Sean O'Hair Moves into the Lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational

It was “moving day” a day early at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill golf tournament. There was a lot of movement on the leader board. The most visible move to the top occurred in the afternoon as Sean O’Hair shot a fine five-under par 65 to take the midway lead at eight-under par three strokes clear of the field.

He started the day tied for fourth place. The most heard of move came from Tiger Woods who shot 69 in the morning and is alone in fifth place five shots back. Woods started the day tied for 10th place.

Sean O’Hair had a flawless six-birdie day until his last hole the dogleg left No. 9. He cut the corner and carried the bunker but not the rough. Even though his ball was within a yard of the fairway, he had a heavy lie with the ball down in the grass.

“I think the rough is very penal. I felt like I actually hit a pretty decent drive on nine, just a little bit left of where I wanted, and I thought I could get away with it, and obviously I had no shot to the green and was only like 150 to the front edge.”

He chose to chop it out and leave himself a 60-yard pitch to the green to save par. He hit the putt he wanted but it broke the opposite way.

Though he bogeyed the last hole he was obviously pleased with his round and his three stroke lead going into the weekend. “It was just one of those days where I just was very calm and the golf game was there.”

O’Hair started working with a new coach Sean Foley at the Canadian Open in late July last year.

He saw immediate results there opening with a 65 and going 67-68 over the weekend to finish T3. “I saw some quick results, and I've never really hit the ball the way I did in Canada before that. So it kind of proved to me that the guy knew what he was talking about.”

The next week he finished T12 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone CC. Over the winter he hit fewer balls than ever before concentrating on mirror work and thinking his way through the changes.

His fourth-place finish at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, a T5 at the WGC- Accenture Match Play and the good start at Bay Hill is proof his changes are working longer term too. “I think the thing is my coach really explains things well and explains why things work and why things don't.”  

Defending and five-time Bay Hill champion Tiger Woods shot 69 to go along with his opening 68. He birdied two of his first three holes but added only one more birdie to go along with two bogies for the day.

Having gone through his reconstructive knee surgery last year and being very close to top competitive form for the Masters in two weeks he reflected on the journey he has been through.

“Playing golf is so much more enjoyable now than it was before. It just wasn't fun. The pain that I had to deal with day in and day out, that part wasn't.” So now he is back to focusing all his energy on playing the game not on the pain. Watch out for the weekend.

First-round leader Jason Gore remained solid and in the hunt shooting an even par 70. He is alone in second place, three strokes behind O’Hair. I'm such a streaky player that I'm just crazy enough or stupid enough or stubborn enough or whatever you want to call it to go out and play well this weekend.

I'm just going to do the same thing and stay focused and know that this golf course is playing pretty difficult and just focus on what I'm doing and keep moving forward.

“I played well yesterday and shot 65, so it's out there. I mean, somebody is going to get hot and shoot it, that's just the way it goes. Yeah, it's difficult to do. You just have to keep plugging along. You know that there's only going to be a few random guys that shoot it, you just hope that they're barely making the cut.”

Only two guys who missed the cut shot in the 60s and that was 69 by Ted Purdy and Billy Mayfair.

Gore’s first round of 65 was matched on Friday by the leader Sean O’Hair and Robert Allenby who made the largest move of the day coming all the way from T41 to T3.

Allenby is tied with Tiger for most consecutive cuts made at 32. “I don't know, it's just consistent play, that's all it is. That's all it comes down to. I don't make a lot of stupid errors off the tee or anything like that.

"I'm a very aggressive but conservative player I would say. I go for it when it's on, and I don't when it's not on. I don't make those stupid mistakes of making the doubles and triples."

Ryuji Imada shot 66 to tie Allenby in third place coming up from a T22.

Padraig Harrington and Vaughan Taylor each shot 68 and moved up from T22 to T6. They led a pack of seven players six strokes off the lead- Lee Janzen, Nick Watney, Mark Wilson, Hunter Mahan and Tim Herron.

Harrington, the winner of the last two majors and three overall was not happy with his finish down the stretch. “It's always good to shoot two-under par around here, but I am disappointed there, three-putting the last and missing three short birdie putts in the last six holes.

"I worked hard to shoot 70 yesterday and I shot 68 today and it felt like it should have been a few more. I certainly felt I could have made a few more birdies coming home. I definitely felt conditions were a little easier today.”

Vaughan Taylor did it the fun and memorable way making an ace on the 191-yard par-3 seventh hole. “It was a perfect six-iron really. I took just a little bit off of it, and the wind was just pretty much straight down.

"I hit just an absolutely perfect, right on line the whole way, and it landed about 15, 18 feel short and I think it rolled in like a putt. It was one of those that was perfect the whole way.” He followed the ace with two more birdies finishing the front nine nine-under for the last three holes.

Mark Wilson’s shot one-over par 71 with a double bogey at the difficult par-three 17th hole. He was paired the first two days with Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington who have won five of the last six majors between them.

“It was kind of neat to look on the last tee there, and we're all three-under, which I know is a good score this week. Seldom do you see that, three guys on Thursday and Friday right there in the Top five. Actually Padraig and I messed up on the green on the last hole, but all in all, yeah, it was pretty good golf I'd say.”

Lee Janzen’s 71 followed an opening 67. He is thinking about what it takes to get back to his two-time U.S. Open Champion form.  

“A swagger, that's it. It's really what do you think about yourself when you're on the golf course. My game has progressed more and more. Every part of my game suffered, so everything is coming back around.

"When you have no confidence in your putting it's hard to get near the lead and have a three-footer because you're just hoping you make it. When your stroke becomes solid then you start thinking you're going to make it.”

Though it felt like moving day it was Friday cut day. The cut came at five-over par which says a lot about how difficult Bay Hill is playing in the wind with heavy rough and hard and fast greens. Scores for both days averaged just over 72 for the par-70 layout. The cut is the highest so far this year on the PGA TOUR.

A total of 74 players made it to the weekend. Ross Fisher was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard after the second round. Jason Day withdrew when he got sick on Thursday after shooting even par on the front nine.

Notable players who missed the cut are Davis Love III vying for a Masters invitation; Ryo Ishikawa the 17-year old golfing sensation from Japan; Jim Furyk whose last win came at the 2007 Canadian Open; two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton; recent hot golfer Brett Quigley and President’s Cup captain Freddie Couples.

Sean O’Hair and Jason Gore tee off in the last twosome on Saturday afternoon at 1:50 PM. Live coverage on NBC Sports starts at 2:30 PM and ends at 6:00 PM EST.

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer. He follows the PGA TOUR volunteering for the tournaments and working part time for NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and The Golf Channel.

He resides in Jacksonville Beach, FL near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte VedraBeach.

He enjoys pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached through his website www.MrHickoryGolf.net or by e-mailing him to [e-mail]