Arnold Palmer Invitational. Justin Joined by Bill Haas

Justin Rose was joined at the top of the leaderboard by Bill Haas, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, presented by MasterCard, at the conclusion of the second round at Bay Hill Club and Lodge.

Justin Rose and Bill Haas / Greenwood / Getty Images

Justin let the lead slip away from him on the last green, with a three putt, to finish his second round with a score of -2 under par 70, and a total of -9 under par.

When asked about the three putt aberration, Justin replied;

” But that was the only thing that hampered the day, really, all in all, an exciting day and I’m in a good position.”

He also gave credit to Tiger for the way he played today;

” He’s normally a fast finisher, and you can expect him to probably finish fast on the weekend. He did a lot of hard work today, he actually played really well. I thought he was probably a couple of shots away from shooting 64 today at times. I’m sure he was very disappointed because he actually played some great golf today.”

Justin also had to battle against a heckler in the crowd;

“I was reading the putt thinking, `Might go a little bit right-to-left of the hole. Fairly straight overall.’ And as I’m lining it up, someone is like, `It goes right. It goes right. It goes right.’ So I’m like, `OK, thanks, buddy. It’s just one of those annoying moments where you’re having to then battle someone who planted a seed. And I hit a great putt that’s in the middle with 4 feet to go and it goes left of the hole.”

Bill Haas said he had in his mind to get back the two shots he should not have dropped yesterday;

“So to leave, basically giving two away, my goal today was try to get those two back and go from there. That was kind of my mindset today, and then I was able to keep it going.”

John Huh is in third place at -8 under par, he had a second round of -3 under par.

Tiger Woods, partnering again with Justin today, hit the ball better but it did not improve his total for the round, in fact he was one shot worse off than yesterday. This was mainly due to  three sloppy bogies to fall four shots behind going into the weekend, when he was actually just one shot out of the lead with three holes to play;

” The good news is we’ve got 36 holes to go, we’ve got a long way to go. And certainly four shots can be made up.”

Tiger is tied in seventh place at -5 under par, after his second round of -2 under par.

Arnold Palmer Invitational. Rosey Rises to The Top.

Englishman Justin Rose fired in a first round -7 under par 65, and rose to the top of the leaderboard, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, leading the field by two shots.

Justin Rose / Cannon / Getty Images

Justin was playing in the group with Tiger Woods at Bay Hill on Thursday, he  put on a clinic with the putter and ran off four straight birdies late in his round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, presented by MasterCard.

Justin did not see this coming, saying;

“If you had said I would shoot a 65 on the range this morning, I would have probably said, `How many holes have I played?’ And that didn’t change much, the first five, six holes out there were a grind.”

The difference today was Justin’s putting;

“ I dedicated myself at making a few changes and getting better at that part of the game. I’ve had some good days, no doubt. And today was probably the first real hot day I’ve had with the blade in a long, long time. We all know it’s about consistency and that’s what I’m still working towards. It’s just fun to know that I obviously can do it, and I enjoy a lot of confidence from that.”

John Huh is in second place, at -5 under par, he  had a chance to catch Justin late in the afternoon, but required a birdie on the final hole to do so. Unfortunately John found a fairway bunker on No. 9 and took a bogey for a -5 under par round of 67.

John Rollins and Brad Fritsch were at -4 under par with rounds of 68, to be tied in third place.

Tiger Woods had two uncharacteristic bogeys from greenside bunkers and definitely did not  hit the ball as well as he did when he won The Honda Classic two weeks ago. It was his putting that kept his round reasonable, tied in fifth place after a round of -3 under par, 69.

“It was one of my good ones, days happen like this. It was cool this morning, and it just didn’t work out. But I scored well, and I kept myself in the tournament. I’m right there. Justin played a beautiful round of golf today. He had every single facet of his game working, so we had a good time out there. I got a lot out of this round, and I threw away a few shots as well.”

Valero Texas Open, Ben Curtis wins at TPC San Antonio

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Ben Curtis cured his drought and won the Valero Texas Open, at TPC San Antonio. Ben won by two shots from Matt Every and John Huh. The winning score was -9 under par, with an even par last round of 72 for Ben, he needed to birdie the last to achieve that score,  which proved to be enough to lift the trophy.

John Huh had a last round of -3 under par for a total of -7 under par for the tournament. Matt Every could not catch Ben, he managed only a -1 under par final round as his challenge faltered. He and John shared second place with final totals of -7 under par.

Next week the Tour moves to TPC Louisiana, Avondale, Louisiana for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where Bubba Watson returns  to defend his Zurich Classic title.

Other big names in the field include, Luke Donald, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, and Graeme McDowell. It will be interesting to see how Luke Donald performs in his pursuit of the number one ranking. Rory McIlroy will not be there this week so it is a good opportunity for Luke to regain the top spot.

Valero Texas Open, windy third day @ TPC San Antonio

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It was a tough and windy third day at The Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio, with Ben Curtis hanging on to the lead despite shooting a +1 over par round. Ben’s total tournament score of -6 under par is three shots batter than his nearest rival, Matt Every.   Matt also had a +1 over par 73 for his total of -6 under par and will have to play really well tomorrow if he wants to win the title.

No one played very well in the windy conditions, so although Ben Curtis stumbled they was no real pressure from behind. John Huh and Matt Kuchar had rounds of -5 under par and have moved up the leaderboard, but will need to repeat those performances if they are to figure at the back end of Sunday.

Meanwhile, down in Mexico @ Mayakoba Classic

John Huh parred the eighth hole of a playoff to beat Australia’s Robert Allenby and win the 2012 Mayakoba Golf Classic. The 21-year-old Huh parred all eight holes in the playoff that matched the second-longest in PGA TOUR history. Huh and Allenby were tied at the top at -13 under par for the tournament, forcing the long playoff.

Tied in third place was Matt Every and Colt Knost just two shots back at -11 under par.