Palmer - final round at Augusta (Allsport)
Day Two - Singh In Tune
South Africans Retief Goosen and Ernie Els brilliantly sploshed their way
through the puddles and onto the heels of overnight leader Vijay Singh at the
Masters on Saturday.
Three birdies in the last five holes from Goosen and an eagle and three
birdies from Els made light of dreadful conditions underfoot for players and
spectators alike at Augusta National.
The two World Cup-winning partners were among 38 players back at the course to
complete second rounds held up by a violent storm on Friday afternoon.
More rain meant a further 75-minute delay, but when play did resume the pair
both achieved five under par 67s, Goosen to go to eight under par and Els to
seven under.
Singh had led by four when he finished his sparkling 65 almost 20 hours
earlier, but his advantage over US Open champion Goosen was down to one.
Tiger Woods and Jose Maria Olazabal were able to improve their hopes of a
third title alive - and another 67 from a delighted Nick Faldo meant he was not
completely out of the running for a fourth crown at the age of 44.
Defending champion Woods, fighting a lone battle with the overseas contingent
on the leaderboard, birdied the 13th and 15th, the two par fives on the back
nine, to add a 69 to his opening 70. Olazabal birdied the 12th and 15th to match
those scores.
The longest applause, though, was for the man whose rounds were 89 and 85.
Arnold Palmer signed off from the Masters not with the play he wanted to, but
certainly the reception that was appropriate.
Faldo described his round as "great - really unbelievable."
He not broken par on the course since his third win in 1996 and after a first
day 75 admitted his number one task was to make the cut. Instead he was up to
13th on two under.
"That was Faldo's legendary concentration right there," he said. "The
course was very borderline for being playable, but after getting that flying
start (four birdies in five holes) I plugged away, made some great saves, then
picked up those birdies on the 13th and 15th.
"I'm worn out. I'm going back to have another breakfast now and then start
again."
Colin Montgomerie, three over at the resumption with seven to play, birdied
the 14th and 15th to make sure he qualified for the final two rounds, but
bogeyed the last for a 71 and two over aggregate.
Biggest surprise was that David Duval, runner-up to Woods last year and
reigning Open champion, missed the cut by one along with British amateur
champion Michael Hoey.
Collated second-round scores (US unless stated):
135 Vijay Singh (Fij) 70 65
136 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 69 67
137 Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 67
139 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 69 70, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 68 71, Angel Cabrera
(Arg) 68 71, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 70 69, Tiger Woods 70 69
141 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spn) 70 71, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 74 67, Phil
Mickelson 69 72, Chris DiMarco 70 71
142 Davis Love 67 75, Nick Faldo (Gbr) 75 67, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 70 72
143 Robert Allenby (Aus) 73 70, Rocco Mediate 75 68, Mike Weir (Can) 72 71,
Adam Scott (Aus) 71 72
144 Stewart Cink 74 70, Darren Clarke (Gbr) 70 74, Kirk Triplett 74 70
145 Billy Mayfair 74 71, Craig Stadler 73 72, Justin Leonard 70 75, Bob
Estes 73 72, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 73 72, Scott Verplank 70 75, Jeff Sluman 73
72
146 Steve Lowery 75 71, Tom Pernice 74 72, Fred Couples 73 73, Nick Price
(Zim) 70 76, Brad Faxon 71 75, Jerry Kelly 72 74, Mark Brooks 74 72, Paul
McGinley (Irl) 72 74, Colin Montgomerie (Gbr) 75 71
147 Lee Westwood (Gbr) 75 72, Tom Watson 71 76, David Toms 73 74, John Daly 74
73, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 75 72, Greg Norman (Aus) 71 76, Charles Howell 74 73
Missed the cut:
148 Joe Durant 74 74, Larry Mize 74 74, Paul Azinger 75 73, Tom Lehman 76 72,
Kevin Sutherland 78 70, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 73 75, (x) Michael Hoey (Gbr) 75
73, David Duval 74 74, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 74 74, Scott McCarron 75 73
149 Mark O'Meara 78 71, Lee Janzen 74 75, Paul Lawrie (Gbr) 75 74, Mark
Calcavecchia 79 70, Toshi Izawa (Jpn) 73 76
150 Kenny Perry 76 74, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 78 72, Jim Furyk 73 77, Billy
Andrade 75 75, Tom Kite 77 73, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) 80 70, Matt Kuchar 73 77,
(x) Bubba Dickerson 79 71
151 Steve Stricker 75 76, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 76 75, Scott Hoch 76 75
152 Craig Perks (Nzl) 81 71, Fuzzy Zoeller 75 77
153 Raymond Floyd 79 74, Jose Coceres (Arg) 74 79
154 Sandy Lyle (Gbr) 73 81, (x) Tim Jackson 76 78, (x) Robert Hamilton 77 77
155 Ian Woosnam (Gbr) 77 78
156 Seve Ballesteros (Spa) 75 81
157 Tommy Aaron 79 78
158 Ben Crenshaw 81 77, Gary Player (Rsa) 80 78
159 Stuart Appleby (Aus) 80 79
160 (x) Chez Reavie 74 86
166 Charles Coody 82 84
174 Arnold Palmer 89 85
Withdrew: Frank Lickliter
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