GOLF PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP : Olazabal’s 65 Gives Him Share of Lead

Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain was in big trouble Friday on the fifth hole of the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass.

Olazabal had just taken a drop after bouncing a drive into the water on the par-four hole and was looking at a 185-yard six-iron shot.

He holed it.

The ball ran onto the green, curled off a slope and trickled into the cup for a birdie that sparked Olazabal to a seven-under-par 65 and a share of the lead at the halfway point of the $1.8-million Players Championship.

“I think I was very lucky on that shot,” Olazabal, 26, said after moving into a tie for the 36-hole lead with first-round leader Billy Ray Brown.

Fighting winds of up to 35 m.p.h., Brown had a 70 and matched Olazabal’s 134.

“When you get a day like this, mentally it just beats you down,” said Brown, who had tied the course record with a 64 in the first round.

“Coming off a high like I had yesterday, I really had to work hard--harder than I wanted to.”

Craig Parry of Australia shot a 68 and was tied for second at 135 with Davis Love III, who also had a 68.

Nick Faldo of England, who shot a 68, was tied at 136 with Phil Blackmar, who shot 69.

Ian Baker-Finch of Australia, the British Open title-holder who is trying to work his way out of a slump, shot a 67 that put him in a tie at 137 with Bob Lohr, Ed Humenik, Mark Brooks and Scott Simpson.

“My favorite course on the tour. My favorite tournament on the tour,” Baker-Finch said.

Lohr had a second-round 68, Simpson a 69 and Brooks a 70. Humenik had an erratic card that showed an eagle, five birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey, adding up to a 70.

Fred Couples, who has dominated world golf for the last nine months, barely made the cut. He shot 71 and had a 144, even par and the qualifying figure.

Sandy Lyle, Seve Ballesteros and Ian Woosnam all failed to make the cut.