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The nice day at the park that the old guys had in the first round of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai on the Big Island was lost in the strong tradewinds that paid a visit Friday afternoon keeping golf scores in a more reasonable range.
First-round leader Retief Goosen was caught and passed by Darren Clarke and Jerry Kelly. They will begin today’s final round tied for first at 13-under 131, two shots clear of Goosen, who had two costly three-putts and some indecision at the last that led to a two-putt bogey to leave him at 11-under 133.
After opening with a blistering 10-under 62 on Thursday in this PGA Tour Champions event, Goosen managed only a 1-under 71 Friday which will not get it done at the Jack Nicklaus-designed course at the Four Seasons resort. Clarke began his second round one shot behind Goosen after carding a solid 63 in ideal conditions on Thursday. In the last hour of their second round the trades came a calling and blew off the Pacific Ocean with authority.
Clarke, who shot a ho-hum 36 on the front, rallied with five birdies and a lone bogey at the 11th on the back to shoot 68 and join Kelly for a share of the lead. Playing one group in front of Clarke and Goosen, Kelly fired a good 5-under 67 to show the way for the final pairing, including a tap-in for birdie at the last after an amazing second shot from the barren 18th.
The wind picked up for them about half way through the back nine. But it didn’t bother Kelly.
“Yeah, I’ve played every one of these holes from every direction you can possibly imagine,” Kelly said. “I’ve been coming here for a really long time, longer than I’ve been 50, let’s put it that way. Yeah, I’m very comfortable with this golf course. Hey, they play tougher when it’s windy, but there’s still ways to play them.”
Goosen wishes Kelly would have shared some of that local knowledge on the closing holes. He stood in the middle of the final fairway with his caddie trying to decide how to play his shot from 139 yards out. He overcooked it a bit with his third shot from the rough coming up short enough to leave a pesky putt for par that he missed to lead to a bogey-bogey finish.
Fred Couples bounced back from a 71 on Thursday with a 63 on Friday to sit at 10 under for the tournament and in a position to win here, despite several runner-up finishes through the years. He was joined by Kevin Southerland as they sit tied for fourth and still in it.
After the field of 42 golfers averaged a 70.095 in the opening round, they came back with a 72.238 on Friday.
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