News
Stiles & Osborn Share Lead
Stiles set up his eagle on 18 with a 242 yard 5-wood he left just inches from the hole.
MCKINNEY, Texas (AP) -- Darron Stiles made a tap-in eagle on the final hole for a 4-under 67 and a share of the second-round lead Friday with Garrett Osborn in the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship.
In sunny, calm conditions at TPC Craig Ranch, Stiles' 5-wood shot from 242 yards hit the pin on the par-5 18th to set up the short eagle try. Seventh on the money list with $303,427, he's already guaranteed a PGA Tour spot next year.
Osborn, 40th on the money list with only the final top 25 earning 2009 PGA Tour cards, had a 65 to match Stiles at 11-under 141.
Colt Knost, the 2007 U.S. Amateur champion from SMU, was 9 under after a 66. "I haven't been nervous in a long time, but I was nervous on the first tee the last two days, but I want to do well in front of these people so badly," Knost said.
Fort Worth native Hunter Haas, 26th on the money list, shot a 66 to join Bryce Molder (67), Marc Leishman (67) and Jeff Klauk (69) at 8 under.
"I'm very happy with where I am right now, but when you lose focus and start looking at what others are doing, that's when you start to fold," Haas said.
Casey Wittenberg shot a 64, the best round of the day, to top a group at 7 under. Stiles' eagle turned an average round into a very good one. After shooting 4-under 32 on the front nine, he had a double bogey on the 12th hole and a bogey out of the bunker on par-4 16th. But after picking up two shots on the final hole, he finished where he started the day, on top of the leaderboard.
"That's two days in a row, I've made my best swings on the 18th hole," Stiles said. Osborn has missed more cuts this year (11) than he's had top-25 finishes (9) and came into this week having missed four cuts in his last six tournaments.
"I got real lucky several times and had some good breaks," Osborn said.
One of those came on the par-4 eighth where his second shot was headed for the greenside rough, but hit a women's ankle and bounced back toward the green.
"I gave her ball on that hole. She deserves all the credit for that par," he said.