Third Round: Starry shootout on tap for Labor Day
NORTON, Mass. (AP) -- Mike Weir holed a 5-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole for a 4-under 67 to take a one-stroke lead Sunday in the Deutsche Bank Championship, leaving him in a familiar position with hopes of a better outcome.
It was the 10th time the Canadian has had at least a share of the 54-hole lead on the PGA TOUR, but he has only one victory when leading going into the final round.
Protecting this one might be the toughest yet.
Camilo Villegas ignored the swirling wind and increasingly firm conditions at TPC Boston to shoot 63, putting him in the final group with Weir for perhaps his best chance at his first PGA TOUR victory.
Three shots behind were Sergio Garcia (68) and Vijay Singh (69), part of the playoff last week at The Barclays that Singh won to move atop the standings in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedEx Cup.
And right behind them were Jim Furyk, looking for his first victory in an otherwise solid year, Ernie Els and Ben Crane, whose 63 came during the morning before the wind hit full strength.
"I've got my hands full,'' said Weir, who was at 17-under 196.
Ten players were separated by five shots going into the Labor Day finish, the kind of shootout the Deutsche Bank Championship always seems to produce.
Tiger Woods isn't around to take part in this one, and neither is defending champion Phil Mickelson. He played an ordinary round of 1-over 72 and missed the 54-hole cut, leaving questions about whether he will play next week in St. Louis in the third round of the Playoffs.
Weir has been around the week since opening with a 61, but he was equally pleased with a 67 considering he struggled to find fairways and hit only half the greens. But he got moving in the right direction with a 7-iron that stopped just under 3 feet away on the 14th, one of only eight birdies on the day.
Conditions were much more difficult, but Villegas and Crane sure didn't take notice.
"I thought a 66 or a 65 would be a great round,'' Garcia said. "I didn't see a 63.''
Villegas relied on a tip from Singh -- the power of positive thinking. Neither is regarded as a wizard with the putter, but Singh won last week at The Barclays after saying he would stop paying attention to negative comments about his short game and believe he was among the best.
"Starting this year, I decided to tell myself something similar to what Vijay told himself last week, that I'm a great putter and that I'm a lot better than people think and people write,'' Villegas said. "So today was a good reflection. And if you look at my putting stats for the year, I'm one of the great putters on TOUR.''
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| Sunday's Best |
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The par-5, 528-yard 18th was the easiest with a Sunday scoring average of 4.453.
The par-4, 466-yard fifth was the toughest with a Sunday scoring average of 4.314.
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Despite a 1-over 72 on Sunday, Brandt Snedeker recorded the day's best shot. The Nashville native chipped in for eagle on the fourth hole.
Two players -- Camilo Villegas and Ben Crane -- recorded 8-under 63s on Sunday, but Villegas' gets the nod because he played later in the day.
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SINGH, SERGIO SET TO DUEL AGAIN
By T.J. Auclair, PGATOUR.COM Interactive Producer
Sergio Garcia and Vijay Singh have been making nice with the tops of leaderboards all over the PGA TOUR lately.
Singh, currently No. 1 in the standings for the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, took a little longer to turn it on then most expected. In his last four starts, though, the big Fijian has two wins -- the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and the Playoffs opener at The Barclays just last week.
Garcia, on the other hand, had his big win earlier this year at THE PLAYERS Championship and has been consistent ever since. He was second to Padraig Harrrington in the PGA Championship and lost to Singh in a playoff last week at The Barclays in his next start.
It's a new week, but it's been more of the same here at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second leg of the Playoffs, for two of the TOUR's biggest international stars. Garcia will get another crack at Singh in Monday's final round at TPC Boston, as the two will be paired together in the second-to-last group at 1:30 p.m. ET.
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VILLEGAS ON VERGE OF BREAKTHROUGH
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
NORTON, Mass. -- Camilo Villegas listened with great interest last week when Vijay Singh talked about how he had convinced himself he was the best putter in the world.
