Turning Stone Resort Championship, Round 3
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By PGATOUR.COM Staff
THIRD ROUND WINDING DOWN (5:30 p.m.): On a day that boasted the best weather of the week so far, players boasted the best scores, too. The scoring average for the third round stayed more than two shots under par all day and because of that there was a lot of movement on the leaderboard.
Case in point: Scott Piercy and Matt Kuchar are tied for the lead at 14 under, playing in 6 and 5 under, respectively. They're not alone, though, with nine players within four shots, including Rod Pampling, who who a 7-under 65, and Mathias Gronberg, who had the round of the week with a 64.
If they continue to play lift, clean and place for tomorrow, you can expect more of the same. More good weather is in the forecast for Sunday and putting the ball in the hands of a PGA TOUR player makes playing any course that much easier. -- Brian Wacker
FROM THE INTERVIEW ROOM (4:55 p.m.): If you ask Mathias Gronberg, he feels like his course record-tying 64 could have been even better.
"I left the two-and-a-half-footer [on No. 14] that I missed, but I messed up a couple of first putts that I rolled a little bit too far or too short," Gronberg said.
Gronberg is right, too. His putt on the 14th hole disappeared into the hole before somehow finding its way back out of it.
Still, Gronberg was happy with his round.
"When you start rolling in eagle putts, everything seems a lot easier," said Gronberg, who has two eagles so far this week. -- Brian Wacker
TRENDING UP (4:35 p.m.): Matt Kuchar is looking like the guy to beat this week at the Turning Stone Resort Championship, especially given his recent trend. His last three finishes were a tie for 28th at The Barclays, a tie for 15th at the Deutsche Bank Championship and a tie for 10th at the BMW Championship.
Kuchar has only made two bogeys this week and leads the field in putts per green in regulation at 1.5. He's also hitting 79 percent of his greens in regulation and fairways. -- Larry Rinker
LOVE ON HIS 66 (4 p.m.): Maybe the biggest reason players are tearing up Turning Stone resort this week, aside from the soft conditions, is that they've played lift, clean and place all week with the course "soaking wet," according to Davis Love III, who shot up the leaderboard by shooting a 66 today.
Allowing players to play the ball up is the same as giving a pool player ball-in-hand -- they're not going to miss in that situation. "The greens are still really good, and with lift, clean and place everywhere, you hit a bad shot, you can get out of jail and tee it up," Love said. "Scores are going to be pretty low today unless this wind keeps blowing hard and making it tough on the guys that are out there now."
It's not and as a result the scores continue to be low. No one wants to play lift, clean and place, but there really isn't any other option this week.
"It's definitely a huge factor," Love said. "As [rules official] Slugger Wright said, we can leave $6 million here and go home or we can play lift, clean and place everywhere because unfortunately they've just had day after day after day of rain."
As for Love's round, it puts him in a good, but not great position, heading into the final round. Of course, Love has won in the Fall Series before -- he did at Disney last year -- and even at four shots back certainly isn't out of it.
"I'm excited about finishing off this year and getting to Hawaii next year," Love said.
Sounds like a guy who has designs on winning. -- Brian Wacker
KUCHAR CONTINUES TO CLIMB (3:25 p.m.): Matt Kuchar hasn't won since the 2002 Honda Classic, but unlike a lot of players in the field he has no worries about finishing outside the top 125 on the money list since he was 59th coming into the week with nearly $1.3 million in earnings. And if he continues to play the way he is today and this week, the first part of that statement may not be a worry, either.
Kuchar is now atop the leaderboard at 12 under (3 under through his first eight holes today) and leading by a stroke over a group of players. Three more players are two strokes back of him, though, and another five are three back. In other words, stay tuned. There's a lot of golf still to be played before Kuchar ends a 7-year drought. -- Brian Wacker
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FALL FINISH (2:40 p.m.): Last year, six of the seven Fall Series winners were at No.125 or higher on the money list prior to their win (see chart).
