The Live Report, Round 2: The 50th Bob Hope Classic

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Pat Perez didn't release his stranglehold on the lead in Palm Springs, shooting a 9-under 63 on Thursday.

The 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer is the first tournament of the West Coast swing this season. PGATOUR.COM's The Live Report will provide updates all day long for each of the five rounds, so check back often. (All timestamps listed for Eastern Time.)
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FITNESS PAYING OFF? (6:38 p.m.): So far, it's been a pretty good week for Joey Diovisalvi, a strength and conditioning coach who has worked with, among others, Vijay Singh.

Three of the players he currently works with -- Pat Perez, Tom Pernice Jr. and Ryuji Imada -- are all in the top 17 right now.

"I just feel like it's something that you need to do to be able to stay somewhat fit and somewhat strong to be able to compete out here," said Pernice, who has worked with Diovisalvi for years. -- Brian Wacker

PERNICE JR. IN POSITION (6:10 p.m.): Tom Pernice Jr. is looking for his first win since the 2001 INTERNATIONAL presented by Qwest. He got off to a great start in Hawaii with a second-round 63 before falling by the wayside, and once again is off to a fast start here.

Pernice opened with a 65 yesterday then followed that up with a 9-under 63 today that featured a 31 on the back nine at the Palmer Course.

Backing up his low rounds, however, has sometimes been a problem. Case in point: After that second-round 63 in Hawaii, Pernice shot rounds of 75-73 to finish T59.

"That's something that I've been working on pretty hard in the off-season," Pernice said after his round today. "Hopefully I'm on my way."

Pernice, who lives about 20 minutes away from here, has been working with mental coach Tom Fanning, who he hopes can help him continue to string together good rounds.

"One of my major goals is to win here early and to get into the Masters," Pernice said. "So I'm trying to stay focused on what I need to do and go right ahead for it." -- Brian Wacker

HOW LOW CAN HE GO? (5:35 p.m.): Now that Pat Perez has set a new PGA TOUR scoring record for the lowest 36-hole start to a tournament, let's take a look at some other scoring records that might be in reach. -- Brian Wacker

PEREZ SETS TOUR RECORD (5:05 p.m.): Pat Perez continued his stellar play today, shooting a 9-under 63 that featured nine birdies and no bogeys. That gives him a two-day total of 20-under 124, which is the lowest 36-hole start in PGA TOUR history. -- Brian Wacker

Below is a look at Perez's card from today, along with a breakdown of the previous lowest 36-hole starts in TOUR history.

Previous lowest 36-hole starts in PGA TOUR history

Score Player Course Tournament 64-61 Tiger Woods Firestone CC (par 70) 2000 World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational 65-60 Mark Calcavecchia TPC Scottsdale (par 71) 2001 Phoenix Open 63-62 Tom Lehman TPC Summerlin (par 72)/Southern Highlands GC (par 72) 2001 Invensys Classic at Las Vegas 61-61 Corey Pavin Brown Deer Park Golf Course (par 70) 2006 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee 64-61 Carl Pettersson Sedgefield CC (par 70) 2008 Wyndham Championship

ADAMONIS IN CONTENTION (4:55 p.m.): Even a late bogey didn't take the shine off the best round of Brad Adamonis' brief PGA TOUR career.

Adamonis shot an ordinary 67 on the Palmer Course in the first round, but he caught fire on the Nicklaus Course on Thursday. The New England native eagled two of the par-5s and hit every green but two.

His only blip came on the final hole of the day. He found the water at the 455-yard par-4 18th and made bogey to finish with a 62. His previous lowest round was 64, shot last summer at the Travelers Championship, where he finished tied for sixth.

