GOLF Sluman finds mate with driving ability

The team of Jeff Sluman and Hank Kuehne leads the Templeton Shootout.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NAPLES, Fla. -- Jeff Sluman was eager to join up with Hank Kuehne. The chance to play a team format with the tour's longest driver was too good to pass up.
Sluman and Kuehne made the most of it Friday, shooting a 7-under-par 65 to take the lead after the first round of the Franklin Templeton Shootout.
This is the 15th year for the tournament, started and hosted by Greg Norman. It's the oldest offseason event besides The Skins Game.
"I tried to get it in play and then he could turn the driver loose and then I had a much shorter iron in," Sluman said of the first-round alternate-shot format.
"Just the way Hank plays, [you see] much different areas of the golf course that really nobody on tour is going to see," he said.
Kuehne set a record with his driving distance average of 321.4 yards, snapping John Daly's eight-year run.
"Sometimes I can hit it further than anybody else, but I can also hit a lot further off-line than anybody else sometimes," said Kuehne, who had never played with Sluman. "For the most part, I felt like I drove the ball extremely well.
"I was able to put us in the fairway on the par-5s and put us in the fairway on some of the longer par-4s. Jeff was able to hit some clubs in there that were scoring clubs on some of those holes."
The teams will play better ball today and a scramble on Sunday. The winners split $550,000 from the $2.4 million purse.
World Cup
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. -- South Africa's Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabbatini combined to shoot a 3-under-par 69 Friday to take a two-stroke lead after the second round of the World Cup.
Immelman and Sabbatini were at 5 under, two strokes ahead of Americans Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard and the French team of Thomas Levet and Raphael Jacquelin.
Furyk and Leonard shot a 70 on The Ocean Course for a 3 under total, while Levet and Jacquelin carded a par 72.
There were only three sub-par rounds in the alternate stroke round of the World Golf Championships event on a clear, cool day. The breeze was light, unlike Thursday when strong gusts buffeted the 7,296-yard, oceanfront Pete Dye layout.