The Live Report, Round 3: Northern Trust Open
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By PGATOUR.COM Staff
BEHIND THE SCENES ON MICKELSON (6:30 p.m.): Butch Harmon had just gotten back from vacation. When Phil Mickelson called him from the scorer's tent on Friday after a round of 73, though, Harmon was more than willing to hop another plane.
"As soon as I signed the card, I called to see if he was available," Mickelson said. "Fortunately, he was, and I appreciate his wife letting him go."
The two worked together twice Saturday morning before Mickelson teed off at 9:49 a.m. with Harmon standing nearby talking to a reporter. And voila -- the defending champion fired a 9-under 62 that gave him a four-stroke advantage entering the final round of the Northern Trust Open.
"I hit the ball well, the best I've hit in a couple of months," Mickelson said after breaking 70 for just the second time this year. "I didn't have a lot of confidence heading into the round. ... I saw (Dave) Pelz earlier in the week and my putting felt great and I felt if I could be patient in this round and try to use all 18 holes, I thought I could shoot 5-, 6-, 7- , 8-under par. I thought could I get a good round.
"But I didn't want to be pressing just because I knew I was starting to play better. I was patient throughout the round and ended up taking advantage of some opportunities."
In addition, after Friday's second round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am last week, Mickelson had gone back to the irons he was using in 2008 in an attempt to eliminate some variables. The only difference in the two sets of irons was the shafts.
"It wasn't the shafts," Mickelson said. "I was just swinging so poorly, I have to go back to what I was using before to eliminate any other possibilities, and then I know it's the golf swing." -- Helen Ross
Here's a look at Mickelson's scorecard:
CALC'S FLAT STICK (6:00 p.m.): Calcavecchia is wielding a new putter this week. Notoriously finicky with the flat stick, he brought two with him to Pebble Beach, but neither made it to the competition. He got a new one at the PING trailer on Wednesday but that one, too, was cut.
"Then I decided on the way back from the practice round Wednesday, I was just going to grab a putter out of the PING bag and whatever I grabbed, that's what I was going to use," Calcavecchia said. "Didn't even know what it was going to be.
"I told Matt Rollins, give me a putter, I don't even care. How about this one? Perfect. Slipped a grip on it, didn't even putt with it and put it right in the bag Thursday. It's still there." -- Helen Ross
BREAKING DOWN PHIL'S 62 (5:30 p.m.): Not only was Phil Mickelson's 62 on Saturday the lowest round of his 2009 season, it was his lowest score since an opening-round 62 at the 2005 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
Saturday, he hit 71 percent of his fairways and 89 percent of his greens. That's a lethal combination when you're talking about a player of Mickelson's ability. As a result, he had a 10-shot swing from Friday's round and needed just 26 putts and was just one off a back-nine course record with a 30 that featured six birdies in an eight-hole stretch.
With a commanding lead heading to Sunday, Mickelson is now in position to win for the second straight year here. -- Brian Wacker
PHIL DOMINATING PAR 5s (5:15 p.m.): Here's a major difference betwen Phil Mickelson now and him at the beginning of the season: He's back to dominating the par 5s.
In his first two tournaments -- the FBR Open and the Buick Invitational -- he played the par 5s in a combined 2 under (1 under for the week at each tournament). At the rain-shortened AT&T Pebble Beach National Paro-Am, he seemed to right the ship, playing the par 5s in a combined 7 under. That included making a birdie on the par-5 18th at Pebble Beach to make the cut on the number.
This week, it's been more of the same. As Mickelson wraps up his third round, he's played the par 5s at Riviera in 9 under. That's how you win golf tournaments. -- Brian Wacker
CAPTAIN FREDDY (4:50 p.m.): As we prepare to leave California, my mind can't help but look forward to our return trip here this fall. The Presidents Cup will be held at Harding Park in San Francisco and Freddy Couples will take the helm for the American squad. Watching Freddy make his way around another venerable venue here at Riviera, two words came creeping into my mind: playing captain.
Obviously I am getting well ahead of myself. Freddy has said that he will make his Champions Tour debut following his Presidents Cup duties. But there is a chance that he could play his way on to his own team. A win here at Riviera would be a huge step in that direction. However, he will have to go through one of the players that will undoubtedly don the red, white and blue in Phil Mickelson. -- John Maginnes
INSIDE THE NUMBERS (4:20 p.m.): One reason why Phil Mickelson has been able to stick around at the top of the leaderboard today? Not only has he ironed out his putting issues, but he's hitting better than 80 percent of his greens today. Ditto Mark Calcavecchia. As for Fred Couples, he currently has the longest drive of the day at 360 yards. -- Brian Wacker
FAMILIAR SURROUNDINGS (4:00 p.m.): The adage "horses for courses" is certainly holding true at Riviera this week. There are four former champions among the top five players on the leaderboard.
