PROFESSIONAL GOLF
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Parker McLachlin will play in the final group today for the first time in his PGA Tour career. He leads the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open by four shots.
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McLachlin leads Reno after tying course mark
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parker mclachlin will be in the final group today for the first time in his pga tour career after his blistering 10-under 62 at the legends reno-tahoe open left him four shots clear of four golfers tied for second.
Fellow Punahou School graduate Michelle Wie wasn't nearly as fortunate after her second-round 80 left her nine shots shy of the cut line. A nine at the par-4 eighth punctuated Wie's round as she missed the cut at a tour event for the eighth consecutive time in as many tries.
Entertaining thoughts of shooting a 59, something McLachlin once did at Waikoloa on the Big Island, the UCLA graduate carded 10 birdies in a bogey-free round that was his best on tour. He shot a 63 in a Nationwide Tour event and a 61 on the Gateway Tour, but they pale in comparison to what he did on the relatively easy Montreux Golf and Country Club course in Reno, Nev.
"I just kept telling my caddie I wanted to get to 15 under," McLachlin said, who settled for a 14-under 130. He missed breaking the course record by one shot and could have done it had he not missed a 4-footer for birdie at the last. "I didn't know what the course record was."
McLachin is currently No. 93 on the FedExCup points list and a good finish here could sky-rocket him into the coveted top 30. It is the second time he has led on tour this season. The first was during the final round of the AT&T Classic in May where he let that advantage slip away late on the back nine.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Parker McLachlin began thinking he could shoot a 59 when he got to the 14th hole yesterday.
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Associated Press
RENO, Nev. » Michelle Wie failed in her eighth attempt to make the cut on the PGA Tour, shooting a second-round 80 at the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open yesterday. Fellow Punahou School alumnus Parker McLachlin tied the course record with a 62 to take a four-stroke lead over 1987 Masters winner Larry Mize and three others.
Michelle Wie:
Missed the cut for the eighth straight time on the PGA Tour
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Wie was 1-over-par 73 Thursday as she attempted to become the first woman since World War II to make the cut on the PGA Tour. But a quintuple-bogey 9 yesterday helped push her to 9-over 153 at the par-72 Montreux Golf & Country Club.
"I feel my game is a lot better. Obviously the score doesn't show it, but I know what I need to work on," Wie said. "I gave it my best today and I felt like I did a lot of good things and hopefully that outshines the ones I made mistakes on."
The 18-year-old, who was making her first PGA appearance since January 2007, had two bogeys and one birdie through her first nine holes and was within striking distance of the even-par cut line at the 7,472-yard mountain course.
But she had a double bogey on her 13th hole of the day after she hit her second shot over the green into heavy rough on the 518-yard, par-5 No. 4.
With a difficult downhill lie, her chip came up short, still in the rough. Her next pitch rolled over the green into the rough again before she finally chipped onto the green and two putted.
The quintuple-bogey 9 came four holes later on the 464-yard, par-4 eighth, when she had to take two penalty strokes.
Not since "Mildred" Babe Zaharias played at the 1945 L.A. Open has a woman made the cut on the PGA Tour.
McLachlin, who has five Top 25 PGA finishes this year and ranks 98th on the tour money list, birdied seven of the last 10 holes and had 10 on the day in a bogey-free round. His stellar wedge play put him within 7 feet of the pin seven times - twice inside 2 feet and once to 4 inches.
"Nothing really crazy. It was just pretty solid," McLachlin said about his round during calm conditions in the morning that left him at 14-under 130 after two days of play.
"Everything went pretty smoothly out there. I hit a lot of fairways, lots of greens and made a bunch of 10-footers. I mean, just kind of the way you like to draw it up," he said.
McLachlin missed a 4-foot birdie attempt on the par-4 18th that would have broken the record Bill Glasson set in 2005 and Joe Ogilvie matched in 2006. His previous best on tour was a 65, though he said he shot a 63 once on the Nationwide Tour and carded a 59 at the course he represents in Hawaii, where he was born and grew up.
"I didn't know what the course record was but I caught myself thinking about 59 at No. 14. I had like about a 10-footer," said McLachlin, who had birdied six of the previous seven holes.
"I thought, 'If I birdie the last five holes I can shoot 59.' And that's just the worst thing to think. So I made par there," he said, as well as at the 15th.
Mize, who turns 50 in September and hasn't won on tour since 1993, followed an opening round 68 with a 66 in windier afternoon conditions to get to 10-under 134 - the first time in three years he's opened a tourney with two rounds in the 60s. He was in a four-way tie for second with Australian Nick Flanagan, who shot a 65 yesterday, and John Merrick and England's Brian Davis, who both shot consecutive 67s.
Bob Estes and Harrison Frazar were another stroke back at 9-under 135.