Adamonis is one of several TOUR regulars with a new equipment deal. He signed with Wilson Golf for the '09 season and agreed to play their Fg62 iron. -- Ryan Smithson

WITTENBERG MAKES A MOVE (4:42 p.m.): Casey Wittenberg, who is playing over at Silver Rock today, fired off birdies on his first four holes and is now six under after birdieing the par-3 17th. Wittenberg has an outside shot at going really low today. He's got two par-5s left to play. -- Ryan Smithson

PARNEVIK STRUGGLING (4:35 p.m.): Speaking of 2000 Bob Hope Classic champion Jesper Parnevik, his struggles from last year seem to be continuing this week.

In 2008, he finished a career-low 143rd on the money list. Today, he's 2 over through 15 holes after opening with an even-par 72 and languishing near the bottom of the leaderboard.

Parnevik, who is in the field here because he's a past champion, has conditional status on the PGA TOUR this year after choosing not to use a one-time exemption for being in the top 50 on the career money list. However, the 43-year-old Swede has already received sponsor's exemptions into next week's FBR Open and the Buick Invitational the week after that. Being a past champion also permits him to unlimited sponsor exemptions, ultimately meaning that you can expect to see him in roughly 16 to 19 events this year.

Whatever happens at least Parnevik, who's been oft-injured the last couple of years, will be entertained. He is playing with Huey Lewis, who coincidentally is wearing pants awfully similar to something Parnevik might wear.-- Brian Wacker

Anderson

BELT TREND (4:15 p.m.): Anthony Kim isn't in the field this week, but it looks like more than just his peers like Bubba Watson are following his trend of snazzy and blingy belt buckles. Former Cleveland Browns' quarterback Derek Anderson is sporting a buckle with the initials "D.A." on it. Watson, meanwhile, wears one that says "Bubba," while Kim's, of course, reads "A.K." -- Brian Wacker

AMERICAN TREND CONTINUES (3:45 p.m.): There's a lot of golf still to be played, obviously, but the trend of Americans playing well in this event continues. Nine of the top 10 and 12 of the top 13 names on the leaderboard are Americans, with Sweden's Richard S. Johnson the lone foreign-born player in that group.

The last foreign players to win here were Canada's Mike Weir in 2003 and Jesper Parnevik in 2000. -- Brian Wacker

GLOVER HAS GAME GOING (3:35 p.m.): It's been 2 1/2 years since Lucas Glover was passed over as a captain's pick for the 2006 Ryder Cup team, and though he played on the '07 Presidents Cup team, the soft-spoken South Carolinian hasn't exactly matched the early-career promise he showed his first couple of years on the PGA TOUR.

Yes, Glover has made 42 of 55 cuts the last two seasons, but he was coming off a two-year stretch in which he'd finished in the top 10 a combined 16 times, including a win at the 2005 FUNAI Classic at Walt Disney World. His last two seasons, Glover combined for just five top 10s.

Could he be ready to start trending upward once again? Thursday, he shot an impressive back-nine 30 with six birdies over at the Nicklaus Course. And he just added another on No. 3. As of right now, he's hasn't missed a fairway or a green in regulation today and has jumped from T13 to T4 in what is his first tournament of the season. -- Brian Wacker

CHECK OUT THE MORNING MOVERS (2:50 p.m.): Joe Durant, Pat Perez and Bubba Watson kick off the second round at the 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer.

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Joe Durant shot a disappointing 73 in the first round. Today he plays the Palmer Private course, where he has carded a much-improved five birdies through the front nine. Pat Perez led the field Wednesday with a 61 and began the second round with a one-shot advantage. He is playing the Nicklaus Private course and is also 5 under through nine. Bubba Watson proved he's not just about length yesterday when he came in one shot behind leader Perez with a 62. The Nicklaus Private course isn't being as kind to Watson, though. He's 2 over on the front nine.

