On This Day, Love’s Swing Is Wildest

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. â€”  Jim Furyk needs to get a copyright on his loopy swing, just as Jesper Parnevik should get one for his black tie, Ian Poulter for his frosted, spiked hair, Darren Clarke for his popsicle purple slacks and Colin Montgomerie for his pout.

They’re all familiar sights, but maybe none more so than Furyk, who has been using the swing that looks like something he found in a box for all of his 13 years on the PGA Tour. It is a swing that is not so much mechanical as simply, well, what is that thing called?

“Unique, unusual, whatever you want to call it,� Furyk said.

How about effective? Good enough that Furyk followed up his opening round of 65 with a one-under 71 Friday and claimed a one-shot lead after two rounds of the $8-million Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

Stephen Ames shot 66 and is tied for second with Adam Scott, who had a 67. They’re at seven-under 137, one shot ahead of Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and K.J. Choi.

Meanwhile, headed in the opposite direction fast was Davis Love III, who began the day with a share of the lead and ended in a spectacular flameout -- an 83 that missed the cut by four shots.

Among players who’ve gone from first place to the highway after two rounds in recent years are Kirk Triplett at the 2001 Nissan Open, Trevor Immelman at the 2003 Bay Hill Invitational and Brian Kortan at the 2004 U.S. Bank Championship.

Love’s demise was settled at his finishing hole, the par-five ninth, where he drove against a tree, took a penalty drop, needed four more shots to reach the green, then three-putted from 14 feet for a quadruple-bogey nine.

If Love had managed par at the ninth, he would have made the cut.

Instead, his 18-shot turnaround from his opening 65 to his closing 83 was whiplash-inducing. It was also the worst of Love’s 77 rounds in 21 years at TPC Sawgrass.

Almost overnight, Love became the bogeyman. He had seven birdies and no bogeys Thursday, and then had one birdie, six bogeys, a double bogey and a quadruple Friday.

Afterward, Love didn’t have much to say, but Furyk said that serving as a witness as his playing partner was no fun.

“You can’t say all that much,� Furyk said. “We’ve all been in that position, and I know personally I’d kind of want to be left alone.�

Love refused comment for a while, and then acknowledged that it was far from his finest day. The ninth hole stuck in his mind.

“I needed par to make the cut, and I’m up against the only tree within 30 yards of me. It was one of those days. When I hit a bad shot, I never got away with it.�

Ames also has a recent history of not getting away with much.

He is the player who said before facing Tiger Woods at the La Costa match play tournament that he probably had a chance because Woods wasn’t keeping the ball on the fairway all that often. Then Woods went out and promptly dusted him, 9 and 8.

Ames said he learned something that day.

“Yeah, how good he is.�

But what about offering critiques of Woods?

“No comment.�

If making comments was what got Ames into trouble once before, making birdies is what got him out of trouble Friday. He had eight of them, including four in a five-hole stretch, offsetting bogeys at the second and the 15th.

Woods trails Furyk by five shots and remained in sight of the leaders with a gritty 69 that could have been better. But it also could have been worse, considering that he chipped in from 30 feet to save par at the ninth, his closing hole, after he had knocked his drive into the water that crosses the fairway about 300 yards from the tee.

“You’re going to have moments when you’re going to have a little bit of luck, and you’re also going to have some moments when you’re going to get bad luck,� said Woods, who wasn’t unhappy with his position on the leaderboard.

“It’s right in the ballgame.