Notebook: Travelers Championship, Round 3

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BRIDGEPORT, W. Va. -- Eighty players made the cut at 3 under, the lowest cut of the 2009 season and the lowest since the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (6 under). Since more than 78 players made the cut, a second cut was made to reduce the field to 70 players and ties following the third round, leaving 72 (three players tied at 70) players to return on Sunday for the fourth round. Players eliminated will receive their appropriate share of the official prize money in accordance with their respective positions.

• Paul Goydos' third-round 63 is his lowest career round at the Travelers Championship. For his career, Goydos has twice shot 62, most recently at the 2008 Frys.com Open.

RELATED LINKS

Leaderboard: Rd. 3 scores
Final-round tee times
The Live Report: Round 3
Scorecard: Paul Goydos
Daily Wrap-up: Round 3

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Mahan shoots 63
Round 3 highlights
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Goydos needed just nine putts on the back nine with birdies on holes 11, 13-16. Goydos had 23 putts in the third-round.

• Including his win at the 2008 Memorial, Kenny Perry has won five times since June 1, 2008, the most of any player during that time span. In that time, he's made 26 consecutive cuts and has 11 top-10 finishes. The last time Perry missed a cut was the 2008 Sony Open in Hawaii. He withdrew from the 2008 PGA Championship.

• Despite Perry's success in 2009, this is the second time this year that he has opened a tournament with three consecutive rounds in the 60s. The other was the Sony Open in Hawaii where he shot 74 on the final day and tied for 59th.

• Casey Wittenberg fired a 5-under 65 in the third-round and is tied for fourth entering the final round. Wittenberg's previous best standing after 54 holes was fifth at the 2008 Viking Classic.

• Perry is competing in his 21st Travelers Championship. His best finish being is a tie for fourth, which he earned in 2003. He has not missed a cut since 1999.

• At 14 under, David Toms is two-strokes off the lead and is looking for his first win and/or his seventh top-10 finish of the 2009 season after having just one top-10 finish in all of 2008. A top-10 this week would put Toms in a tie with Tiger Woods with the season's most top-10 finishes. Toms has two runner-up finishes this year coming at the Sony Open in Hawaii and the St. Jude Classic presented by FedEx.

• Goydos, Toms and Perry have played in the Travelers Championship a combined 41 times.

• Hunter Mahan, who has finished second, first and second in the last three years at the Travelers Championship, has not missed a cut since the 2008 PGA Championship. Mahan has made the cut in all 15 events in which he has teed it up in 2009, finishing in the top 25 in 13 of them. He has scored in the 60s in 12 of his last 13 rounds at TPC River Highlands.

• Mahan nearly shot 62 for the sixth time in his young career until a bogey on the ninth, his last hole, gave him a third-round 63.

• John Merrick is at 13 under and tied with Casey Wittenberg for fourth. Merrick and fellow Long Beach, Calif., residents Paul Goydos and John Mallinger share the same swing coach, Jamie Mulligan.

• Merrick has enjoyed a solid 2009 season with a runner-up finish at the 50th Bob Hope Classic presented by Arnold Palmer and a tie for sixth at the Masters. Merrick has held or shared the third-round lead once in his PGA TOUR career at the 2008 Zurich Classic of New Orleans where he tied for seventh.

• The par-4 15th measures approximately 296 yards, depending on the location of the tees. Through 54 holes, 47 of the 323 players who have attempted to drive the green have been successful. Last year, the hole played to a 3.633 scoring average.

• The Travelers Championship is the fifth event in the six-tournament series (THE PLAYERS Championship, the Memorial Tournament, the St. Jude Classic, the U.S. Open, the Travelers Championship and AT&T National), where the top two money winners not previously exempt earn British Open exemptions.

Below are the current money standings through four events (THE PLAYERS, the Memorial, St. Jude Classic and U.S. Open) and their position after the third round of play at the Travelers Championship.