Labritz has 5-shot lead in State Open

If Rob Labritz stopped to think about how hard it is to go 9 under par at any point in any tournament on Bethpage Black, he would realize how implausible it is. So he decided to just play, and not think. And he reached 9 under par.

"I'm just picking my line and going, I'm trying to get things going really fast," Labritz said after the second round of the New York State Open wednesday, snapping his fingers to accentuate his point. "On this kind of golf course, which can get into your brain so fast, if you don't let it get in there, you can just play."

Labritz amazed the rest of the field for making it look like a snap, shooting 4-under par 67 after his first round 66, even though the Black kept getting firmer, faster and tougher as the day went along. As other players came in to sign their scorecards, they looked at the scoreboard and said, "Labritz . . . wow."

The director of golf at GlenArbor Golf Club in Westchester is in rare and perhaps uncharted ground. Longtime Bethpage players and officials could not recall when anyone had been 9 under during a tournament on the Black. Ricky Barnes was 8 under through two rounds of the 2009 U.S. Open, when par was 70, instead of 71.

Labritz, the 2008 State Open champion, played about as well as anyone can play. He will enter the final round Thursday with a five-stroke lead over Matt Dobyns, the Deepdale assistant pro who shot 72 and is 4 under. Only six of 144 golfers broke par through two rounds.

"The Black started to play like the Black, a little firm on the greens," said Dobyns, the 2011 Long Island Open champion. "And I didn't adjust to the changing conditions until I had given three shots back."

Dobyns, having started on the back nine, made two birdies on his final two holes. "The conditions were normal, I just didn't adjust to them," he said, adding that he noticed how well Labritz was playing two groups behind him.

"Around the greens is where you really have to focus," Labritz said, proud that he had no three-putts in his seven-birdie, three-bogey round.

He knows, though, that the Black can strike anybody, any time. He missed the State Open cut last year, weeks before he left for Whistling Straits and became low club pro at the PGA Championship. "Every time you step out here, whether you're going good or bad," Labritz said, "you just like being out here."