Round 3, Quail Hollow Championship

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May. 2, 2009
By PGATOUR.COM staff

The first groups are ready to tee off in today's third round of the Quail Hollow Championship. Here's how it sets up:

Groups We're Watching

Tee time	Players
11:00 am ET No. 1		Martin Kaymer, Jonathan Kaye The field average in Scrambling through 36 holes is 53.73 percent. Kaymer's is a whopping 91.67. Can he keep getting away with missing greens? Track 'em
12:00 pm ET No. 1		Danny Lee, Brendon Todd Now that the hype is cooling, Lee is settling in. He made his first cut Friday, is putting well and should thrive in this low-key pairing. Track 'em
1:50 pm ET No. 1		Retief Goosen, Bubba Watson Incredible contrast of styles on display in this group as the steady Goosen and the long-knocking Watson vie for the third-round lead. Track 'em

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

Nobody knows if this tourney will come down to Tiger and Phil late Sunday, but you have to know it'll come down to "The Green Mile," the famed 16th, 17th and 18th finish that has wrecked a lot of rounds already, remember Padraig Harrington on Thursday going triple bogey, double bogey at 17 and 18 to turn 4 under into 1 over and lead to him missing the cut? Tiger bogeyed 16 and 18 on Friday and Phil four-putted the 17th for a doublebogey.

Saturday's forecast

Cloudy
Temp: 80 high/64 low
Morning clouds will be followed by scattered showers and storms in the afternoon. Winds will blow out of the southwest at 10 to 15 mph.

Zach Johnson had birdied seven of his previous eight holes heading into the Green Mile. Three pars would tie the course record. He made three bogeys instead, all three from prime position to approach the greens. Johnson told me after his round that he knows how tough that stretch is, he felt he made great swings all the way through it, but you have to think what happened Friday will cross his mind when he gets to the 16th tee Saturday.

How tough has the Green Mile played over the years? In each of the last four seasons, 16-17-18 at Quail Hollow has been either the first or second toughest finishing stretch on TOUR, and in the six years of the tournament, only three players have ever played all four rounds of this tourney without a bogey on the Green Mile. Among the top 20 leaders this year, only George McNeill and Davis Love III have made it through two rounds without a bogey through the finishing stretch. So if you think this tournament's over at any point this weekend, it isn't, until it's really over.

Most players lament the strokes they left out on the course, no matter how well they played. I thought Retief Goosen would interpret his second straight 68 that way after missing a couple of birdie opportunities inside 10 feet, but he surprised me by saying he got about all he could out of his round and while he didn't hit the ball as well as he'd have liked, he "scored" well and was extremely pleased with where he was, considering how he'd played. Come to think of it, the Goose did make a handful of stroke-savers in the 10-15 foot range, the kind he regularly made when he was winning his two U.S. Opens. Watch out for that kind of experience from a guy who's already won this year, earlier in Tampa at the Transitions Championship.

Stat of the day

The top 10 players on the leaderboard account for 133 career PGA TOUR victories, with Bubba Watson and Jason Dufner the only winless players. The list includes Tiger Woods (66), Phil Mickelson (36), Jim Furyk (13), Retief Goosen (7), Zach Johnson (5), Jeff Maggert (3), Camilo Villegas (2) and George McNeill (1).

NOTEWORTHY NUGGETS:
• Bubba Watson is making his fourth career start at the Quail Hollow Championship, with missed cuts in 2006 and 2008 and a withdrawal after the third round in 2007. Prior to his 65 on Friday, his previous best round at Quail Hollow was a 3-under 69 during the third round in 2007.

• The only second-round leader/co-leader to go on to win the Quail Hollow Championship was Tiger Woods in 2007, when a 36-hole total of 138 was good for a three-way tie with Vijay Singh and Arron Oberholser.

• Vijay Singh has played every Quail Hollow Championship, with a win and four top-10 finishes on his resume. He entered the week as the only player with made cuts in all six Quail Hollow Championships, but that streak ended on Friday. Singh has yet to post a top-10 in nine starts on TOUR this year.

• Brad Faxon, who is playing his first full season since having ACL and microfracture surgery on his right leg in December of 2007, made his second cut of the year after missing the cut in 10 ofhis last 11 starts. He finished tied for 52nd earlier this year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Thus far at Quail Hollow

Round	Leader	Low round (par 72)	Key links
	Tiger Woods (-7)	65: Tiger Woods	Daily Wrap-Up \| Live Report Helen Ross column \| Notebook
	Retief Goosen, Bubba Watson (-8)	65: Bubba Watson	Daily Wrap-Up \| Live Report Helen Ross column \| Notebook

The Film Room

	PGA TOUR Today Win McMurry updates action from Round 2 of the 2009 Quail Hollow Championship and previews what to watch for in the third round. Watch it
	Shot of the day Tiger Woods drains a 56-foot putt for birdie on the ninth hole during the second round at Quail Hollow. Watch it
	Round 2 highlights It's a star-studded leaderboard after the second round of the 2009 Quail Hollow Championship. Watch it