Maggert rides wind into lead
The wind was blowing hard enough to sweep sand out of the bunkers and knock down scores Friday at the PODS Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla. Jeff Maggert used it to his advantage.
Starting his second round with the wind at his back, Maggert birdied three of his opening four holes and hung on long enough to be leading by 3 shots at the turn when play was suspended for the rest of the day because of storms.
Maggert was at 8-under par, 3 shots ahead of Kenny Perry and D.J. Trahan. For the second straight day, none of the late starters came close to finishing the round.
About 15 minutes after the siren sounded to stop play, the sky opened and dumped even more rain on the Copperhead course at Innisbrook. That might not be a bad thing, for softer greens at least gave players a fighting chance.
Defending champion Mark Calcavecchia shot a 1-under 70 and was tied for the clubhouse lead at 3-under 139 with Lee Janzen (74), Billy Mayfair (71), Stuart Appleby (73) and Paul Casey (72).
Only three players among the early starters managed to break 70, with Tim Petrovic and Kevin Sutherland leading the way at 68.
Ernie Els, coming off a victory last week in the Honda Classic, birdied his last two holes to salvage a 73, leaving him at 4-over 146 and likely to miss the cut.
Toshiba Classic: At Newport Beach, Calif., Tim Simpson took the first-round lead in the Toshiba Classic with the best round of his Champions Tour career, a bogey-free, 8-under 63 that left him a shot clear of 2005 winner Mark Johnson.
The 51-year-old Simpson, a four-time winner on the PGA Tour whose career has been sidetracked by Lyme disease and a series of injuries and other ailments, is winless in 44 starts in parts of three seasons on the 50-and-over tour.
Defending champion Jay Haas and Bernhard Langer opened with 65s, and Craig Stadler, Ben Crenshaw, Bruce Lietzke and D.A. Weibring shot 66s. Scott Hoch, coming off consecutive wins in Florida in the Allianz Championship and The ACE Group Classic, had a 67. Mark O'Meara opened with a 69 in his first start of the year on the tour, and Scotland's Sandy Lyle shot a 70 in his Champions Tour debut.
Malaysian Open: Danny Chia moved into position to become the first Malaysian player to win the Malaysian Open, shooting a 5-under 67 for a share of the second-round lead with England's Nick Dougherty. Chia and Dougherty (70) had 12-under 132 totals on the Kota Permai course at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in the event sanctioned by the European and Asian tours. About a quarter of the players were unable to complete the round after lightning delayed play.