Mark Calcavecchia won in 1989, Fred Couples won in 1990 and '92, Rory Sabbatini in 2006 and Phil Mickelson last year . And Robert Allenby, who is tied for seventh, captured the title in 2001. -- Helen Ross
CHINK IN THE ARMOUR (3:45 p.m.): Tommy Armour III began the day in a tie for second at 8 under, but has since tumbled down the leaderboard thanks to a quadruple-bogey 8 on the eighth hole.
After hitting his second shot just short and right of the green, Armour struggled to get the ball to stay on the green from the thick rough. After five swings, he finally got it on before sinking a 22-footer for a one-putt snowman.
That Armour was in contention in the first place might have been a little bit of smoke and mirrors anyway. Through the first two rounds, he putted better than he has all season and he did an incredible job of scrambling ... just not on No. 8 Saturday. -- Brian Wacker
| Tommy Armour III: This week vs. YTD vs. The field | ||||||||||||||||
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COUPLES IN CONTENTION (3:30 p.m.): In case you were wondering, Fred Couples, who currently owns a share of the lead at 11 under, last held the 54-hole lead in an event at the 2005 Memorial.
Couples finished one back of winner Bart Bryant that year. Ironically, that's also the same year Couples played a critical role on a victorious U.S. Presidents Cup team. -- Brian Wacker
CALC ON THC CLIMB (3:10 p.m.): Mark Calcavecchia is doing a pretty good job of backing up his T4 at Pebble Beach last week. After nearly driving the green on the 315-yard, par-4 10th hole to begin his day, Calcavecchia chipped in for eagle. Since then, he's added five birdies and just two bogeys to get to 8 under for the week and within three of the lead.
After missing the cut in his first two events this season, Calcavecchia is looking for his first back-to-back top-10 finishes since the beginnnig of 2007 when he was T8 at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and T4 at the Buick Invitational. If he can finish in the top 5, it would be the first time he accomplished that feat in back-to-back weeks since 1998 when he won the Honda Classic then followed with a T4 at Bay Hill and a fourth-place finish at THE PLAYERS Championship. -- Brian Wacker
STRICKER, JOHNSON SHOWDOWN (2:55 p.m.): Steve Stricker spoke glowingly of the game's No. 1 player when Tiger Woods announced Thursday that he would play in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship. Woods' decision had one very personal ramification for Stricker, though.
"I really didn't want him to come back, though, because now I think I've got to play Dustin Johnson and that guy's playing good," Stricker said at the time.
Stricker may be seeing Johnson, who won the rain-shortened AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am by four shots on Monday, sooner than he thinks. Stricker is currently 10 under, while Johnson is one stroke behind. Could a possible Sunday date at Riviera be on the horizon? -- Helen Ross
PLAYOFF BOUND? (2:43 p.m.): We've got a long way to go before talking about a possible playoff at the Northern Trust Open, but with four players currently tied atop the leaderboard at 10 under, now seemed as good a time as any to examine the topic. Not to mention that in every odd year since 2003, this tournament has been decided in sudden death. With Phil Mickelson's regulation win last season, if history is any indication, we could be headed for extra holes this year.
The last time we had a playoff here was in 2007 when Charles Howell III rallied from three shots back on the final day and beat Mickelson with a par-3 on the third extra hole.
In 2005, Adam Scott held off Chad Campbell in an odd Monday morning playoff. Unable to complete the final two rounds because of bad weather, the two played sudden death with Scott prevailing on the first extra hole for an unofficial victory.
In 2003, Mike Weir shot a final-round 66, then birdied the second playoff hole to beat Howell and complete a seven-stroke comeback on the final day. -- Brian Wacker
ALLENBY IN CONTENTION (2:25 p.m.): Robert Allenby hasn't won on the PGA TOUR since 2001, which seems a little odd considering he's coming off a 2008 season in which he posted career-best numbers in money-list finish (No. 11), earnings ($3,606,700), cuts made (27), top-10 finishes (9) and top-25 finishes (17). Or maybe that was just a momentum-builder for this year.
Allenby, who is making his PGA TOUR season debut this week, birdied every other hole on the front nine today, including the difficult par-4 second, on his way to a 31 that moved him to 9 under for the week here at Riviera and just one shot back of the leaders.
Success at Riviera is no stranger to the 37-year-old Aussie, however. He won this tournament in 2001 and finished in the top seven in three of the last four years. -- Brian Wacker
| Robert Allenby at the Nissan Open since 2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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LOOKING AHEAD (2:09 p.m.): Now that Tiger Woods has announced his intention to play, the very real possibility exists that the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship will feature the top 64 players in the world for the first time in it's 11-year history.
