KAILUA-KONA — Woody Austin left the golf course Friday with a narrow lead on a day that saw the top of the leaderboard change as much as the weather.
After playing through rain, sunshine, and a strong wind, Austin birdied the 18th hole of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai to finish the second round 4-under 68 for the lead spot heading into the final round at 11-under overall.
The constant lead changes in Friday’s round had Austin looking to the leaderboard through out the day to see if the wind would stay on his side for him to blow past first round leaders Bernhard Langer and Miguel Angel Jimenez.
“I didn’t make two eagles today, but I got a lot out of the round again. I’ve got to sharpen up the putter. I three-putted three times in the two days so I need to sharpen that up,” Austin said. “Unfortunately for me, the morning guys got away without the wind. But like I said yesterday, I need the wind and it at least keeps all the guys that started with me from getting away from me.”
Austin will tee off with Langer at 1:15 p.m. Saturday in the final round of the PGA Tour Champions’ opening tournament. Austin is one stroke ahead of Langer, who ended the second round 2-under 70 for 10-under overall.
Langer shot only three birdies, all on the back nine, compared to nine birdies Thursday.
“It was a much tougher wind today for this course, I think, the north wind,” Langer said. “Yesterday, it was southwest, so it played almost the opposite. Par 5s are a lot harder today than yesterday. I reached all the par 5s yesterday, today I only reached one.”
Tied for third are Fred Couples and Jimenez, who both will enter the final round 9-under. Jimenez had a tough second round, scoring a bogey on the sixth hole and on the seventh where he shot the ball to the root of a tree on the fairway.
Couples shot five birdies and one bogey, on hole 15.
“For me, there was a nice stretch of seven or eight holes and then the last four or five I really hung in there to make some good pars out of the sand,” said Couples, whose second round score was 4-under 68. “But it played hard. There was a lot of hard shots out there. I hit most of them kind of where I was looking into the wind and when I missed it, I was in a pretty good spot.”
Couples has been playing the Mitsubishi Electric Championship since 2010, but he’s never won on Hualalai Golf Course, coming in second both in his debut year and in 2017, behind Langer.
“Tomorrow, I don’t really know where I stand or where I will stand, but I’ll be up there. If it’s this hard of a wind, someone could shoot 4- or 5-under and win. If it’s calmer, it might take 6- or 7-under. It’s like that every year.”
Ernie Els rallied from his even par score in the first round to finish the second at 7-under 65 and tied for eighth place. The PGA Tour Champions rookie had four birdies on the front nine and an eagle on the par-5 seventh hole to earn his spot near the top of the leaderboard.
“I just felt more comfortable,” Els said. “Believe it or not, after all these years I felt like a rookie yesterday and I felt a little out of place. Obviously, I didn’t putt very well and all that stuff, but today I felt more comfortable and know the course a little better, and obviously the start was nice and I kept it going today.”
Els has a shot to take home the trophy tomorrow as he continues to get more comfortable on the Hualalai course. Even the morning rain didn’t shake Els’ increasing confidence.
“It’s all good. That’s Hawaiian golf,” he said.
“I need something like that tomorrow, even better, to maybe get in the top five, I think,” Els said. “I think the guys are going to still shoot well today, but it was really nice to get a good round under my belt. Second round of my Champions Tour career, to get a 65, you’ve got to be pleased with that.”
