TUCSON, Ariz. -- When Mark Calcavecchia gets on a roll, the
cup seems to get bigger. That was certainly true in the second
round of the Chrysler Classic of Tucson.
Calcavecchia made a 50-foot eagle putt on the next-to-last hole
Friday and used the two-shot swing to vault over Billy Mayfair and
into the lead with a 15-under-par 129.
He followed up his opening-round 64 with a 65 on Friday.
"I knew I was hitting it decent enough to make some birdies out
here," he said.
Mayfair shot a 67 early in the round and sat atop the
leaderboard most of the day. That was before Calcavecchia, who
started on the back nine, capped a five-birdie round with his gem
on No. 8.
He reached the green of the 528-yard par-5 with a 3-wood, and
the ball stopped to the right of the hole. When he lined up the
putt, he thought the ball would break about 2 feet, but
instinctively took an inside line allowing only about 12 inches of
break.
"Sure enough, it started breaking a little left, and then about
halfway to the hole it straightened out, and I knew from that point
on it was going to come pretty close," Calcavecchia said. "That
was fun. Those are the kind of putts I hadn't been making."
Gavin Coles, Aussie Geoff Ogilvy, and Lucas Glover were two
shots off the pace after shooting 65, 66 and 67, respectively.
Kevin Sutherland shot a 63 to match the opening-round scores of
Mayfair and Mario Tiziani for best of the tournament and joined
Doug Barron, Esteban Toledo, Joe Ogilvie and Steve Stricker at 132.
Danny Briggs had a 64 to join Brent Geiberger and Kevin Na at
133.
David Frost, who won in Tucson in 1988, carded his second
straight 67 and was grouped with Tom Scherrer, Jason Allred and
Darron Stiles five shots back, while Tiziani was in a group of
seven at 135 after an even-par round.
Seventy players made the cut at 5-under 139, including three
other former Tucson champions.
Andrew Magee (1994), Jim Carter (2000) and Garrett Willis (2001)
all got to play the weekend, Carter at 138 and Magee and Willis at
139.
But four others didn't make it.
David Duval, who set the 36-hole record of 128 when he won in
1998, shot a 73 -- failing to break par for the 11th time in 12
rounds this year -- and bowed out with a 144.
Larry Mize (1993), Gabriel Hjertstedt (1999) and defending
champion Heath Slocum all shot themselves out of the money or
failed to make up ground they lost the day before.
Calcavecchia has won 11 times, including the 1989 British Open
and three times in Phoenix. But he hasn't won since his memorable
2001 triumph in Phoenix, where he shot a 60 and set or tied seven
PGA Tour records with a 28-under 256.
He finished 17th on the money list that year, but since then has
lost ground -- 53rd, 65th and 112th. This year, he withdrew from one
event and last week missed the cut in Los Angeles to end his
momentum two weeks after tying for ninth in Phoenix.
"I didn't play badly in L.A. at all," he said. "I just made
absolutely nothing over there."
Back on another desert course, Calcavecchia was in his element.
He birdied his first hole by two-putting from 50 feet, nailed
birdie putts after accurate wedge shots on the fifth and sixth and
made the turn three shots behind Mayfair.
Calcavecchia had another two-putt birdie on his 11th hole and
made a 25-footer on his 14th to set up the eagle.
Mayfair played his second bogey-free round and birdied five of
the first 13 holes before parring out.
"I really kind of got the whole round going when I birdied 10,
11 and 13 then kind of coasted," he said. "I didn't hit the ball
as good today as maybe I did yesterday, but I still gave myself a
lot of birdie putts."