How hard is the course? Just as hard as it should be

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TPC Sawgrass played hard and fast Saturday, vexing even the game's best players.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Stephen Ames wishes he could say he thinned that wedge to the 10th hole. But he didn't.

Hit it perfect, in fact. Landed 5 feet from the pin and, well ... you know the rest. It pretty much left skidmarks all the way off the green.

"A 136-yard wedge?" he said, shaking his head and laughing. Well, what else could he do? Cry?

Tears might help the greens here at the Stadium Course. With one round to go in the 2009 edition of THE PLAYERS Championship, the putting surfaces are getting dry, crusty and running awfully fast.

"The shots just weren't holding,'' said Tiger Woods, who shot 70. "Before, yeah, they were fast, but they weren't as springy as this. They're not putting a whole lot of the water on of these greens.''

Added Tim Clark, "It's tough to get the speed on the greens."

And when that happens? Well, fold that into unseasonably hot weather -- the 90s are 10 degrees above the seasonal norm -- and microwave breezes and ... Let's just say those earlier rounds of 65s and 66s were nowhere to be found.

Low third round? Two 68s: from Kenny Perry and Woody Austin. A few 69s.

How much harder was the course Saturday? Six shots, said Justin Leonard. "I shot 69 yesterday, 75 today."

Yes, the fairways were running firmer, too -- the way they'd like them -- but the temperatures and wind basically negated the rainfall Wednesday night and, as some players said, have made the greens vulnernable.

"I think they let them go a bit,'' said Ames, who won here in 2006. "I don't think they expected it to be this hot. I think they miscalculated the watering.''

The 18th hole was tricky, too, said Mark Wilson. "It's nearly impossible to get within 25 feet for the pin,'' he said.

Both Austin and Perry played relatively early in the day -- Austin in the fourth group; Perry in the 11th. But by the time the contenders hit the course -- think group 25 and up -- the greens were quicker than quick.

"If Tiger Woods can't control a ball around the hole,'' said Daniel Chopra, who played with Tiger and shot 72 to his 70, "they need to be careful and not go stupid on us. This golf course is hard enough as it is.''

Boo Weekley just shook his head and put the blame for his 73 on himself. "It was tougher,'' he said, "but I just missed a lot of putts I should have made.''

The wind was a factor, too. As Chopra pointed out, the flag by the clubhouse whipped the same direction all day. But when players got down to the corner by 12 and 13, it was hard to read.

"It was downwind one minute, into it another,'' Chopra said.''

The greens aren't gone. They're nowhere close to the insanity we saw at Shinnecock Hills at the 2004 U.S. Open, where balls couldn't stay on certain greens. And it won't get to that point. The greens here are state of the art, so even if they put too much water on them Saturday night, they'll be able to correct it.

But don't count on the former.

"This is their golf course,'' Weekley said. "We just play it.''

Hard, fast and slick is the way the powers that be want this course and ... they've got it.

And the players will be ready. They know what to expect.

"(We expect it to be) A bit like that cart path,'' Goosen said. "So we'll practice our chipping on the cart path tonight.''