Two of the three players tied for the lead at the Northern Trust Open -- Steve Stricker and Scott McCarron -- have reached the 38-hole final of the Accenture Match Play Championship. Stricker beat Pierre Fulke 2 and 1 in 2001while Kevin Sutherland nipped McCarron 1 up the following year. -- Helen Ross
CAPTAIN COUPLES (1:57 p.m.): Lead The Presidents Cup team as the American squad's captain? Check.
Turn 50 and join the Champions Tour? Check.
Win for the 16th time on the PGA TOUR? Maybe.
Fred Couples has a busy year ahead with the first two milestones, but he could make it even more interesting this week with a victory. Though he still has 30 holes to play before he can win the Northern Trust Open, Couples is currently fourth, just one off the lead thanks to a 4-under start through his first seven holes. Couples won here in 1990 and '92 and he also has three runner-up finishes.
So here's the big question -- if Couples were to win, could he play his way onto his own Presidents Cup team? Couples is currently 91st in the U.S. standings, but if he were to win this week, he'd move to 19th on the list based on the current points totals. The top 10 players in the standings earn an automatic spot.
The Presidents Cup will be played Oct. 5-11 at Harding Park Golf Club in San Francisco. Couples' International counterpart, Greg Norman, didn't fare as well this week. The 54-year-old Shark shot 75-71 and missed the cut at the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth. -- Helen Ross and Lauren Deason
MICKELSON MAKES EAGLE (1:50 p.m.): For the second straight day, Phil Mickelson began his round with an eagle at the 503-yard, par-5 first hole.
Mickelson's 305-yard drive down the middle of the fairway left him just 209 yards from the hole. His second shot landed 12 feet from the cup and he made the putt. As a result, he moved to 9 under and within one of the lead, currently held by Scott McCarron and Steve Stricker.
Stricker, by the way, also eagled the first hole. Stricker had almost an identical distance to the hole as Mickelson, except he hit his second into the rough right of the green and then chipped in from 40 feet away. -- Brian Wacker
UNUSUAL START (1:40 p.m.): It is not uncommon for a par 5 to play as the easiest hole of the week in a PGA TOUR event. It is also fairly normal that a long par 4 is the hardest. At Riviera so far this week, that's held true with the 503-yard, par-5 first playing the easiest and the 463-yard, par-4 second playing the toughest through two rounds.
What makes this situation unusual isn't that these two holes are back to back to start the round. What makes this situation unusual is that the stroke average on the second is actually higher than it is on the first -- No. 1 has a stroke average of 4.262, while No. 2 is playing to a stroke average of 4.277. In other words, it is easier to make birdie at the first than it is to make par at the second.
Also, there have been almost as many birdies on No. 2 as there have been eagles at No. 1.
What does this mean for the players? If you can get through the first two holes in 8 shots, you are going to be ahead of the game. -- John Maginnes
STRICKER HITTING IT STRAIGHT (1:25 p.m.): We won't know if Steve Stricker has truly put his final-round collapse at the 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer behind him until he's in contention on Sunday, but if the first two rounds here are any indication, Stricker should be just fine.
One of the reasons why he's climbed to the top of the leaderboard -- he's currently 10 under for the week after a 2-under start today -- has been his accuracy. He's third in the field for proximity to the hole and has been especially good from 175-200 yards. -- Brian Wacker
| Steve Stricker: This week vs. YTD vs. The field | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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FOCUS ON THE FLATSTICK (1:05 p.m. ET): Why's Scott McCarron in the lead after two rounds? It probably has something to do with his putting. He only needed 47 putts on Thursday and Friday, including just 21 yesterday, which matches his career best.
It's not the first time he's putted well at Riviera, though. Last year, McCarron only needed 48 putts through two rounds. -- Lauren Deason
| Career Low Putting Rounds - McCarron | ||||||||||||||||||||
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A NEW HOME (12:48 p.m.): While the PGA TOUR is playing at Riviera CC for the 45th year, the Champions Tour is competing at TPC Treviso Bay for the first time this season. So how have the players fared with one round under their belts on a new venue?
If the first-round scoring average is any indication, the new course took a little getting used to by the 50-and-over crowd. The field scoring average for the first official round of competition at TPC Treviso Bay was 74.244.
Last year at Quail West, the field averaged 70.696 on Friday. Only four players were in the 60s on Friday, compared to 33 sub-70 scores in the opening round of last year's event.
So far, though, the scores are lower in the second round. Mark Wiebe is 2 under on the front nine, while Brad Bryant is 3 under through 13 holes.
Hal Sutton, who served as player consultant on TPC Treviso Bay, is tied for 53rd. -- Lauren Deason
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