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The Honolulu Advertiser




By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Posted on: Saturday, January 9, 2010

Glover has three-shot lead in SBS

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Lucas Glover reacts after making a birdie putt on the 16th green yesterday.

ERIC RISBERG | Associated Press

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser
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TODAY'S TEE TIMES

11:05 a.m.—Michael Bradley, Heath Slocum

11:15—Y.E. Yang, Mark Wilson

11:25—Steve Stricker, Brian Gay

11:35—Bo Van Pelt, Troy Matteson

11:45—Zach Johnson, Pat Perez

11:55—Jerry Kelly, Stephen Ames

12:05 p.m.—Retief Goosen, Paul Casey

12:15—Nick Watney, Dustin Johnson

12:25—Nathan Green, Rory Sabbatini

12:35—Ryan Moore, Stewart Cink

12:45—Angel Cabrera, Kenny Perry

12:55—Matt Kuchar, Martin Laird

1:05—Geoff Ogilvy, Sean O'Hair

1:15—Lucas Glover, John Rollins

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KAPALUA, Maui — On a rare day when the Kapalua Plantation flags were motionless, almost everyone in the $5.6 million SBS Championship made a move. No one came close to matching the moves of Lucas Glover.

The U.S. Open champion plowed through the Plantation in 8-under-par 65 yesterday to bump his lead to three shots over John Rollins. Glover is at 15-under 131 going into the weekend. Ernie Els set the tournament record of 31-under in 2003.

Defending champion Geoff Ogilvy, like Rollins, shot 66 to climb into third place at 135. He is tied with Sean O'Hair (67), Matt Kuchar (68) and Martin Laird (68).

Masters champion Angel Cabrera is another shot back and British Open champ Stewart Cink is six back. Y.E. Yang, winner of the PGA Championship, was the only golfer that did not break par yesterday, after taking triple-bogey 8 on the final hole.

Kapalua, usually a windblown slice of Hawai'i heaven, has been at its pristine best for the PGA Tour's season-opener. Light tradewinds kissed Thursday's opening round. Yesterday those died to nearly nothing.

"I'm sure it's like this all the time, but I've never seen it like this," said Ogilvy, whose round was fueled by nine one-putts. "My first couple years it was incredible how windy it was. At the moment it's not quite like that. It's really nice actually."

Especially if you are Glover, who took a one-shot lead into the second round, fell back into the pack with another slow start, then kicked his game into warp speed again in the middle of the round.

In two days, he is 18-under on Nos. 5 to 14. He birdied the fifth yesterday, joining an 11-way tie for first at 7-under. Glover added birdies at the next two holes, then sank a 12-footer for par at the eighth. He eagled the par-5 ninth for the second straight day to bolt to 11-under and the tournament's first two-shot advantage.

It was his third eagle of the tournament — one more than he had all last season. Glover pressed on with four birdies in the next seven holes, all from five feet and in.

The leader had eight 3s on his card in a nine-hole span. "I wouldn't mind starting there and finishing there if at all possible," Glover joked.

By the looks of his scores, he isn't playing the same number of holes as everybody else anyway, not that anyone is having much problem with the suddenly benign Plantation.

The average score yesterday was 69.179 — almost 4-under par. Six golfers did not have a bogey. Kuchar hasn't had one in two days. Ogilvy, who now has six straight rounds in the 60s here, said every time he looked at a leaderboard he'd lost two shots to the leaders.

Blame it on the breeze, or lack of same.

"You kind of come over here with the mindset that the winds are going to howl," said Rollins, who made last year's Legends Reno-Tahoe Open his third tour victory and finished among the Top 30 for the third time. "When you're not in the field, if you watch it on TV, you are always watching the guys' pants just whipping in the wind and the guys hitting crazy clubs from short yardage.

"It seems like it's defensive on every shot when the wind blows like it can. To get two rounds like we've had so far with the weather, it's been fantastic."

Glover, of all people, would not mind seeing the wind rock Kapalua again. He believes his three-shot lead would look a little larger then, but the weather report calls for calm Kona winds for the weekend.

"I wouldn't mind seeing it come up, have some goofy stuff go on just for fun ," Glover said. "This course is designed for the wind. I'm not going to say I play great in the wind. I enjoy playing in it. It's a little wrinkle. I'm not wishing for it, but I wouldn't be upset if it came."

NOTES

The final commitment sheet for the Sony Open in Hawai'i came out yesterday and it includes the four reigning major champions, for the first time since 1999, along with all but the first two Sony champs.

The list also includes 16 names in the World Golf Ranking's Top 50, led by Steve Stricker (3), Sean O'Hair (15), Stewart Cink (16), Ernie Els (17), Retief Goosen (19) and Lucas Glover (20).

Eight golfers from this week's 28-man SBS Open field are not moving on to O'ahu, including Geoff Ogilvy and Kenny Perry.

Five players got in based on the Career Money Exemption — Stuart Appleby, Tom Lehman, Jesper Parnevik, and Brad Faxon and Corey Pavin, who have won at Waialae Country Club.

The local list is Parker McLachlin, Dean Wilson, Kevin Hayashi, Tadd Fujikawa and amateur TJ Kua.

Lucas Glover is trying to become the only reigning U.S. Open champ other than Jack Nicklaus to win this tournament. In the previous 56 SBS Championships (originally called the Tournament of Champions), only Nicklaus won it while holding the Open title, in 1963 and '73.