ACE IN THE HOLE (2:40 p.m.): Briny Baird has just aced the par-3 seventh over at the Nicklaus Course. The eagle puts him at 4-under on the day and takes some of the sting out of the bogey he made earlier in the day at the par-5 fourth. -- Ryan Smithson

Trahan

HOW'S OUR DEFENDING CHAMP DOING? (2:12 p.m.): D.J. Trahan opened his title defense with a solid 65, which, despite the 61s and 62s Wednesday brought, is nothing to sneer at. However, he's going to need to replicate that at the very least if he wants a shot of taking that trophy home with him again this week. He plays the Bermuda Dunes course in the second round, and he's off to a strong start -- he birdied his first hole. To keep up with Trahan, check out his Spotlight Player of the Week archive. -- Ceri Mobley

WELCOME TO THE CLUB (1:25 p.m.): Cliff Kresge wasn't on anyone's radar at the start of the second round, and he clearly had an issue with that. After closing Wednesday with a 68 -- tied for 61st -- Kresge must have resolved to crash the birdie fest in Palm Springs. He blew apart the back nine on the Palmer Private Course -- birdieing six holes, five consecutive -- to rocket up the leaderboard and move to 10 under. Scarily, he's still got nine more holes to go. -- Ceri Mobley

SMOKE AND MIRRORS AND, UH, WALKING SCORERS (12:24 p.m.): Edgar Allen Poe once wrote: "Believe not of what you hear and only half of what you see." He might have been talking about live scoring at the Bob Hope Classic. Each group that consists of one professional and three amateurs has an unofficial walking scorer. Unofficial is the important word in that statement, as we learned from Scott McCarron in the opening round.

PGA TOUR live scoring, GOLF CHANNEL and we at Sirius/XM were all following Scott in overtime because we believed he was flirting with history. It appeared he had gotten to 10- or even 11-under par with holes to play, but that was not the case. The walking scorer in his group inadvertently credited Scott with birdies that were actually net birdies made by his amateur partners.

Officially, Scott signed for a correct 66, and all was forgiven. Afterward, Scott laughed the whole thing off saying that he saw his name on the leaderboard. He said he gave his walking scorer a couple of extra golf balls so he would get a little more TV time. It worked; he got radio time too. -- John Maginnes

PRE-ROUND NOTES (11:30 a.m.): Is the Bob Hope Classic a barometer for the rest of the TOUR season? The top four finishers at the '08 event accounted for seven wins on TOUR last season: Trahan-1; Leonard-1, Kim-2, Perry-3. The top four finishers from the tournament also all finished in the top-25 of the FedExCup final standings: Kim-4; Leonard-8; Perry-15, Trahan-24. Something to keep in mind for those chasing Wednesday's low scorers...

Low scores are always something to expect at this tournament, but how often do they come in droves elsewhere on TOUR?

FIRST TIME'S NOT THE CHARM (10:45 a.m.): Arnold Palmer (1960) and Charley Hoffman (2007) are the only players in tournament history to win the Bob Hope Classic in their initial try. Perhaps that's why the top 10 on the leaderboard entering the second round have all checked this tournament off their list at least once before...

Speaking of the tournament's early leaders, despite what you might think, it's no surprise to see most of them in this position. Of the top 10 on the leaderboard, seven have recorded top-10 finishes at the Bob Hope Classic -- five of which were top fives -- and only one has a best finish outside the top 30. Check out the comparison of the top 10 (entering the second round) this week against the week of their best Bob Hope finish.

TIME FOR ROUND TWO (10:25 a.m.): There are still four more rounds to go in Palm Springs -- and three before we'll make a cut -- so it's way too soon to be calling winners. But here's who we think you should keep an eye on in the second round.

Groups We're Watching

Tee time Player   11:48 am ET (8:48 am in California) Pat Perez As hard as it is to believe, Perez has never won on TOUR. He'll have to keep the birdies -- and eagles -- coming this week to change that. 1 pm ET (10 am in California) Mike Weir Even though Weir doesn't hit it as long as some, his world-class skill with a wedge helps him dominate short par 4s and long par 5s. No one was surprised by his 62 on Wednesday. 12:24 pm ET (9:24 am in California) Bubba Watson Watson also shot 62 on Wednesday. He, Weir and Perez all played the Palmer Course at PGA West. All three will play the Nicklaus Course in Round 2, the newest course on the rotation.

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