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Sports

Guthrie goes real low for Cox Classic lead

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

Omaha, NE – Luke Guthrie followed up his 62 on Thursday with an 8-under 63 on Friday to take sole possession of the second-round lead at the Cox Classic.

Guthrie, who lost a playoff last week at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational, finished 36 holes at 17-under 125 and broke Ryan Hietala's 2008 tournament record by a stroke.

Guthrie, who has three top-20 finishes in three starts this year on the PGA Tour, owns a 3-shot lead at Champions Run.

Tag Ridings also had a 63 on Friday and moved up to second at 14-under par.

Brian Stuard shot a 63 as well and vaulted up 10 spots to third at minus-13.

Rob Oppenheim fired a 10-under 61 in round two and is tied for fourth place with Peter Lonard (64), Brad Fritsch (64) and Steve LeBrun (64) at 12-under 130.

Guthrie double-bogeyed the first hole for the second time in as many rounds, but got those strokes back with birdies at two and four. He added another birdie at six, then tore apart the back nine at Champions Run.

He birdied the 10, 11 and 13 to reach 13-under par for the championship. Guthrie birdied the last four holes to amass 10 for the round. Couple that with the 12 from Thursday and the 22 total is a new tour record for most in the first two rounds of a tournament.

"That's pretty nuts," said Guthrie of his accomplishments. "When you tee it up on the first hole you don't think that you need to make 12 birdies today or 10 birdies today. I've just been trying to hit each shot the best I can.

"There are a lot of great birdie chances out here. You've just got to put your head down and play some golf. I wasn't controlling my distances on the front, but on the back nine I started putting it in spots where I could hole some putts."

Matt Weibring posted an 8-under 63 and is tied for eighth with last week's playoff winner in Columbus, Ben Kohles, who shot a 5-under 66 on Friday. The pair came in at 11-under 131.

Bubba Dickerson and Aaron Goldberg shared the first-round lead with Guthrie, but both only managed 1-under 70s on Friday. They fell into a tie for 10th with several other players at minus-10.

NOTES: Guthrie turned professional after this year's NCAA Championship and this is only his fifth start as a professional...Guthrie matched the Web.com Tour's record for most birdies in a round Thursday with 12...His 125 total ties the second-lowest opening-36 hole score in tour history...Guthrie's 3- stroke lead ties the tournament record for the largest 36-hole lead set by Chris Smith in 1997...The 36-hole cut fell at 6-under 136 and Paul Haley II, who is second on the tour's money list, missed the weekend.