GOLF ROUNDUP : Azinger on Top, Couples Not

Paul Azinger, reunited with his putter, took the lead as Fred Couples fell to the bottom of the field Friday at the halfway point of the Tour Championship at Pinehurst, N.C.

“It looks like a fishing lure,” Azinger said of the borrowed putter he is using in competition for the first time in the season-ending, $2-million tournament.

“Real goofy-looking. It looks sad, real ugly,” he said.

But, in comparison with his efforts on the greens the rest of the year, it’s effective.

With that strange-looking instrument borrowed from his next-door neighbor, he made a 10-foot eagle putt and five birdies in round of 66 that got him through two trips over the famed No. 2 course at Pinehurst in 136, six under par.

While Azinger was keeping alive his chances of extending his five-year streak of winning at least one tournament a season, Davis Love III joined his fellow millionaires deep in the standings.

Love, who shared the first-round lead, bogeyed three of the last four holes, shot 76 and was tied at 144 with PGA champion Nick Price and John Cook.

Price and Cook, each the winner of more than $1 million this season, had second round 70s.

While they were tied for 19th in a field of only the top 30 money-winners of the season, they still remained in position to overtake Couples in some season-long races.

Couples, the Masters champion who came into this season-closing event as the leader in money-winnings, scoring average and at the top of the player-of-the-year standings, plummeted to the bottom of the pack.

He struggled to a 78 and two-round total of 151, by four shots the high score in the field.

With the $1-million winners scuffling around at the end of the field, some of the game’s lesser-publicized figures moved to the top. David Frost dropped a 30-foot putt for an eagle-three on the 16th, shot 68 and was second alone at 137.

Jay Haas holed out a 162-yard seven-iron shot for eagle-two in a 66 and was tied at 138 with Dan Forsman and John Huston. Forsman shot 67, Huston 68. Lee Janzen was alone at 139 after a 69 and was followed at 140 by Greg Norman, Tom Lehman and Craig Stadler.

Jim Albus, who has played more golf than any other player on the Senior PGA Tour this year, shot a six-under-par 65 for a one-stroke lead over George Archer and defending champion Jim Colbert in the $500,000 Kaanapali Classic on Maui in Hawaii. Seven players were at 67.

Albus, 52, a former club pro from Long Island, N.Y., has played every round of each official tournament this year, a feat unmatched by any other player. This is his 35th event.