GOLF ROUNDUP : Love Turns On His Power, Shoots 69 to Take Lead

Davis Love III is one of golf’s longest hitters, but he has learned how to harness his power and when to use it.

Friday was a day to use it under blustery conditions at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club at Orlando.

Love shot a three-under-par 69 to take a one-shot lead at the halfway point of the $1-million Nestle Invitational.

“In the wind, if I get a good drive I’m hitting 4-5-6-irons in where other guys are hitting woods, and that’s a big difference,” Love said after his second trip over the 7,114-yard course left him at four-under-par 140.

Ben Crenshaw, Mike Allen and Bernhard Langer are tied for second at 141.

Tom Watson had the best round of the tournament, a 68, and advanced from a tie for 78th to a tie for 17th at 144.

“You just try to hang in there, be patient,” Love said. “It’s a long, hard golf course, and in these conditions, if it starts going bad, you can go for a big number.”

Fred Couples, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Purtzer served as examples as the course turned into a stage for a horror show.

Couples took an eight on the par-five sixth hole. He shot 81 and missed the cut at 154.

Nicklaus bogeyed his first four holes in the 30-m.p.h. winds, shot 78 and missed the cut for the second week in a row at 150.

Purtzer hit two into the water on the 18th before scrawling a “9” on his card. He had an 82 for the day and a 156 total.

Dawn Coe-Jones shot a four-under-par 69 to take the second-round lead of a LPGA tournament at Phoenix.

The Canadian-born golfer, who has finished no lower than 16th in three tournaments this season, has a 36-hole total of eight-under-par 138.

Annika Sorenstam and Patti Rizzo were second at 139.

Rizzo’s round of 66 tied the second-day record of the tournament, which has been played on the 6,483-yard Moon Valley Country Club course since 1987. Pat Bradley set the mark in 1989.

Patty Sheehan, Caroline Keggi and Kris Tschetter were two shots off the lead at 140, with Hiromi Kobayashi, Dottie Mochrie and Brandie Burton at 141.