Garnett Takes Over Top Spot at Colonial


Brice Garnett has shot rounds of 67 and 66 to assume the top spot on the leaderboard of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. The $6.4 million PGA Tour event is taking place at historic Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

Garnett, a 30-year-old Missourian and a Tour rookie with one top-10 finish in 17 starts this year, got off to a fine start with an eagle on the par-5 first hole. He then tacked on three birdies and a bogey the rest of the way to reach 7-under 133 on the par-70 course, a stroke ahead of fellow Americans Chris Stroud (64) and Robert Streb (68).

"The eagle at the start was super-nice to go ahead and get 2-under early and know that there is a lot of golf ahead of me to make some more birdies from there," Garnett told reporters. "I had the putter rolling great the first two days and finally started to hit a few more fairways and greens today."

After opening with a 70, Stroud had eight birdies and a pair of bogeys en route to posting Friday's low round. "I've hit it terrible the last two days, really, really bad, but putted awesome," said Stroud, a 32-year-old Texan in search of his first win.

"I don't have to worry about the greens," Stroud added. "I just need to get the ball on the greens. Usually, it's the opposite. It's a little different this week, but, man, it sure is nice to make putts."

First-round leader Dustin Johnson followed up his opening 65 with a 70 to drop into a tie for fourth at 5-under 135 with fellow Americans Bo Van Pelt (68), Chad Campbell (66) and Jimmy Walker (68), Australia's Aaron Baddeley (67), England's Brian Davis (67) and South African Tim Clark (68).

"It was OK," the 29-year-old Johnson said of his second round. "Just didn't hole the putts, got a couple of bad kicks. Other than that, I played pretty solid today."

Tied for 11th at 4-under 136 are Jason Dufner (69), Dallas native Jordan Spieth (69), Harris English (70), Brian Harman (67), Brandt Snedeker (66) and Canada's David Hearn (69).

New Zealander Tim Wilkinson and American Hunter Mahan both started Friday a stroke behind Johnson, but the two carded 71s to drop down the leaderboard into a tie for 17th at 3-under

No. 1-ranked Adam Scott followed up his opening 71 with a 68 and is six behind Garnett.

Defending champion Boo Weekley has recorded rounds of 71 and 69 to make the cut of 1-over 141 by a stroke.

Among those not qualifying for the weekend are Corey Pavin, Matt Kuchar, two-time major champion Angel Cabrera, Geoff Ogilvy and Rickie Fowler, who shot rounds of 80 and 75.

For all the scores, visit http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html.