Golf is a fickle game, and the state of the leaderboard at the end of the second day of play at the 2013 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill this Friday bore that out.
Stranded below the cut line, which stood at a remarkable +3, were four players who have between them have claimed five Masters wins, two Open Championship wins, and three United States Open wins: Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman, and Webb Simpson; and the current FedEx Cup points leader, Brandt Snedeker.
There were major championship winners above the cutline, too, of course; but there were also journeyman toilers; names like Pat Perez, Charlie Beljan, Robert Allenby, and William McGirt. Eight players – including Allenby and Beljan – were very lucky to have made the cut. They only squeaked in because Rod Perry, a PGA club pro from Port Orange, FL, who was sitting in 70th place at +2 as he came to the end of the second round, bogeyed the 18th hole, dropping the cut line (which is set at the top 70 and ties) to +3.
Among the casualties of the cut line this week was the Bay Area’s James Hahn, who has enjoyed early success in this, his rookie season on the PGA Tour. Hahn made six straight cuts to open the season, and has touched the top of the leaderboard on several occasions; his best finishes so far are T-4 at the Humana Classic and T-3 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The 2003 Cal grad appears to have hit a rough patch, though – he has missed three straight cuts, at the Honda Classic, the Puerto Rico Open, and now at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, since the Tour began its Florida swing.
Tiger Woods, who owns the winningest record at this event of any man who has ever played in it, with seven past victories, was predicted to dominate the field. While he has remained very near the top of the leaderboard throughout the first two days, he hasn’t hit the top spot, and even stumbled to a three-bogey finish, dropping two places to T-7, four strokes off the lead after 36 holes.
Heavy rain which began in mid-afternoon made it tough on players who needed to make up some ground in the closing holes to improve their finish. Thunderstorms and a 40% – 50% chance of rain are predicted for both days of the weekend.
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