GOLF ROUNDUP : Mayfair Takes Lead in $2.5-Million Tournament

Billy Mayfair, who made up five shots on Greg Norman Friday to take the second-round lead of the Nabisco Championships at Houston, says he’s trying hard not to think about the $450,000 first prize.

“Money? What money?” Mayfair asked after his five-under-par 66 gave him a one-stroke lead over Nick Price at the halfway point of golf’s richest tournament and the final PGA event of the year.

At stake is a purse of $2.5 million, plus another $1 million from a yearlong bonus pool decided in this season-ending event.

“It’s really too early in the week to start worrying about the money,” said Mayfair, who completed 36 holes over the Cypress Creek course at Champions in seven-under-par 135.

But there was every indication some of his more prominent opponents were thinking about it.

Of the 13 men who have a chance to take the year’s money-winning title in this tournament, only two were under par with 36 holes to go.

They are Norman and Tim Simpson, who shared the first-round lead. And neither distinguished himself Friday.

Norman, leading the money list at $907,977 coming into the last official tournament on the schedule, shot a par 71. That put him in a tie for third at 137 with Jodie Mudd and Chip Beck. Beck had a 68 and Mudd shot 69.

Simpson slipped to a 73 that included three consecutive bogeys, later followed by a double bogey from the water on the 12th.

Price, who insists he has something other than dollar signs on his mind, moved into second place with a 68 that put him one stroke back at 136.

Mayfair, 24, a former U.S. Amateur champion, is in his second year on the PGA Tour and has yet to win, although he lost a playoff to Jim Gallagher in the Greater Milwaukee Open earlier this fall.

However, Mayfair missed the cut in seven of his first 13 tournaments this season. He credits an improved putting game for his improved play.

“I went from averaging 30 putts a round to averaging 26,” he said. “And that’s a huge difference.

“It’s funny, but when your putting gets better out here, everything gets better.”

A relatively short hitter among the game’s big bombers, Mayfair still managed to birdie all the par-five holes and moved in front with a string of three consecutive birdies beginning on the fourth.

“After that, I was just rolling,” he said.

At the same time, Norman was going in the opposite direction. From a share of the lead, he bogeyed the second, third and fourth.

“That put me right behind the 8-ball,” he said.

Norman got two back with birdies on the two front-side par-fives, hit it close on the 10th and regained a share of the lead with another birdie-four on the 13th.

But he drove into the woods, bogeyed the 14th and missed from short range on 16. He stayed close only with a great par after hitting into the water on 17.

“I have nothing really good to say about today,” Norman said. “It was a sequence of bad luck, good luck, bad luck.”

Bob Charles shot a first-round 68 to take a one-stroke lead in the $400,000 Rancho Murieta Senior Gold Rush at Rancho Murieta.

Charles, who won the second Gold Rush in 1988, had five birdies and one bogey en route to his four-under-par total on the 6,701-yard Rancho Murieta north course.

Dick Hendrickson was alone in second at 69. He moved to three-under with a birdie on No. 8, then parred the final 10 holes.

Jose Rivero, winless in his last two seasons on the PGA European Tour, shot a course-record six-under-par 65 for a share of the lead after two rounds of the Volvo Masters at Sotogrande, Spain. Rivero and fellow Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal are both at 141.