the Houston Open in April. His goal is to play
his way into the Tour Championship with a win here.
``I've helped myself over
the last two days,'' he said. ``Hopefully, I can continue that over the weekend.''
From below the cutoff looking
up, the pressure of being in the hunt this week sits atop the pressure of trying
to dodge a return trip to qualifying school.
``In my position, you know
one good week can put you over the top,'' said Isenhour, a tour rookie who tied
for seventh in the Greater Hartford Open in July. ``It's hard not to think about
that. You've got to block it out and go play golf.''
Dawson, the first-round
leader at 7 under, also needs to make some money in the waning weeks to keep his
exemption.
He started with consecutive
birdies on the back nine and was at 10 under when he double-bogeyed the par-3
3rd hole.
His tee shot on the 202-yard hole flew over the green and across a cart path.
His chip under trees was too firm and the ball ran well past the cup.
``The pin was all the way
back and felt I couldn't hit it over the green'' with a 3-iron, Dawson said. ``Just
before I hit I just got a bad feeling and felt the wind change a bit. It just
kind of threw me off and I made a bad swing.''
He got back to 10 under
with birdies on two of his last three holes.
Most notably among those
missing the cut of 2-under 140 was PGA champion David Toms, a member of the U.S.
Ryder Cup team. He shot a 73 on Friday for a 5-over total.
Toms, fifth on the tour
money list at $2.7 million, made a last-minute decision to play at LaCantera this
week after the Ryder Cup matches in England were postponed until next year following
the terrorist attacks.
The cut list also included
Frank Lickliter, Fred Funk and Japan's Shigeki Maruyama, all among the top 50
money winners.
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