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Price Is Rolling Along at Colonial

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From Associated Press

Nick Price, long one of the PGA Tour’s best ball-strikers, putted his way to a share of the lead in the Colonial at Fort Worth.

Price shot a five-under-par 65 Friday in the rain-delayed second round to share the lead at six-under 134 with Esteban Toledo, who overcame eight bunker shots for his second 67.

Play was suspended because of darkness with 18 players, including defending champion Sergio Garcia, still on the course.

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Price needed only 26 putts.

“My putting is so much better. It’s more consistent,” he said. “I need to take my putting up a notch like I have the last two days.

“I feel like my all-around game now is probably as good as it’s ever been, it just lacks a bit of fire. I don’t know what that fire is, but one thing is I’m not one of the longest hitters out there anymore.”

That’s not a necessity on the historic 7,080-yard Colonial layout, where even in the swirling gusty wind, shotmaking and putting are at a premium.

Steve Flesch and Bob Tway, who like Price teed off in the first section of players after a 31/2-hour rain delay, were a shot back at 135. Flesch had a 67, and Tway shot a 68.

Garcia, after an opening 76, was 10 over with two holes to play this morning and will miss the cut.

David Duval had a triple bogey and two double bogeys while shooting 43 on the back nine. He finished with a 78 for a 145 total, two strokes above the projected cut.

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Jim Thorpe and John Jacobs, playoff rivals in the first senior major of the year, shot season-best seven-under 65s to share the lead in the Instinet Classic at Princeton, N.J.

Three weeks ago in Arizona, Thorpe beat Jacobs on the first extra hole in The Tradition for his first major victory.

Thorpe, a five-time winner on the Senior PGA Tour, finished birdie-birdie-bogey-eagle, hitting a 260-yard approach shot within three feet on the par-five 18th.

Jacobs, the winner of the rain-shortened Royal Caribbean Classic in February, had nine birdies after beginning the round with a double bogey.

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Janice Moodie shot a six-under 66, the best round of the tournament, and took a two-stroke lead over Laura Davies halfway through the Asahi Ryokuken International at North Augusta, S.C.

Moodie, a fifth-year pro from Scotland who started the round three shots behind Davies, was at eight-under 136. Davies shot a 71.

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Moodie said she has been hitting the ball well this season, although her best finish was a tie for 12th at the Welch’s/Circle K Championships. At Mount Vintage, she says she has been making the putts that have not fallen this year.

“It’s one of those golf courses where you’re challenged mentally the whole way around,” said Moodie, whose only victory came at the Shoprite LPGA Classic two years ago. “You really have to be in the right place in the fairways to give yourself the opportunities.”

Michelle Wie, a 12-year-old from Honolulu, missed the cut after shooting 81-75.

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Defending champion Tiger Woods shot a three-under 69 and trailed Germany’s Alex Cejka by five strokes after the first round of the Deutsche Bank SAP Open at Heidelberg, Germany.

Woods had four birdies and a bogey on the 7,255-yard, par-72 St. Leon-Rot Golf Club.

“It wasn’t my best, but any round in the 60s today is a job well done,” Woods said.

Cejka shot a 64 and led New Zealand’s Greg Turner by one stroke. Colin Montgomerie shot a 66.

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