Pettersson's double trouble

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The name is Pettersson – as in double-t, double-s and, during one particularly challenging hole, a double fairway.

Carl Pettersson is from Sweden, by way of Greensboro and N.C. State. For a while Friday, he was as hot as any player at the Wachovia Championship. Then a large oak to the left of the 11th fairway caused Pettersson to double-bogey.

It could have been far worse, if not for Pettersson's creativity. His ball bounced so far into the woods that launching his next shot back into the 11th fairway seemed foolhardy. So instead he aimed toward the tee box on No. 12 before sending the ball back toward the No. 11 green to survive with a double-bogey.

That hole dropped him from 6-under to 4-under, and he finished the day 3-under for the tournament. That leaves him in a tie for seventh with several other players and in the hunt, three behind the leaders.

Swedish by birth and Wolfpack by conversion, Pettersson's father, an executive with Volvo's truck division, was transferred to Greensboro when Pettersson was a teenager. He starred at Grimsley High before heading to N.C. State. He still calls Raleigh home.

The back nine of Pettersson's round Friday was a continuous escape from danger. He landed a drive next to a 10-foot-high bush, spent several minutes wondering whether to try blasting through the foliage, then finally hit a ball crossways into the fairway to eventually save par.

Then on No. 17 – a water-and-sand hazard par-3 – he dropped the ball into bunker. A blast out of the sand got him up on the green, where he nailed a 10-footer for a par.

Provider:
Knight-Ridder / Tribune Business News / Charlotte Observer, The (NC)