“My par on No. 3 was better than any of the birdies,” he said. “I drove it in the water, then hit a 5-iron in the right greenside bunker, then holed it. Just a regulation par.”
That 96-foot par-saving bunker blast at the 528-yard third hole, his 12th of the day, and the birdie quartet came in his season-low round of 6-under-par 64. Sabbatini matched John Mallinger (65) at 8-under 132, a stroke ahead of five players.
Mallinger eagled both par 5s at the TPC Four Seasons, holing a 45-foot shot from the greenside bunker at No. 7 and sinking a 14-foot putt at No. 16. He also had three bogeys and four birdies, the last a 15-footer at No. 18.
First-round co-leader James Nitties (68) overcame a double bogey after he hit his first tee shot out of bounds. The PGA Tour rookie was in the group at 7 under that included Brian Davis (65), who finished his sixth consecutive round in the 60s after an early three-putt from 5 feet for double bogey.
Briny Baird (64), James Driscoll (66) and Dustin Johnson (65) also were 7 under. Driscoll, who lost in a playoff at Zach Johnson last week in the Texas Open, finished with consecutive bogeys, three-putting the 198-yard 17th and missing the fairway off the tee at No. 18.
“It stinks to end like that, but I did a lot of things great out there, too,” Driscoll said.
Defending champion Adam Scott missed the cut by three strokes after consecutive 71s. Since a runner-up finish at the Sony Open in January and two no-cut World Golf Championship events, he has missed six straight cuts.
Ken Duke, who shared the first-round lead, shot a 69 and was two strokes back with Robert Allenby (67) and D.A. Points (66).
Sabbatini hasn’t won since 2007 at Colonial, where next week he will be the most recent champion after Phil Mickelson’s withdrawal.
Justin Leonard had the best round of the day, a 7-under 63 that followed his opening 75.
Journeyman Drummond
leads Senior PGA by two
BEACHWOOD, Ohio - The leader midway through the Senior PGA Championship has never won a tournament outside his homeland, has no sponsors and is more famous for being the subject of a golf book than anything he’s done on a course.
Meet Scotland’s Ross Drummond, the unlikely leader at the first major championship of the year for the over-50 set.
“I know it’s going to be difficult and I’m going to be nervous, but you just have to draw from that,” Drummond said after matching the low round of the tournament with a 4-under 66 to grab the lead by two shots through 36 holes.
Drummond, 52, whose life on the fringes of fame and fortune were told in the popular 1996 book “Four Iron In the Soul,” had a 4-under 136 total. No European player has won the Senior PGA since Jock Hutchison - also a Scot - in 1947.
The 66 tied the low competitive score at Canterbury Golf Club, which has hosted two U.S. Opens, a PGA Championship, a U.S. Senior Open and two U.S. Amateurs.
Tom Purtzer, whose 66 tied him for the first-round lead with Scott Hoch, faded to a 72 and was two shots back with Hoch. Also at 2-under 138 were Jeff Sluman (68), Larry Mize (69) and Bernhard Langer (70).
Drummond’s 24 putts were the fewest by anyone in the 156-player field that includes eight members of the World Golf Hall of Fame and 23 players who have won a total of 41 major championships.
Gil Morgan (68), Austin’s Tom Kite (70), Jay Don Blake (69) and club pro Chris Starkjohann - with his wife caddieing for him as he shot a 68 - were at 1-under 139.
Former British Open champion Tom Lehman bounced back with a 68 to stand at 143. Greg Norman was 2 under on the day when he shanked his third shot over the green and out of bounds on the 616-yard, par-5 16th hole, ending up with a triple bogey. He had to settle for a 72 that left him at 145.