After all, Singh had just won The Barclays, earning his second victory in three starts. Turns out Villegas made a similar attitude adjustment earlier this year, and he'd like nothing better than for it to pay off like Singh's did with a win at the Deustche Bank Championship on Monday.
Villegas put himself in position for the first victory of his PGA TOUR career when he fired a 63 at TPC Boston to move within a stroke of the leader, Mike Weir, at 16 under. And he did it with a red-hot putter -- taking just 22, to be exact -- in the second event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.
"You get the media here that talks, oh, he's not a great putter and then somebody tells him he's not a great putter and then all of a sudden it just gets in your head," Villegas explained. "(Vijay) decided to tell himself that he's the best putter in the world, and this worked last week.
"Starting this year I decided to tell myself something similar to what Vijay told himself last week, that I'm a great putter and that I'm a lot better than people think and people write."
Villegas certainly grabbed the headlines on Sunday. His 63 matched the one Ben Crane shot earlier in the day, but it came on a course that was firming up considerably on a windy afternoon. He made birdie putts of 15, 3, 3, 20, 12, 12, 3 and 10 feet and didn't drop a shot to par.
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THE HAVES VS. THE HAVE-NOTS
By Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.COM Managing Editor
NORTON, Mass. -- Take the top 10 guys on the leaderboard going into Monday's final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship. Now see if you can divide them into three distinct categories.
It's actually pretty easy.
Major winners: Mike Weir, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Jim Furyk. Combined, they've won two Masters, three U.S. Opens, one Open Championship and two PGA Championships. That's a Grand Slam for that foursome.
Multiple PGA TOUR winners: Sergio Garcia, Heath Slocum and Ben Crane. Combined, they've won 11 TOUR events, the last one being Garcia's win in May at THE PLAYERS Championship.
Still searching for first TOUR win: Camilo Villegas, Briny Baird and Tim Clark. Combined, they've won $25,844,751 on TOUR ... but no trophies.
If there's ever a case of the haves vs. the have-nots going into a final round, this would be it.
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CONSISTENCY DEFINES EUROPEAN RYDER CUP TEAM
By T.J. Auclair, PGATOUR.COM Interactive Producer
The European Ryder Cup team was finalized on Sunday, and, by the looks of things, it will be an uphill battle for the United States team at Valhalla Golf Club in three weeks if it's going to avoid its fourth consecutive loss in the biennial matches.
The points for Captain Nick Faldo's European side closed Sunday after the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles in Scotland, and shortly after, Faldo made his two captain's selections.
Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Soren Hansen and Oliver Wilson all qualified for the team based on points, while Faldo used his two wild-card picks on Paul Casey and Ian Poulter.
"I've been watching these guys throughout the summer," Faldo said of his two picks Poulter and Casey in a press conference at Gleneagles in Scotland. "Ian is obviously a very determined guy, and I love his attitude. The back nine he played at the Open Championship he played with the intention to win. He had that emotional feeling. Rather than just finishing second, he felt he was playing to win the Open Championship.
"I've also been watching Paul a lot with my role now in television," he said. "I was kind of waiting for the putting to turn around, and the last few weeks he's been very close to being No. 1 in putting average. He's also a former World Match-Play Champion and has a fairly good record in past Ryder Cups and Walker Cups going way back. I feel very good about those two picks."
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INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
XM Radio announcer Brian Katrek offers these observations from Sunday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
The course was buzzing over Nick Faldo's Ryder Cup Captain's Picks. It was a tough decision to make, and you could hardly go wrong with any two of the big three that it came down to. The big three were Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Darren Clarke. Faldo gave good reasons for his picks of Poulter and Casey, but he didn't give any reason at all as to why he left Clarke off the team. I wonder if we can get Clarke a United States Passport in the next couple of weeks...
Some of the talk here in Boston this week has been about the preparation of Valhalla for the upcoming Ryder Cup. Those who have seen it recently are reporting a distinct lack of rough. Could this be a foreshadowing of who Paul Azinger might pick on Tuesday? Maybe this gives bombers like J.B. Holmes and Bubba Watson hope that they will get picked...
