Quail Hollow Championship: Round 2 notebook

text size

Weather: Sunny. High of 75. Winds SW 5-10 mph.

RELATED

Leaderboard: Round 2
Live Report: Round 2
Kodak Challenge update

• The cut came at 1-over 145 with 77 players advancing to the weekend.

• Billy Mayfair last held a second-round lead/co-lead at the 2002 Michelob Championship.

• The last Monday Open Qualifier to win on the PGA TOUR was Fred Wadsworth at the 1986 Southern Open. Billy Mayfair won the Quail Hollow Championship Qualifier on Monday at Carolina Golf Club.

• Mayfair is making his eighth start at the Quail Hollow Championship. Mayfair had never recorded back-to-back rounds in the 60s at Quail Hollow prior to Friday. Friday was Mayfair's 26th round at Quail Hollow.

• Playing his eighth career round at Quail Hollow Friday, Angel Cabrera turned in his first round in the 60s (67). Cabrera missed the cut last year and finished 72nd in 2008.

• The round of the day belonged to J.P. Hayes, who tied the course record with an 8-under 64 to get to 6-under through the halfway mark. The 64 is his lowest round since firing an 8-under 62 in round two of the 2009 Valero Texas Open. The others who have posted 64s at Quail Hollow are Kirk Triplett (R1/2004), Rory Sabbatini (R2/2007) and round-one leader Bo Van Pelt (R2/2006).

• Hayes is competing in his fourth Quail Hollow Championship. His previous best finish was a T11 in 2003.

• Hayes is in search of his first win since the 2002 John Deere Classic. His only other win was the 1998 Buick Classic.

• With three top-10 finishes to his credit this year, should Hayes post another this week, it will be his highest number of top-10 finishes since earning five in 2000.

• The second-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win six of 17 stroke-play events on the PGA TOUR this season, most recently by Jason Bohn at last week's Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

• The only second-round leader/co-leader to go on to win the Quail Hollow Championship was Tiger Woods in 2007, when a 36-hole total of 138 was good for a three-way tie with Vijay Singh and Arron Oberholser.

• A player in their 20s has won the last two years at the Quail Hollow Championship (Anthony Kim and Sean O'Hair). Dustin Johnson is the only 20-year-old in the top-5 after round two.

• Phil Mickelson is getting closer to his first Quail Hollow Championship title following a 4-under 68 to get to 6-under through 36 holes.

• Mickelson recorded his second career birdie at No. 17 Friday. His only other birdie on that hole came in 2007 in round four.

• The highlight of Mickelson's round came at the par-5 15th hole, where he launched his second shot from 217 yards to within eight feet for an eagle-three. It was Mickelson's fourth career eagle at this event and first at No. 15. He has had an eagle each of the last four years at Quail Hollow.

• Mickelson, who has never missed a cut in six previous starts at Quail Hollow, is the owner of four top-10 finishes here. He finished T5 in Charlotte last year.

• Should Mickelson go on to win, it would be the fourth time in his career to win in consecutive starts, and first since winning the 2006 BellSouth Classic and the Masters.

• Phil Mickelson, making his first start since winning the Masters Tournament, is making his seventh start at the Quail Hollow Championship. He owns four top-10s here (2004-T5, 2005-T7, 2007-T3, 2009-T4). Here's a look at how Mickelson has fared in his next start after winning a major championship:

2004 Masters, followed by T2 at Zurich Classic of New Orleans
2005 PGA Championship, followed by T51 at World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational
2006 Masters, followed by T15 at Zurich Classic of New Orleans
2010 Masters, TBD at the Quail Hollow Championship

• Tiger Woods has now missed six cuts in 241 starts as a professional.

• Woods last missed a cut at the 2009 British Open in July. Before that it was the 2006 U.S. Open. Woods' last missed cut in a non-major was the 2005 Children's Miracle Network Classic at Walt Disney World.

• Woods had back-to-back double-bogeys on Nos. 14 and 15 Friday. The only other time as a professional he recorded doubles or worse back-to-back was the 2007 Arnold Palmer Invitational (Round 4) when he had a double-bogey followed by a triple-bogey at Nos. 17-18. He also recorded a double-bogey followed by a quadruple-bogey at the 1996 U.S. Open as an amateur.

• Woods (79) recorded his worst round as a professional at a non-major. His previous worst score was a 78, which he recorded at the 1999 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and 1996 TOUR Championship.

• Woods (153) recorded the worst opening 36 holes of his professional career. Woods recorded a 152 at the 2006 U.S. Open to miss the cut.

• Woods has recorded three rounds in the 80s on the PGA TOUR as an amateur or professional:

85 (+15) 1995 U.S. Open (amateur)
81 (+10) 2002 British Open
80 (+8) 1994 Arnold Palmer Invitational (amateur)

• As a professional, Woods had never missed a cut in the first four months of the season (January, February, March or April) prior to Friday. The earliest he had missed a cut in a season was the 2005 HP Byron Nelson Championship (May 13, 2005).

• Of Woods' six missed cuts as a professional, only two have been in majors. Woods' five previous missed cuts come in Texas, New York, Florida, Scotland and Canada.

• Woods and Mickelson are teeing it up together for only the second time this year, but the 173rd time in their professional careers. Mickelson won earlier this year at the Masters, but overall Woods has won 53 times when playing in the same event as Mickelson (who has 14 wins in those events). The lefthander has won the last three tournaments that both have played (THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions and the Masters).

A name not yet household is that of former North Carolina State golfer Garth Mulroy who found himself temporarily atop the leaderboard at 7-under until he took a triple-bogey six at the 17th hole. Mulroy, who is playing on a sponsor's invitation is at 4-under.

• Rookie Garth Mulroy earned his way onto the PGA TOUR in 2010 by virtue of the Nationwide Tour, where he finished No. 14 on that Tour's money list in 2009.

• Born in South Africa, Garth Mulroy has yet to make a cut on the PGA TOUR in 2010 in seven previous starts.

• Mulroy, who has competed in two Nationwide Tour events this season, claimed five top-10 finishes on that Tour in 2009, highlighted by a win at the South Georgia Classic. Mulroy has also spent time on the E-Golf Tour (formerly the Tarheel Tour).

• With the exception of the majors, the Quail Hollow Championship has featured the most difficult finishing holes (Nos. 16-17-18) on TOUR six out of the last seven years. The only exception was 2004, when the closing holes at East Lake GC (The TOUR Championship) barely edged out Nos. 16-18 at Quail Hollow.

• The last three winners of the Quail Hollow Championship (O'Hair, Kim, Woods) have gone on to finish inside the top five in the FedExCup standings that year.

• Sean O'Hair became the third player to miss the cut when defending at the Quail Hollow Championship. David Toms missed the cut in 2004 after winning the previous year as did Jim Furyk in 2007.

Bogey-free rounds:
Round 1: Brad Faxon, Bo Van Pelt and Camilo Villegas
Round 2: Phil Mickelson and Chad Campbell

• Parker McLachlin withdrew prior to his second round with a wrist injury.