Another 69 Keeps Sutton in Lead

The TPC at Sawgrass was just a pup in 1983. So was Hal Sutton.

He was a rising star, regarded as the next Jack Nicklaus when he won the Players Championship and added his first major title in the PGA Championship. Seventeen years later, the course and the player seem to be getting better with age.

Sutton kept his cool in the face of adversity, building momentum from an improbable bogey and surging to another three-under-par 69 Friday that gave him a one-stroke lead over Tom Lehman and Omar Uresti after two rounds at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

“I’m a lot better player than I was in 1983,” said Sutton, who was at six-under 138.

Tiger Woods is only four strokes back, despite his second double bogey in as many days and despite the fact he failed to break 70 for the 14th consecutive round in the Players Championship.

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Gil Morgan, who sat out the first eight tournaments of the season because of a pulled rib muscle, marked his return to the Senior PGA Tour with a five-under 65 for a one-stroke lead over Larry Nelson and Jim Dent in the Emerald Coast Classic at Milton, Fla.

Despite aggravating the injury Thursday in a pro-am, Morgan holed out a 160-yard seven-iron approach for eagle on the par-four, 406-yard first hole, then added five birdies against two bogeys.

“It’s nice to get back and it’s nice to have a good first round,” he said. “I was pretty elated. I was almost up to speed.”