Print this page  |  Close Window

Ken Duke, the 2006 Nationwide Tour Player of the Year, was in the second group off the first tee Saturday morning and posted a bogey-free, 6-under-par 64. Duke moved up from T58 to T5 and is five shots back of leader Luke Donald. Duke enjoyed a career-best finish last week with his T2 effort at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Ken Duke finished second last weekend in New Orleans. (Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

Saturday's low rounds at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship

Score Player(s) 64 Ken Duke, Michael Allen 65 Ian Poulter

Bogey-free rounds on Saturday

Score Player(s) 64 Ken Duke, Michael Allen 67 Jerry Kelly 68 Bo Van Pelt

Scoring averages this week

Day TPC Las Colinas Cottonwood Valley Thursday 71.419 71.479 Friday 70.373 70.724 Saturday 69.918 N/A

Michael Allen moved up the leaderboard with a 5-under-par 30 on the front nine and went on to shoot a 6-under 64. Allen has carded rounds of 69-69-64 and is in third place heading into the final round, two shots back of leader Luke Donald. Allen has never held a third-round lead in his PGA TOUR career and the highest he's ever been after 54 holes was at the 2004 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro, where he was tied for third and trailed co-leaders Brent Geiberger and Tom Lehman by one shot. Allen shot a 67 on the final day and finished second, two shots back of the winner -- Geiberger.

Allen posted a 6-under 64 today, making the first time all year that he has carded three consecutive sub-par scores. Allen has shot 69-69-64 and is alone in third place. Allen had made only four cuts in seven starts this year with his best finish a T28 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans last week. His previous best round of the year was a 6-under-par 66 in the opening round of the Buick Invitational. Allen's 64 is his best score since a 63 in the second round of the 2006 B. C. Open presented by Turning Stone Resort.

Allen will be trying to become the first Monday Qualifier to win on the PGA TOUR since Fred Wadsworth won the 1986 Southern Open. Allen needed a 25-foot birdie putt in a playoff to gain one of the four open qualifier spots for this event. Allen holds the record for earning a card (nine times) through the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament.

Maybe there's some connection between Vijay Singh in odd-numbered years at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. Singh finished T11 here in 2001, won the title in 2003 and tied for third in 2005. This year Singh is at it again, posting rounds of 69-67-69 205 and is tied for fifth. Singh has now posted par-or-better scores in 17 of his last 19 rounds at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship.

Phil Mickelson, winner of this event 11 years ago, moved into contention with a 4-under 66 to get to 5-under 205. Last year Mickelson shot a similar 205 score for the opening 54 holes and went on to tie for 14th.

Rookie Brendon de Jonge, a Virginia Tech grad, birdied four of his final six holes for a 1-under-par 69 and a 2-under-par 208 total.

Dallas-born Scott Verplank birdied the final hole Saturday for a 4-under 66 and is 9-under through 54 holes, one back of leader Luke Donald. This is Verplank's 21st start in this event, which ties him for 11th on the all-time list for most appearances. Lanny Wadkins and Tom Watson hold the record with 28 starts each in Dallas.

If you go by history, things don't bode well for too many of the players trailing leader Luke Donald. The biggest comebacks on the final day are just four shots -- Lanny Wadkins (1973), Bob Eastwood (1985) and John Cook (1998). Only four others have come from as many as three off the pace and won on the final day, the last being Jesper Parnevik in 2000. Heading into the final 18, only Scott Verplank, Michael Allen and Ian Poulter are within four shots of the leader.

The easiest hole of the day was the par-5, 16th which played to a scoring average of 4.397. There were three eagles, 41 birdies and 27 pars recorded on the hole. Only two players posted above-par scores on the 522-yard hole: Ben Crane, bogey-6; Marco Dawson, double-bogey-7.

Jerry Kelly is looking for his fourth consecutive top-10 finish this week. Kelly tied for ninth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, tied for fifth at the Masters and tied for eighth at the Verizon Heritage. Kelly has shot scores of 69-70-67-206 and is tied for 10th place heading into Sunday's final round.

Luke Donald continues his masterful play at this event. Donald shot a 67 giving him 11 straight rounds in the 60s in Dallas. Donald's streak ties the second-longest sub-par streak in tournament history. Phil Mickelson holds the mark of 13 in a row -- all four in 1996, 1997 and 1998 and the opening round of 1999. Robert Allenby and Raymond Floyd also has streaks of 11 in a row. Donald is making his sixth start in this tournament. After missing the cut in his initial appearance in 2002, Donald has finished T19, T14, T18 and T6 the past four years.

Both Robert Garrigus and Ian Poulter eagled the 332-yard, par-4 11th hole but they took different routes to do it. The big-hitting Garrigus blasted a driver over the water and rolled in a putt of 29-feet, 7-inches from just off the back edge of the green. Poulter, meantime, holed his second shot from 111 yards.

Shigeki Maruyama eagled the 378-yard opening hole when he holed his second shot from 118 yards.