ORLANDO, Fla. — Equipped with his first PGA Tour lead in 67 starts, Morgan Hoffmann played Friday like he wanted to stay on top of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. ADVERTISING ORLANDO, Fla. — Equipped with his first PGA Tour lead
ORLANDO, Fla. — Equipped with his first PGA Tour lead in 67 starts, Morgan Hoffmann played Friday like he wanted to stay on top of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Hoffman made birdies on half of his holes for a 7-under 65, giving him a three-shot lead over Henrik Stenson, Harris English and defending champion Matt Every going into the weekend on soft and defenseless Bay Hill.
Stenson, English and Every each had a 66.
Rory McIlroy also got into the mix — finally — by making five straight birdies on his back nine for a 66, his first sub-70 score in three PGA Tour events this year. He was five shots behind and headed in the right direction in his final start before the Masters.
Bay Hill has greens that are so stressed that they will be replaced this summer. They are slow and receptive, a recipe for low scoring, and it shows.
Hoffmann was at 13-under 131, one short of the 36-hole record at Bay Hill. The cut was at 142, matching the lowest score to make the cut in 27 years at Bay Hill. It was the first time the cut was under par, but only because the tournament changed par to 70 (instead of 72) in 2008.
JTBC FOUNDERS CUP
PHOENIX — Ha Na Jang topped the crowded leaderboard when darkness ended play at the LPGA Tour’s JTBC Founders Cup.
Jang birdied her final four holes to reach 11 under with seven holes left in the second round. She opened with a 4-under 68 on Thursday at Desert Ridge.
Fellow South Korean player Hyo Joo Kim was a stroke back.
Kim played 30 holes Friday in the tournament that fell behind Thursday when rain delayed the start four hours. The Evian winner last year in France for her first major title, she completed a 65 in the first round and had a 69 in the second.
Only half of the 132 players finished the second round.
Stacy Lewis and Kim Kaufman were 9 under.
TUCSON CONQUISTADORES CLASSIC
TUCSON, Ariz. — Jerry Smith had a hole-in-one and shot a 7-under 65 to take the first-round lead in the Champions Tour’s inaugural Tucson Conquistadores Classic.
The 50-year-old Smith used a 5-iron on the 212-yard seventh hole — his 16th hole of the day — on Tucson National’s Catalina Course.
“I hit a 5 and cut it just a little bit back into the wind,” Smith said. “I think that hole played 212, but just wanted to fly to about 195, maybe. In the air, it did look really good. I really didn’t have any belief that it could go in for a one, but once it hit the green, it started rolling back there. A lot of friends that were following around were up at the green and they kind of gave the old cheer and I did see it disappear.”
He played the final nine holes in 6-under 30, making birdies on Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 8.
Colin Montgomerie, David Frost, Steve Pate and Marco Dawson were tied for second at 67.
Jesper Parnevik had a 71 in his Champions Tour debut. The five-time PGA Tour winner turned 50 on March 7. He missed the cut two weeks ago in the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open after injuring his back in a fall during a practice round.
MADEIRA ISLANDS OPEN
SANTO ANTONIO DA SERRA, Portugal — Bad weather disrupted the Madeira Islands Open for a second straight day, forcing organizers to suspend the first round again.
Play was stopped after heavy rain flooded the greens on the Clube de Golf Santo da Serra course, with Denmark’s Joachim B. Hansen holding the clubhouse lead after a 4-under 68. He was one shot ahead of England’s Andrew Marshall and French pair Adrien Saddier and Jean-Baptiste Gonnet. The four were among roughly half the field able to complete the first round.
Play is scheduled to resume on Saturday.
On Thursday, heavy winds sweeping the Portuguese archipelago kept play from starting and led to organizers reducing the event to 54 holes.
Last year, heavy fog during the first three days of the event forced organizers to reduce it to 36 holes.
