Football
Associated Press 19y

49-year-old David Edwards holds second-round lead at B.C. Open

ENDICOTT, N.Y. -- Australian rookie Brendan Jones sits atop
the leaderboard of the B.C. Open after three rounds. It's a
precarious perch.

Jones, whose best PGA Tour finish this year was a tie for 14th
at the Zurich Classic, shot a 6-under 66 on Saturday to finish at
19-under 197. He was just one shot off the tournament record for 54
holes set in 1982 by Calvin Peete and matched two years ago by
Steve Lowery, and it hardly seemed to matter. A dozen players were
within four shots.

"You just have to look at the scores. Who knows?," said Jones,
who began the day just two shots behind 49-year-old David Edwards.
"I'm in the position I really want to be. If I play the way I've
been playing, then, hopefully, guys only two or three back have got
a chance. We'll have to wait and see. Hopefully, none can catch
me."

Just one shot back were Ryan Palmer (67), Jason Bohn (66) and
India's Arjun Atwal (65), who had a chance to tie Jones but missed
a 4-foot birdie putt at 18.

John Rollins, Canadian David Hearn, and J.P. Hayes began the day
tied and finished the same way as each carded 64 to finish at
17-under 199. They were even with Edwards (70) and Matt Hendrix
(69), who each rallied with three birdies on the back side after
faltering early.

Michael Bradley and Jim McGovern also shot 64 and were tied with
Sweden's Mathias Gronberg (68) another stroke back.

Barring a meltdown by every one of the leaders, the tournament
record of 22-under 266 since the course was renovated for the 1997
tournament was almost certain to fall. Jeff Sluman and Paul Gow
established the mark in 2001. Calvin Peete shot 265 in 1982 when
the En-Joie Golf Club course played to par 71.

The PGA record for 72 holes is 26 under (254) by Tommy Armour at
the 2003 Bolero Texas Open on a par-70 course.

Play was halted by rain for 90 minutes in early afternoon, but
the delay had little effect on the forgiving layout. It played soft
for the third straight day, allowing the players to shoot
aggressively at the pins again, and scoring average dropped for the
third straight day. The 77-man field averaged 68.117, down from
69.534 on Friday and 70.129 on Thursday.

"It's like lawn darts out there," the 40-year-old McGovern
said after his third straight sub-70 round. "It almost seems like
you can birdie every hole. I don't know if I'll be in the mix, but
I gave myself a chance. That's kind of what I came up here for."

Jones needed only 21 putts en route to a 64 on Friday, his best
round of the year. Two shots off the lead to start the third round,
after missing two easy putts on the first two holes, he made four
birdies in a seven-hole span and gained the lead with an eagle at
the par-5 12th. He felt he could and should have gone lower, but
his chip from 31 feet at 17 hit the middle of the pin and didn't
drop.

"When you can walk off with 66 and still feel like you've left
a couple out there, obviously, you're playing well," Jones said.

Whether he sleeps well is another story.

"You can never be relaxed out there because you know that
somebody is going to shoot low," he said. "You hope for maybe a
little bit of wind to make the course play harder. But you can only
look after yourself. I'm just going to keep doing what I've been
doing. It's been pretty successful to this point."<
^Divots:@ Rollins used his putter to eagle the first two par-5s. He
drained a 33-foot putt at No. 3 and a 32-footer at No. 5 to move to
14 under. Prior to that, he had made only 11 of 224 putts from
beyond 25 feet. ... Two former B.C. Open champions from upstate New
York were doing well. Joey Sindelar, who lives an hour away in
Horseheads, N.Y., was at 14-under 202 and 1984 winner Wayne Levi of
Utica, N.Y. was at 10-under 206. ... Carlos Franco, who was tied
with Sindelar, also had a pair of eagles on the front nine, at Nos.
3 and 8.

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