Jim Furyk carded two birdies and two bogeys in his second round at Westchester Country Club. Oh yeah, he also holed out for eagle on the eighth hole! The eighth hole was Furyk’s 17th of the day, and his eagle vaulted him back to the top of the leaderboard where he finished the first round. Mike “Fluff” Cowan, Furyk’s caddy, advised his player to hit an eight-iron into the green on the difficult eighth hole, and he was right on the money. Cowan made the decision, and Furyk took care of the rest. The eagle put Jim Furyk at -8 for the tournament, and that number was good enough to keep him in the lead at the halfway point of the Barclays Classic.
Furyk Maintains Lead at Westchester
Jim Furyk shot a two-under par 69 on Friday and leads by a pair at the Barclays Classic.
The United States Amateur is one of the most familiar events in the world of golf, but I think it’s starting to lose some steam. Since 1990, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard, and Tiger Woods have won the U.S. Amateur. Woods, as we all know, won three in a row from 1994-1996. These players have gone on to make their mark in a big way on the PGA Tour and for great reasons. Woods has nine major championships on the PGA Tour, Mickelson has one, and Leonard has one. Since Tiger’s win at the U.S. Amateur in 1996, however, the event winners have struggled in a bad way on the PGA Tour.
The defending U.S. Open champion sits atop the leaderboard at Pinehurst with his sights set on a third victory in this prestigious tournament. That isn’t the surprise at the halfway point. Retief Goosen finds himself in a tie for the lead with Olin Browne and Jason Gore. Browne, who had to shoot a 59 in qualifying to even make it this far, shot a steady 71 on Friday to maintain a shot at winning the 105th U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Gore, on the other hand, has had mild success on the Nationwide Tour (three wins) but has never been in a situation quite like this.
Saturday at the Booz Allen Classic was just like any other day on the PGA Tour right? That is far from the truth, as 55-year old Tom Kite holds the lead by one over a host of others at 
I have putted with a mallet-style putter my entire (golfing) life. I started out with a Teardrop putter before finally getting an Odyssey White Hot last year. I feel more comfortable with a larger putter (no comments, please!). So when I saw the new Aserta Monster putter, I definitely wanted to give it a shot to see if I could become more consistent on the greens. I quickly realized that “consistency” and the Monster putter go hand-in-hand. I was able to one-putt nearly everything inside of ten feet and even had success on my longer putts as well.
Matt Gogel shot a blistering course-record 63 in the opening round at the Booz Allen Classic on Thursday, but he couldn’t follow that round up with another good one on Friday. Gogel stumbled to a 72 on Friday and was passed by Australian Robert Allenby. Allenby followed his opening-round 68 up with a second-round 65 on Friday to take the lead at the halfway point at 
Golf fans get a special treat this week at the Booz Allen Classic. It is very rare to find a strong field the week before a major championship. That is not the case this week at Congressional, as eight of the top ten players in the world will be ready for action a week before the U.S. Open heads to Pinehurst #2. Tiger Woods and David Toms are the only players in the top ten that will not be playing this week. The Booz Allen Classic, formerly known as the Kemper Open, is usually played at the TPC at Avenel. Avenel is undergoing evaluation this year, so the tournament had to pick another home.