This year, the leaderboard at the Turning Stone Resort Championship is shaping up similarly, with a number of players outside the top 125 in contention here in the third round. (see chart). -- Brian Wacker
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HOT ROD AND LOTS OF LOVE (2:05 p.m.): With weather conditions the best they've been all week, plus a softened Turning Stone Resort, scoring has continued to be favorable here in the third round. Actually, better than favorable -- today's scoring average so far is 69.695, nearly 2 1/2 strokes under par and the lowest of the week so far.
Certainly that average was helped by Mathias Gronberg's 8-under 64, but he's hardly the only one going low. In true moving day fashion, plenty of players are making a move. Among the latest are Rod Pampling, who is 4 under through 7 holes, and Davis Love III, who is 6 under through 15 holes.
The top 10 players on the leaderboard are currently a combined 32 under. Meanwhile, only 14 players in the field are over par.
No wonder four players are currently tied for the lead at 10 under with 11 more players within two shots. -- Brian Wacker
ROOKIE RESULTS (1:45 p.m.): Rookies Webb Simpson and James Nitties each turned in rounds of 67 today to move up the leaderboard at Turning Stone, but they're still three shots back -- meaning they have some work to do if either is going to become the first rookie to win on the PGA TOUR this year.
The last time we went an entire season without a rookie winning on TOUR was in 1998 when Steve Flesch won Rookie of the Year honors. At 41st on the money list, Australian Marc Leishman leads all rookies. Leishman was the only rookie to play in THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola and finished 20th in the FedExCup standings. See below for other rookies playing well this season or this week through the first two rounds. -- Mark Stevens
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GRONBERG GOES LOW (1:12 p.m.): Mathias Gronberg just carded the lowest round of the week, a 64 that included matching 32s on each of the nines to tie the course record at Turning Stone. As a result, Gronberg, 194th on the money list coming into the week, is now tied for the lead at 10 under.
It's the fourth time in Gronberg's career that he has shot 64 on the PGA TOUR, matching his career-best, the last of which came in the second round of last year's Wyndham Championship.
Here's what's amazing about today's round, though. Gronberg only hit seven of the 14 fairways -- and at one point had hit just four of 11 -- but he still managed to hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation.
Over his last 25 holes, Gronberg is 12 under with eight birdies, two eagles and zero bogeys. He may not be in the lead at the end of the day with overnight leader Vaughn Taylor still yet to tee off, but he might be the hottest player in the field. -- Brian Wacker
Below is a look at Gronberg's scorecard from today:
TAYLOR IN THE LEAD (12:45 p.m.): Vaughn Taylor still has the lead -- for now -- at the Turning Stone Championship and at 131st on the money list entering the week, that's a good thing given the $6 million purse (the biggest of the Fall Series).
For Taylor, he's on track for just his second top-10 of the season -- the other was a tie for eighth at the Buick Open -- and it's only the second time in his career that he's led or shared the lead after 36 holes. The other time was at the 2005 Reno-Tahoe Open, which he went on to win.
Clearly, Taylor likes this place. In his two previous trips to Turning Stone, he tied for 15th in 2008 and tied for 18th in 2007. Now we'll see what he does on moving day when he tees off in a little over an hour from now. -- Brian Wacker
MATHIAS ON THE MOVE (12:30 p.m.): The good news for Mathias Gronberg is that he's climbed into the top 5 at the Turning Stone Resort Championship, playing his first 15 holes today in 7 under to get to 9 under for the week and within one of the overnight lead. The bad news is that unless he continues on that upward trend this week and the rest of the Fall Series, he's probably headed back to q-school.
That's because Gronberg, 194th on the money list, has just over $156,000 in earnings on the PGA TOUR after splitting this season between the TOUR and the Nationwide Tour, where he has a win and a runner-up in six events. Gronberg split time between the two tours because after finishing in a tie for 18th at q-school last year, he didn't exactly have his pick of tournaments on TOUR.
Of course, if he keeps playing like this the next few weeks, he'll lock up a TOUR card and have plenty of options next year. -- Brian Wacker
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