Creamer gets promised vengeance
In the quiet of the locker room after missing the cut a year ago, a disgusted Paula Creamer swore she’d get even with Highland Meadows Golf Club.
Making good on that vow, she followed a course-record 60 with a 6-under-par 65 Friday to build a six-stroke lead through two rounds of the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic at Sylvania, Ohio. She shattered the tournament’s 36-hole record by six shots.
Creamer stands at 17-under 125 – the lowest 36-hole total on the LPGA Tour this year by five strokes.
“She has been incredible and her score is unbelievable,” said Eun-Hee Ji, the only player within 10 shots of her. Ji has rounds of 65 and 66.
Creamer had seven birdies and her only bogey of the tournament a day after she birdied nine of the final 11 holes and totaled 11 birdies. Her 60 on Thursday eclipsed by a shot the course record of defending champion Se Ri Pak.
Wendy Ward of Edwall, Wash., was at 141 after a 73. Tracy Hanson of Rathdrum shot a 74 and just missed the cut with a 143.
PGA
Will MacKenzie shot a 64 to move to the top of the leaderboard, two strokes up at 13-under in the John Deere Classic, at Silvis, Ill.
Celebrity Golf
In a field filled with quarterbacks, hockey players topped the leaderboard at the Edgewood Tahoe GC on the banks of Lake Tahoe, Nev.
NHL All-Star Jeremy Roenick eagled the 18th hole to take the first-round lead at the 19th annual American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. Ex-hockey greats Brett Hull and Pierre LaRouche were close behind along with former NFL quarterback Mark Rypien of Spokane and ex-pitcher Rick Rhoden, who has won the tourney a record six times.
Rypien, who won the first tourney in 1990 and is one of 18 past or present quarterbacks playing this week, tied for the best round of the day with a 70. He collected only 23 points in the modified Stableford scoring system that awards six points for eagle, three for birdie, one for par, none for bogey and minus-2 for double bogey or worse. He was tied for third with LaRouche, Rhoden and Dallas QB Tony Romo.