Golf

Waste Management Phoenix Open 2014: Bubba Watson, Matt Jones tied for the lead

Bubba Watson hit a couple speed bumps coming in, but his second round was still good enough to put him in a tie for the lead after 36 holes at the Phoenix Open.

by Mark Sandritter

Feb 1, 2014, 1:42 AM UTC

Sam Greenwood

Apparently it was all in the putter for Bubba Watson. The left-hander carded another solid round -- thanks in part to his work on the greens -- and remains in a tie for the lead at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Watson shot a 5-under 66 in the second round on Friday and is tied for the 36-hole lead at 12-under with Matt Jones.

A big reason for Watson’s success this week is a switch back to more conventional putter. As Jonathan Wall of PGATour.com detailed, Watson used a 38-inch, counterbalanced model during the first two rounds of the Farmers Insurance Open last week. After struggling, he switched back to a shorter putter, using the Anser Milled 1 model. Watson is 16th in stokes gained-putting this week, a considerable improvement after he finished 69th in the same category last week.

Although he’s tied for the lead, Watson could have held the 36-hole lead outright had he not run into a couple of snags late in his round. He started the second round extremely well and was 6-under on the day through 13 holes. He dropped his first shot with a bogey at his 16th hole of the day. He got the stroke right back, however, with a birdie on the next hole. He would have held the lead outright with a par or better on his final hole of the day, but carded his second bogey of the round, good for a bogey-birdie-bogey finish.

Jones turned in another solid round to move into a tie for the lead. His only dropped shot came with a bogey on No. 9. He finished the round with four birdies on his final six holes. His 6-under 65 was tied for the third-best round of the day. Greg Chalmers and Harris English are both tied for third place at 10-under, two strokes off the lead. A total of 11 players, including Brandt Snedeker, are 8-under or better.

Darkness forced the second round to be suspended with four players still on the course. Spencer Levin, Jason Bohn and Michael Putnam will resume play on No. 17, while Joe Ogilvie has one hole to finish. All four are well off the lead with Levin the closest to contention at 5-under. Bohn and Putnam are both 1-under while Ogilvie is even. The projected cut is 1-under which means all three will have a lot on the line when play resumes. They will resume at 8:45 a.m. ET.

Here is a complete look at the leaderboard through the end of play on Friday:

