Instant Chemistry Pays Off : Golf: Crenshaw and Beck, playing as a team for the first time, lead Shark Shootout by one stroke.

In team events, partners who have played together in the past would seem to have an advantage over the field.

It’s a nice theory, but it isn’t holding up in the Franklin Funds Shark Shootout at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.

Ben Crenshaw and Chip Beck, teammates for the first time, are leading the tournament after the second round. In the alternate-shot format, they had a 65 on Saturday for a 36-hole score of 130, 14 under par.

Hale Irwin and Bruce Lietzke are paired for the first time. So much for familiarity. They had a 69 and, at 131, are one stroke back.

It’s a bunched field. Tom Kite and Davis Love III are at 132, along with Nick Price and Billy Ray Brown. The team of Arnold Palmer and Peter Jacobsen and that of Fred Couples and Raymond Floyd are at 133.

Crenshaw said he has had three different partners in this event.

“It doesn’t matter who you put me with,” he said. “Just let me through the gate.”

Crenshaw and Beck were tied with Irwin and Lietzke after 17 holes of Saturday’s round. However, on the difficult par-four, 446-yard finishing hole, the Crenshaw-Beck team got a birdie and Irwin and Lietzke made par.

Beck made a 10-foot putt on No. 18, set up by Crenshaw’s approach shot.

“We’re teaming well,” Crenshaw said. “Our game is to keep the ball in play. We had two bogeys (on the 12th and 16th holes), which were disappointing, but we came back with birdies.”

They had eight birdies.

Kite said there is pressure of a different sort in a partnership event. Crenshaw agreed, saying:

“In this type of event, it allows you to get away with some mistakes, but if you make a mistake, you feel it doubly. Alternate shot (format) tightens down the screws a whole lot.”

The format for the final round today is scramble.

Irwin and Lietzke were tied for the lead with Couples and Floyd after the first round.

“Neither Bruce, nor myself, saw an easy putt today,” Irwin said. “We had a lot of good shots into the green, but we had a lot of tough six- to eight-footers.”

Said Lietzke: “The encouraging thing is that we’re still in the hunt. What success I’ve had here has been on Sunday. I semi-dread the alternate shot format.

“Today was much more of a strategy day. Everyone will throw in low numbers tomorrow.”

In the scramble format, each player drives and the second shot by each is played from the spot where the best drive landed. The process is repeated until the hole is completed.

“Bruce’s length off the tee gives us a range of choices,” Irwin said. “I feel good about how our games are shaping up.”

Kite said he was disappointed only in the way he and Love finished.

They were six under par for the day through 15 holes, but a bogey at No. 16 dropped them to 12 under for the tournament and that is how they finished.

“It’s disappointing to finish the way we did, but as long as someone doesn’t go crazy, we’re all right,” Kite said.

Love is looking forward to the scramble format, saying, “It’s easier to freewheel.”

Beck is enjoying his partnership with Crenshaw. “You can’t believe how good he putted today,” Beck said. “He’s unbelievable.”

Crenshaw is acknowledged as one of the game’s best putters.

“It’s harder to catch people on the last day,” Beck said. “It’s good to be in this position, but we still have some work to do.”