Kirk leads Houston Open specialists
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2011 Shell Houston Open | Round Two | 02 Apr 2011
The Shell Houston Open has reached the halfway stage and PGA Tour rookie Chris Kirk has a one shot lead over two former winners of the event over this layout, Anthony Kim and Johnson Wagner.
The 25 year old Kirk was a standout on last year’s Nationwide Tour winning twice and finishing second on the money list to Jamie Lovemark. He made a good start to his PGA Tour career earlier this season when he finished 7th at the Bob Hope but since then there has been little to get excited about.
The performance by Kirk was made even more impressive by the fact that he recorded a double bogey over the closing nine holes of his round but he had done enough to have the lead.
“To finish like that after I made a double on No. 4 – just made a real mess of that hole and after making two birdies,” said Kirk. “To get both of those shots back on 8 and 9 was really great.”
“I had my two worst tournaments of the past couple years the last two weeks at Tampa. I shot 75-75. Bay Hill last week I shot 75-77. Just was kind of in a little bit of a funk, I guess. And really, to be honest with you, I don’t feel like I was playing that bad of golf. I just lost interest somehow.
That’s horrible for me to say that as a PGA TOUR player, and I have the best job in the world, but I did. I sort of lost interest and got to the point where I would make a couple bogies and felt like I didn’t want to be out there. And so I went home this past weekend and just tried to change basically as many things as possible to try to spark my interest.”
Clearly it has worked as this is a huge event for him opening up the chance of a place in the field at Augusta national next week should he win. “That’s a huge goal of mine, whether it happens this year, I’m not exactly expecting it to happen this year. But, I mean, down the road, that’s the one tournament that I grew up watching and that I would love to play in and love to win that tournament one day.”
Three players are tied at 7 under and two behind the lead namely Josh Teater, Jimmy Walker and a resurgent Padraig Harrington who might be finding form at just the right time.
“You know, I feel like I’ve played really comfortable to be where I am,” said Harrington. “I’m surprised 8-under was leading. I thought it might just be three, four back behind. One shot behind is fine. You’re well within it there.
And going into the week, the golf course is get getting a little firmer and faster, and there are lot of hazards on each side of the fairways. It’s going to be — it’s an intimidating course when it gets fiery.”
Leading players Lee Westwood and Phil Mickelson are well enough placed at 4 under and five from the lead.
The Australians are led by Aaron Baddeley who continues to impress in 2011. After a slow start yesterday he added a second round 65 to be in 7th position heading into the weekend. Locally based Steve Elkington and Nick O’Hern are 12th with Robert Allenby and Nathan Green next best in 21st position.
