GOLF ROUNDUP : Though Brooks Staggers, He Holds 2-Shot Lead

Mark Brooks hit the ball well all day in the second round of the Kemper Open, but occasionally with the wrong club.

Brooks had four bogeys over the final seven holes Friday, finishing with a 68 for a nine-under-par 133 total and a two-stroke lead over Bobby Wadkins. Mark O’Meara was at 137, and four golfers reached the halfway point at 138 over the TPC at Avenal course in Potomac, Md.

Phil Mickelson used a six-iron for a hole in one on the 177-yard 11th and finished with a 69 for a 139, tied with four others.

Brooks held a six-stroke lead through the 10th hole before his troubles began.

He pulled out a six-iron on the 11th tee and put his shot on the edge of the bunker. That led to his first bogey of the tournament.

“I should have used a seven-iron,” he said.

His five-iron came up shorter than desired on the next hole, another bogey. His tee shot went in the water on No. 17 and he also bogeyed No. 18.

“I just played a horrible back nine,” Brooks said. “I hit the wrong club two or three times and it was costly as far as momentum was concerned.”

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Beth Daniel bogeyed her final hole and still shot a tournament-record nine-under-par 63 to take a four-stroke lead after two rounds of the LPGA Oldsmobile Classic at East Lansing, Mich.

Daniels has a 36-hole total of 14-under 130--also a tournament record and four strokes ahead of Meg Mallon.

“I never got a feel today that this was going to be my day or that I was in a zone,” said Daniel, currently second to Laura Davies on the LPGA money list. “I just kept grinding and things were happening. In this game, you can never get content and think, ‘This is my day,’ because as soon as you think that, disaster strikes.”

Daniel has only two players within six strokes. Amy Benz finished the second round at nine under. Nancy Ramsbottom is another stroke back.

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Jim Albus shot a season-best eight-under 64 for a two-stroke lead over Bob Charles and Jim Dent after the first round of the Bruno’s Memorial Classic over the Greystone Golf Club course in Birmingham, Ala.

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Justin Leonard of Texas took advantage of ideal scoring conditions and hometown support to shoot a 63, best of his career, and take a one-shot lead in the NCAA golf championships at the Stonebridge Country Club in McKinney, Tex.

Leonard has a 54-hole total of 202. Oklahoma State’s Alan Bratton is second at 203.

In the team competition, six schools are within six strokes of the lead, with Stanford and Georgia Tech tied at the top at 847, two shots better than three teams.