Round 4, Transitions Championship

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Mar. 22, 2009
By PGATOUR.COM staff

The first groups will soon tee off in today's final round of the Transitions Championship. Here's how it sets up:

Groups We're Watching

Tee time	Players
12:43 p.m. ET No. 1		Joe Ogilvie, Nick Watney Here's a perfect pair of precision players. Watney tops the field in greens in regulation this week, while Ogilvie leads in putts per round. Track 'em
1:19 p.m. ET No. 1		David Toms, Matt Kuchar Toms has sandwiched two 68s around a 73. He leads the TOUR in scoring average, and is looking to cement another top-10. Track 'em
1:55 p.m. ET No. 1		Tom Lehman, Retief Goosen OK, who picked Lehman in fantasy golf this week? Can he bounce all the way back from elbow issues and pull off the victory? Track 'em

EXPERT PREVIEW: PGA TOUR Network on-site correspondent Bob Stevens previews Sunday's final round:

Sunday's forecast

Sunny
Temp: 79 high/58 low
Mostly sunny except for a few passing clouds in the afternood, but it will be breezy. The winds will whip in out of the northeast at 15 to 25 mph.

Will Sunday bring about a spectacular U.S. Open-style finish between Tom Lehman, who had three consecutive top-3 finishes in Opens back in the 1990s, and Retief Goosen, who won two Opens and probably should have won a third? Or will the course set-up go over the edge, like it did when Goosen won at Shinnecock?

Stuart Appleby, who might be one of the most astute analysts of the game among the players, told us after the third round that the Copperhead Course has gotten tougher each day, with Saturday's set-up "going to the limit." He says 8-irons that hit and stopped on Thursday were bouncing 20 feet by Saturday afternoon. Follow the bouncing ball among the early groups and see how much water was put on the greens overnight.

While most of the players have occupied their evening hours with the NCAA basketball tournament, Rich Beem told us Saturday morning that he found himself glued to the cult favorite "Roadhouse" late Friday night. Beemer nearly birdied the noisy par-3 17th, the closest thing Innisbrook has to a "Roadhouse" hole Saturday and, a la the superstitious Scott McCarron (who's eaten at Carrabba's restaurant every night during the week), might have been looking for that old classic when he surfed the TV Saturday night.

There's nothing in Tom Lehman's previous performances in 2009 to suggest he should be leading into the final round, except his own devout conviction that the hard work he's been putting in the last month is finally paying off. Coming off an elbow injury that shelved him late in '08, Lehman missed the cut in his first four starts of '09, only making an $8,600 payday for a 49th-place finish at the opposite-field Mayakoba event.

But Lehman says he's been beating balls for more than a month and "expected" to play better this week. He certainly looks a lot more like the confident, comfortable "old" Lehman, especially over the putter that has plagued his game for the past few years.

So who's going to win today? One common thread that runs through the past champions on this U.S. Open-style set-up is ball-striking. Every one of the eight previous champions has finished in the top 10 in the field in ball-striking, a statistic that measures a combination of length and accuracy off the tee and greens in regulation.

Among the leaders, Goosen is second in ball-striking, Charles Howell III is fourth and Jonathan Byrd is fifth. Leader Lehman is 26th because of his lack of length off the tee, but he's often been an exception to every rule.

Stat of the day

Tom Lehman is the first player age 50 or older to hold a PGA TOUR lead at the end of a round since Greg Norman at the 2008 British Open. Norman held a two-shot lead after the first round at Royal Birkdale.

NOTEWORTHY NUGGETS:
• Tom Lehman has been a bit up and down on the par-3 holes on the Copperhead Course this week. In Round 1, he played the five holes in even-par. In Round 2, he played them in 1 under, and in Round 3, he fought his way through in 1 over, which included a double bogey on the par-3 fourth hole.

• Odds certainly favor the 54-hole Transitions Championship leader hanging on for the win. Of the previous eight events at Innisbrook, six 54-hole leaders have gone on to win. In 2000, John Huston made up a four-shot deficit to claim victory, and last year, Sean O'Hair came from three behind Stewart Cink's lead for the win.

• Retief Goosen will start Sunday's final round one stroke behind Lehman. Should Goosen overtake Lehman and claim his seventh win, it would be his first victory since the 2005 INTERNATIONAL, a span of three years, seven months and 15 days. Since that last win, Goosen has amassed 12 top-10s in 62 starts.

• Seven players have played in all nine Transitions Championships, including John Huston, who represents Innisbrook Resort and won the first event here in 2000. Billy Andrade, Lee Janzen and Shaun Micheel all missed the cut, while Huston and Tim Herron are tied for 22nd, Billy Mayfair is tied for 47th and Brian Gay is tied for 68th.

Thus far at Innisbrook

Round	Leader	Low round (par 71)	Key links
	Jim Furyk (-6)	65: Jim Furyk	Daily Wrap-Up \| Live Report TOUR Insider \| Notebook
	Nick Watney, Steve Stricker (-6)	66: Joe Ogilvie, Charles Howell III	Daily Wrap-Up \| Live Report TOUR Insider \| Notebook
	Tom Lehman (-8)	68: Tom Lehman, Brett Quigley, David Toms, Charlie Wi	Daily Wrap-Up \| Live Report TOUR Insider \| Notebook

The Film Room

	PGA TOUR Today Win McMurry updates action from the third round of the 2009 Transitions Championship and previews what to watch for in the final round. Watch it
	Shot of the day Tom Lehman nearly holes out for an eagle on the par-3 13th hole at Innisbrook during Saturday's third round. Watch it
	Round 3 highlights Tom Lehman takes the lead on the Copperhead Course and is in position to join the elite group of golfers over 50 to win on the PGA TOUR. Watch it