| Oakville,
Ontario, 11th September 1998
- The inner peace that Bob Friend first experienced in May in the
Byron Nelson Classic returned today in the Canadian Open as he handled tough wind
and wicked pin placements for a 5-under-par 67 and a one-stroke lead.
Friend, the 34-year-old
son of ex-Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Bob Friend, recovered from consecutive bogeys
on his back nine to finish two trips around Glen Abbey Golf Club in 8-under 136,
one stroke ahead of Billy Andrade. "The
last few days have been good," Friend said. "I've been very relaxed
and my mind has been very quiet over the ball. Hopefully, it will continue."
Chris DiMarco
and Robert Damron, both looking for their first PGA Tour victory, played without
a bogey in the second round and were at 6-under 138. DiMarco made eagle on the
par-5 18th for a 7-under 65, the best score of the tournament, while Damron had
a 67. Ernie
Els, trying to recover from a lost summer of back problems by getting into the
top 30 on the money list, went out in 40 and missed the cut after 5-over 77, his
worst round of the year. Els is in jeopardy of missing the Tour Championship for
the first time since he joined the PGA Tour in 1994. "It
just did not go my way," he said. "This is tough to swallow. I just
wasn't patient enough." First-round
leader Chris Smith followed a 66 with a 77 and was at 143. In
his return to the PGA Tour after four years of wondering whether he had the game
to compete at the top level, Friend is 100th on the money list and appears to
be in good shape to keep his card. He
attributes that to paying more attention to his shots than his standing, something
he hasn't done since the Nelson Classic, in which he opened with a 63, was two
strokes off the lead at the midway point and finished in a tie for sixth. "My
goal all year was to keep my card and not go back to that torture test,"
he said, referring to qualifying school. "For me, the best way I could do
it was to be very process-oriented - work on how to be relaxed, have fun, pick
out a target and not worry about the results." While
he got away from that by missing the cut in nine of his last 12 tournaments, he
somehow kept his cool on a warm, blustery day that again made the Abbey rock hard.
Friend made birdies on all four of the par-5s and got as low as 9-under before
the two bogeys. After
missing the green on the downwind sixth hole for his first bogey, he put his tee
shot on the par-3 seventh on the left side of a green that slopes severely to
the front and is divided by a ridge. He three-putted from 50 feet, which wasn't
too surprising. "Everybody
in the world will three-putt from back there," said Hal Sutton, who did just
that in his round of 69 that left him four strokes back at 140. "Some
of those pins were bordering on unfair," Damron said, singling out the seventh
hole and No. 6, where the pin was tucked 8 feet behind a bunker on a downslope.
"In fact, they were unfair. But I parred them both, so I guess they were
OK." It's
the first time Friend has led a tournament at the halfway point, although he has
a history of dramatic finishes. The only reason he's on tour is because he shot
a 63 on the final day of Q-school to just make the cutoff. Still,
he has two days left on a course that won't accept anything but well-played shots.
Andrade, struggling
through his worst year since his rookie season in 1988, remembers how nervous
he felt the first couple of times he went into a weekend in contention. "If
you make it a big deal, you'll struggle," Andrade said. "But if you
realize it's just another round of golf, you'll be fine. The more times you're
leading a tournament, eventually you'll pull through." That
could work to Andrade's favor, since he can't remember the last time he had a
realistic chance to win. "I
haven't been in the position I'm in for a long time," he said. "But
I've been there before." He
stayed there Friday by also making birdies on all the par-5s, and hanging onto
his round when his driving left him down the stretch. Over a stretch of four holes,
the only fairway Andrade came close to hitting was No. 6, when his tee shot hit
the bottom of a tree and ricocheted into the fairway. "I
was fortunate enough to make some birdies and hang in there," he said. That
will be the chore facing Friend this weekend. DIVOTS:
A Canadian has not won his national championship since Pat Fletcher in 1954, a
streak likely to continue. The low Canadian was Glen Hnatiuk at 1-over 145. ...
Jeff Sluman turned 41 on Friday but didn't have much to celebrate on the course.
He shot a 77 to miss the cut. ... Tim Herron and his caddie, Gordon Hundley, parted
ways this week. Hundley, better known as "Harpo," had been on Herron's
bag since he won his first tournament, the 1996 Honda Classic. ... Brian Henninger
was in a twosome Thursday after Jay Don Blake withdrew because of a back injury.
On Friday, Dicky Pride withdrew, leaving Henninger by himself. Tom Byrum bailed
out of his threesome to join him. ... Mark Calcavecchia experimented a couple
of times Friday with a crosshanded putting grip. | 
