Browne knows Fowler well

NEWPORT BEACH — First-round leader Bob Tway isn’t the only Champions Tour pro with ties to Rickie Fowler.

Olin Browne also knows the PGA Tour’s budding star quite well.

Browne’s daughter, Alexandra, is dating Fowler, according to pgatour.com. They met at last year’s Travelers Championship.

Browne is one stroke behind the lead and is tied with Fred Couples, Lonnie Nelson and Mike Goodes.

Tway shot a six-under-par 65 to share the lead with Mark Wiebe and Chien Soon Lu. Tway’s son, Kevin, plays for Oklahoma State, where he was a roommate of Folwer’s two years ago.

 Browne increased his string of holes without a three-putt to 112 on Friday. That is the best current streak on the Champions Tour.

 Bernhard Langer, the 2008 Classic champion, started Friday with a birdie, but finished with 17-straight pars.

“I just couldn’t make any putts today,” Langer said of his 30 total putts Friday. “I played solid today with many opportunities, but they didn’t go in.”

In last year’s Toshiba Classic, Langer had a similar issue with his putter.

Langer was in contention heading into the final nine holes of the tournament and had an opportunity to be the first Toshiba Classic champion to win back-to-back in the tournament’s history.

However, eventual-champion Eduardo Romero’s putter got white hot and made birdies in four out of the next six holes, and Langer’s cooled down en route to a two-over-par 73, and losing to Romero by four strokes.

“Well this course is known for poana greens and the ball starts bouncing a little bit in the afternoon,” Langer said, “so it makes it a little bit harder to hole putts, but it’s the same for everyone.”

The white-hot putter for Romero last year was a belly putter, but for the 2010 Toshiba Classic, he switched to a short putter after playing with it in the first two days of the pro-am.

“I used in the tournament so far and it’s fantastic,” Romero said of his bogey-free, four-under-par 67 with his new putter. “I feel much better, especially with the short putts. A lot of confidence.”

Romero trails two strokes behind Bob Tway and Mark Wiebe, and one behind Fred Couples and four others, but said he is exactly at where he wants to be.

“I played very, very safe today,” he said. “Two behind is perfect. That’s what I want.”

 Six golfers posted bogey-free rounds on Friday. They were Wiebe, Goodes, Nielsen, Romero, Langer and Tom Lehman.

  Hole No. 15 was the easiest on the course with an average of 4.400. There were four eagles and 45 birdies. The most difficult was No. 17 with an average of 3.400. The only players to make a birdie on the hole were Bruce Fleisher and Fred Funk.

Hole No. 15 has been the easiest in this event in all 14 previous tournaments at the Newport Beach Country Club.