Place	Player	Score	1st Round	2nd Round
T1	Matt Jones	-12	65	65
T1	Bubba Watson	-12	64	66
T3	Greg Chalmers	-10	65	67
T3	Harris English	-10	65	67
T5	Hideki Matsuyama	-9	66	67
T5	Pat Perez	-9	65	68
T5	Kevin Stadler	-9	65	68
T8	William McGirt	-8	65	69
T8	Brandt Snedeker	-8	70	64
T8	Patrick Reed	-8	67	67
T8	Scott Piercy	-8	67	67
T12	Morgan Hoffmann	-7	69	66
T12	Martin Laird	-7	67	68
T12	Jason Kokrak	-7	66	69
T15	Nick Watney	-5	69	68
T15	Ken Duke	-5	70	67
T15	Kiradech Aphibarnrat	-5	66	71
T15	Nicolas Colsaerts	-5	69	68
T15	James Driscoll	-5	67	70
T15	Hunter Mahan	-5	66	71
T15	Ryan Moore	-5	66	71
T15	Bill Haas	-5	69	68
T15	Jhonattan Vegas	-5	71	66
T15	Y.E. Yang	-5	64	73
T15	Chris Stroud	-5	70	67
T15	Spencer Levin	-5	67	Through 16
T27	Cameron Tringale	-4	71	67
T27	David Hearn	-4	68	70
T27	Chris Kirk	-4	65	73
T27	David Lynn	-4	72	66
T27	Ricky Barnes	-4	71	67
T27	Bryce Molder	-4	67	71
T27	Phil Mickelson	-4	71	67
T27	Aaron Baddeley	-4	68	70
T27	John Peterson	-4	68	70
T27	Ben Crane	-4	69	69
T27	Matt Every	-4	72	66
T38	John Rollins	-3	72	67
T38	Brendon de Jonge	-3	66	73
T38	Graham DeLaet	-3	67	72
T38	John Mallinger	-3	67	72
T38	Kevin Streelman	-3	71	68
T38	Gary Woodland	-3	67	72
T38	Jonas Blixt	-3	68	71
T38	Chris Smith	-3	70	69
T38	Charles Howell III	-3	70	69
T38	Erik Compton	-3	67	72
T48	Fred Funk	-2	69	71
T48	Brendan Steele	-2	66	74
T48	John Merrick	-2	75	65
T48	Kevin Na	-2	70	70
T48	Brian Gay	-2	69	71
T48	Ben Curtis	-2	68	72
T48	Robert Garrigus	-2	70	70
T48	David Lingmerth	-2	72	68
T48	Martin Kaymer	-2	69	71
T48	Webb Simpson	-2	68	72
T48	Michael Thompson	-2	72	68
T48	Sang-Moon Bae	-2	67	73
T48	Ryan Palmer	-2	76	64
T48	Steven Bowditch	-2	71	69
T62	Roberto Castro	-1	72	69
T62	Geoff Ogilvy	-1	71	70
T62	K.J. Choi	-1	71	70
T62	Vijay Singh	-1	69	72
T62	Derek Ernst	-1	72	69
T62	Mark Calcavecchia	-1	70	71
T62	Brian Davis	-1	72	69
T62	Brian Stuard	-1	73	68
T62	Charley Hoffman	-1	70	71
T62	Camilo Villegas	-1	70	71
T62	Justin Hicks	-1	71	70
T62	J.B. Holmes	-1	73	68
T62	Scott Langley	-1	71	70
T62	Jonathan Byrd	-1	68	73
T62	Jason Bohn	-1	70	Through 16
T62	Michael Putnam	-1	67	Through 16
T78	Padraig Harrington	E	73	69
T78	Luke Guthrie	E	71	71
T78	Lee Westwood	E	67	75
T78	Charlie Beljan	E	73	69
T78	Daniel Summerhays	E	70	72
T78	Martin Flores	E	72	70
T78	Josh Teater	E	73	69
T78	Joe Ogilvie	E	71	Through 17
T86	Richard H. Lee	1	71	72
T86	Kris Blanks	1	71	72
T86	John Huh	1	70	73
T86	Retief Goosen	1	72	71
T86	Justin Leonard	1	72	71
T86	Charlie Wi	1	72	71
T86	Kevin Tway	1	74	69
T86	Nicholas Thompson	1	71	72
T86	Kevin Chappell	1	72	71
T86	Rickie Fowler	1	71	72
T86	Billy Horschel	1	71	72
T86	D.A. Points	1	70	73
T86	Russell Henley	1	68	75
T99	Scott Verplank	2	70	74
T99	Ted Potter, Jr.	2	73	71
T99	James Hahn	2	72	72
T99	Danny Lee	2	73	71
T99	Scott Stallings	2	70	74
T99	Marc Leishman	2	72	72
T99	Ian Poulter	2	69	75
T99	Angel Cabrera	2	72	72
T107	Lucas Glover	3	79	66
T107	Brian Harman	3	74	71
T107	Tommy Gainey	3	66	79
T107	Mike Weir	3	75	70
T107	Paul Goydos	3	72	73
T112	Bo Van Pelt	4	76	70
T112	Rory Sabbatini	4	72	74
T112	Robert Allenby	4	76	70
T112	Jeff Overton	4	72	74
T112	D.H. Lee	4	73	73
T112	Keegan Bradley	4	66	80
T112	Woody Austin	4	73	73
T112	George McNeill	4	72	74
T112	David Toms	4	74	72
T112	Carl Pettersson	4	72	74
T122	Ki Taek Lee (a)	5	73	74
T122	J.J. Henry	5	75	72
T124	Jeff Maggert	6	75	73
T124	Stephen Ames	6	76	72
T124	Mark Wilson	6	74	74
127	Ryo Ishikawa	7	71	78
128	Andres Romero	9	73	78
129	Gonzalo Fdez-Castano	10	78	74
T130	Kyle Stanley	11	78	75
T130	Paul Trittler	11	79	74
132	Joey Snyder III	17	76	83