Watney Pushes Lead at Barracuda Championship


On Friday in the Barracuda Championship, Nick Watney bumped his 18-hole lead from two to three points after five birdies and two bogeys for eight more points in the $3 million, modified Stableford event at Montreux Golf and Country Club in Reno.

Watney, a 33-year-old from Sacramento with five wins on Tour, now has a two-day total of 26 points, a trio in front of Australian Geoff Ogilvy, who accrued seven points, and four ahead of Wes Roach, who picked up 10.

"The course was great and I played pretty well," said Watney, who has many family members and friends supporting him in the gallery this week. "I would have liked to have made a few more putts, but overall, if you would have told me 26 points after two days I would take it every time."

Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open champion with seven PGA Tour victories - the last coming in the 2010 SBC Championship, is happy his game is coming around in Nevada's Sierra Nevadas.

"I'm hitting the ball well," the 37-year-old from Adelaide told reporters. "Obviously, if I hole a few putts, hopefully, I'll be there at the end."

Tommy Gainey and Tim Wilkinson, with 21 points each, share fourth, and another stroke back with 20 are Bryce Molder and Brendan Steele.

The weekend cut was set at eight points. Among the players who failed to not gather enough points was D.A. Points, who had only seven points to fall a point short.

For all the scores, visit http://www.pgatour.com/content/pgatour/tournaments/barracuda-championship/leaderboard.html.