ESPN.com - Golf Online - Masters 2000 - Notebook: Lehman doubles his pain

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Friday, April 7

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Tom Lehman has played 34 textbook holes of golf at Augusta National Golf Club this week. The other two have kept him from leading The Masters.


	Tom Lehman is yet to make a bogey this week -- but he has two doubles.

"Well, I've played 36 holes with no bogeys. Two doubles, however," shrugged Lehman.

Lehman led going into the 18th hole in Thursday's first round before slicing his tee shot into the woods on his way to a double-bogey that left him one shot off the pace.

On Friday, Lehman was cruising along with a three-shot lead before a wind gust knocked his shot into the pond in front of the par-5 15th for another double-bogey.

Lehman finished the day with an even-par 72 for a total of 3-under 141, three behind leader David Duval. His confidence running high this week, Lehman remained philosophical about his disasters.

"Everybody's going to have a bad hole here and there," said the 1996 British Open champion. "If you've gotten away without a double-bogey, you're either very lucky or playing very well.

"So I look at those double-bogeys with a grain of salt. Sometimes you get what you deserve and sometimes you don't. Yesterday I got what I deserved and today I didn't. You just go on."

Lehman laid up on the par-5 15th and grabbed his sand wedge for the third shot.

"I hit a beautiful sand wedge, just nipped it. The wind gusted up a hair and the ball landed 20 feet short of the pin and spun 40 feet into the water," Lehman explained.

Eight strokes worse
His ball resting against a tree near the second fairway, Dennis Paulson turned the club around and swatted it back into play left-handed.

The day didn't get much better from there.

The first-round leader of The Masters shot a 4-over 76 on Friday to enter the weekend at even-par 144, six strokes behind Duval. No first-day leader has won The Masters since Ben Crenshaw in 1984.

"I put the ball in position to do the right things, but when I thought I had hit the right shot, it didn't turn out to be the right shot," Paulson said.

Part of it was the unusually calm weather and unusually soft greens. Paulson said the course didn't play as it did in the opening round.

For instance, on No. 15, he hit a low, skipping sand wedge to try to get close after his approach shot missed the green.

"It spun back 25 feet," he said. "The same shot worked yesterday. It didn't work today."

The King's rough finish
Arnold Palmer knew he wasn't going to make the cut, so he decided to gamble from the bunker at No. 18. He wound up needing four shots to escape the sand.

Palmer, 70, made quadruple-bogey 8 on his final hole at Augusta National, leaving him with a 10-over 82 for the day and a 16-over 160 for the tournament. He missed the cut for the 17th year in a row.

The trouble began when Palmer hit his second shot into the deep bunker flanking the left side of the green. His first attempt remained grounded, bringing a groan from Arnie's Army. Ditto for the next two shots, prompting one fan to turn away with an anguished, "I can't deal with this."

"I was just trying to get it close," Palmer said. "There wasn't a lot to lose. I decided to take a chance. Once I started, I had to keep going until I got it up."

Standing by during the tortured ordeal were Palmer's two playing partners, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. "Hit it harder," Nicklaus thought to himself, jokingly. "I want to play."

Monty shakes his head
Colin Montgomerie was feeling pretty good about himself after holing a 167-yard shot at No. 5 for an eagle.

Two holes later, he gave it all back.

While Monty bounced back from an opening 76 to make the cut with a 3-under 69, he was still shaking his head about a double bogey at the par-4 seventh hole. In perfect position with his tee shot, he plunked the short iron from 69 yards into a bunker and wound up three-putting.

"It's not a bad round, but it could have been, should have been better," Monty said. "Of course, everybody says that coming off this course."

Credentials, please
Former European Tour regular David Feherty, now a broadcaster for CBS, was offering putting tips to European Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance on the practice green late Friday morning.

Once one of the ubiquitous Pinkerton security guards noticed that neither had proper credentials, he put a halt to the lesson, and led them both off the green.

Divots

Sandy Lyle snap-hooked his tee shot on No. 18 and reacted by breaking the shaft over his knee.

The threesome of Jay Haas, Ian Woosnam and Bob Estes had no problem with the par-3 12th. Each made birdie, with the longest putt belonging to Estes -- 4 feet.

Ernie Els' wife is playing the role of cartographer. Liezl Els is drawing maps of every hole and charting his every shot, as well as the shots of his playing partners each round. Els shot 67 to match his best score in The Masters. His previous 67 came in 1994.


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