Vijay Singh said after the second round that he wanted this golf course to play a little tougher. He got his wish. The Sunday sun and wind dried things out and the course was completely different than it was earlier in the week. Vijay has also taken to calling himself the best putter in the world. While the numbers probably don't back that up, I like his attitude.
| 1 | The number of rounds at 80 or over recorded on Sunday. It was a 9-over 80 by Eric Axley. |
| T2 | Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia's rank this week for greens in regulation. |
| 7 | The number of eagles made on the 18th hole during the third round |
STATS AND FACTS, AUG. 31, 2008
Compiled by Elias Sports Bureau, Inc.
• Mike Weir has birdied both the 15th and 18th holes at TPC Boston in each of the first three rounds. It's the first time this season that Weir has birdied more than one hole in each of the first three rounds of a PGA TOUR event. Since the 2001 season and except for 2005, Weir has had at least one event each season where he has done this, including 2006 when he did it in four different tournaments.
• Through 54 holes of The Deutsche Bank Championship this week, Camilo Villegas has played the back nine at TPC Boston to a cumulative score of 11 under-par. For Villegas, this is his lowest cumulative score in relation to par on either the front or back nine through three rounds of a PGA TOUR event. This week's total eclipses Villegas' previous high of 9 under-par, occurring on both the front nine of the 2006 FBR Open and the back nine of the 2004 B.C. Open.
• Villegas opened The Deutsche Bank Championship on Friday by recording three holes over-par, including a six on the par-5 7th hole at TPC Boston. But over the next two rounds, Villegas has recorded just one hole over-par. The one hole over-par total in rounds two and three of a PGA TOUR event is the lowest of Villegas's TOUR career. His previous low was two, coming in rounds two and three of the 2006 Chrysler Classic of Tucson.
• Sergio Garcia is finding the green in-regulation 84 percent of the time and is scrambling successfully on his missed greens an impressive rate of 85 percent after 54 holes of The Deutsche Bank Championship. This is the first time in Garcia's PGA TOUR career that he has posted numbers this good in both categories after three rounds of a TOUR event. Garcia is just the sixth player on TOUR this season to post number such as these through three rounds.
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• Ben Crane made his move on moving day at The Deutsche Bank Championship today, shooting an eight under-par 63 to vault from 45th to 5th place on the leader board. The 40 spot jump in the third round of a PGA TOUR event that landed him in the top five is the largest such jump in Crane's TOUR career. At The Deutsche Bank Championship, only John Rollins in 2005 had a jump larger than Crane's today. That year Rollins started the third round in 56th place, but an eight under-par 63 vaulted Rollins into a tie atop the leaderboard heading into the final round.
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| Mike Weir's 17-under-par 196 (61-68-67) breaks the previous lowest 54-hole score at the Deutsche Bank Championship held by Adam Scott when he fired opening rounds of 69-62-67 198 in 2003. Weirs 54-hole lead of 17-under 196 is the fourth lowest (in relation to par) of the year. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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THINGS TO LOOK FOR MONDAY
1. Camilo Villegas. The only thing missing on the resume of this young PGA TOUR star is a win. He needed a good week at TPC Boston to solidify his spot in the field for next week's BMW Championship and so far, he's doing just that. He's come close to winning many times, so perhaps he has just the experience he needs to reel in win No. 1 on Monday.
2. The Sergio Garcia/Vijay Singh pairing. It's a good thing they're friends, otherwise they might be sick of one another. Singh defeated Garcia and Kevin Sutherland in a two-hole playoff at The Barclays last week and the trio played the first two rounds together this week at the Deutsche Bank Championship. On Monday, it's just Garcia and Singh, each with another chance to win.
3. Higher scores. TPC Boston was defenseless over the first two rounds because there was hardly any wind to speak of. That has changed with the exception of the 63s fired by Villegas and Crane on Sunday. Don't be surprised to see any of the scores under 66.
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