Rory Sabbatini Holds One Shot Lead After Memorial Tournament Second Round

Maybe it was the pants.

Rory Sabbatini shot another solid round of 69 on Friday at the 2012 Memorial Tournament to vault himself into first place, one shot ahead of Scott Stallings, Spencer Levin, and Tiger Woods. 

Sabbatini hasn’t had that great of a year in 2012 with eight missed cuts and only one top 10 finish to this point, but has really taken a turn for the better at the Memorial Tournament this week.  Both his putting and his iron play are consistent right now, which are both areas that he has been struggling in through much of this year.  With wet and blustery conditions for much of the day on Friday, Sabbatini got off to a slow start on the front nine with two bogeys and two birdies, but was able to get comfortable on the back nine with three birdies and no bogeys for the 69.  Rory doesn’t drive the ball very far, so he has to rely upon his approach shots and putting to do most of the work for him, and it certainly has through the first two rounds.  It worked out for Zach Johnson last week as well, who won the Crowne Plaza Invitational with great putting and short drives off of the tee.  It is hard to discount the pants factor as well, as the bright green pants Sabbatini wore on Friday must have had something to do with him shooting a great round, right?

Sabbatini will look to hold onto his lead on Saturday against some pretty good golfers, the least of which being none other than Tiger Woods.  Woods has had a very strange year for the most part, winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational back in March, but then going T40, missed cut, T40 over his next three events.  A lot of the poor play had to do with his iron play, as he couldn’t consistently get the ball close enough to the hole to leave any easy putts for himself.  However, like Sabbatini Woods has completely turned around his game at this event, ranking first in the field in greens in regulation and in the top 25 in driving accuracy and putting in the field.  He has a solid all-around game going on right now led by great iron play, and with another solid round on Saturday Tiger Woods could certainly be looking at his second win on the PGA Tour this year within reach.

Among the other notables at this week’s event, Phil Mickelson withdrew after the first round after shooting a 79 due to “mental fatigue,” Jim Furyk has played nicely and is at -4 overall and two shots out of the lead, and lastly, Rory McIlroy missed the cut after shooting a 79 on day two.