You'll have to excuse Daniel DeLeon as he gets a bit queasy around the occasional sand trap.
DeLeon, who is tied for the lead after 36 holes at the MTS Classic, broke his right wrist last spring on a shot from a fairway bunker during the Puerto Rico Open.
"The ball was a foot away from the lip and I was trying to lay up on a par-5 so I took a five-iron and tried to hit it as far as I could," said DeLeon. "The club didn't clear the lip and it got stuck right in it. There goes your season. It was so frustrating."
UNABLE TO SWING
The injury limited DeLeon to just two tournaments in 2004 and he was unable to swing a golf club for roughly eight months.
"I just played two events last year, but it feels 100% right now," said DeLeon. "It's taken a lot of patience, lots of rehab and stuff. I've been working on my short game a lot. Getting confidence to hit solid shots and taking a divot was tough. It took a lot of time to get used to it but I can go deep now. We're back and I think we're on the right track."
PRAISE FOR WIE: Although Michelle Wie slipped late yesterday and missed the cut at the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic in Illinois, the promising amateur earned high praise for her performance from Rob McMillan.
"She doesn't look like a 15-year-old girl," said McMillan, who hit balls on the practice range beside Wie a couple years back in Boise, Idaho when he was playing on the Nationwide Tour. "She's about 6-feet, all arms and legs. It's an absolute perfect build of a body for a golfer."
"And she hits it. It's not like she bats it down the fairway, she's long. I don't think she would feel like she's at a big disadvantage at the John Deere Classic. She's just a phenom really. I thought I was pretty good at 15 when I could almost make the cut at the Manitoba Open, never mind playing in a PGA Tour tournament."
HOLING OUT: The first hole-in-one of the tournament belongs to Michael Beard of Palm Desert, Calif.
Beard, who is tied for 43rd after shooting 68 yesterday to leave him at 3-over 145, holed a seven iron on the 173-yard, par-3 16th hole.
