THE PLAYERS: Rd. 3 notes
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PGATOUR.COM will keep you updated on all the action in Saturday's third round of THE PLAYERS Championship with our live notes from TPC Sawgrass.
SEALING THE DEAL: If Paul Goydos goes on to win THE PLAYERS on Sunday, he'll be the 14th champion to have led the tournament after 54 holes. Jack Nicklaus has done in twice. Here are the 13 champs who held on after taking the third-round lead.
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-- Mike McAllister (10:10 p.m.)
HOLMES' HOT STRETCH: J.B. Holmes wasn't really thinking about it. The putts just kept going in, though -- five in a row, to be exact, starting at the ninth hole on Saturday. He was one birdie shy of THE PLAYERS record held by six players.
Holmes' putts came from 5, 4, 14, 4 and 7 feet. He bogeyed three of his final five holes, though, and finished with a 71 that left him at 1 under and tied for seventh with Greg Kraft, Tom Lehman, Tim Petrovic, Stuart Appleby, Briny Baird and Boo Weekley.
After his round, Holmes downplayed the sizzling stretch.
"You're just playing," the FBR Open champ said. "It's a good feeling. Around the fifth one you start thinking about it a little bit. Two or three, that happens fairly often, at least two does. But you don't really think about it. You just keep playing."
Holmes is six strokes behind the leader, Paul Goydos, entering Sunday's final round. He tied for 38th in his PLAYERS debut in 2006 and 16th a year ago.
"If I got out there tomorrow and shoot 5 under and post that, I think it would be pretty good," he said. -- Helen Ross (10:05 p.m.)
QUINNEY AGAIN: A year ago, Jeff Quinney tied for sixth at THE PLAYERS Championship, and he's in contention again this week after Saturday's round of 2-under 70.
Quinney will play in the penultimate group with Sergio Garcia on Sunday. The Arizona State grad, who trails Paul Goydos by five strokes, says the Stadium Course suits his game. He's tied for fourth with Bernhard Langer and Phil Mickelson, the man who beat him at the Northern Trust Open earlier this year.
"It's a long golf course, and it takes a little bit of precision with the iron play and lots of short game, and I think that's my strength of my game," Quinney explained. "I've been tending to hit a lot of 3-woods. With the fairways tending to be pretty fast, I don't always have to hit drivers, which is sometimes my weakness (along with) driving accuracy.
"So now I'm hitting more fairways with those 3-woods. (I) just kind of thought my way around and (didn't) get too aggressive and (took) what the course gives me." -- Helen Ross (8:55 p.m.)
A FIRST FOR GOYDOS: Paul Goydos will enter the final round as the tournament leader for the first time in 392 starts during his PGA TOUR career.
"Guess I was due," Goydos said after his round.
Goydos just finished an impressive third round of 2-under 70 to give him the clubhouse lead at 7 under. He'll take a one-stroke lead over Kenny Perry heading into Sunday.
Goydos' best previous position heading into the final round of THE PLAYERS was 40th in 1999 (he finished T-38, his best finish at THE PLAYERS).
The pressure will be immense on him tomorrow, but so far the self-proclaimed journeyman has yet to be rattled. -- Mike McAllister (6:59 p.m.)
KIM'S FINISH: Tough back nine for young Anthony Kim, last week's winner at the Wachovia Championship. He had made the turn at even par for his round, and then birdied the 10th. But from there, his round quickly unraveled.
He posted four consecutive birdies starting at the par-5 11th, and he ended his round with a triple-bogey 6 on No. 17 and a double bogey on the par-4 finishing hole. That gave him a 43 on the back nine and a third-round 7-over 79, the worst round of his year. He'll start his final-round Sunday at 3-over for the tournament. -- Mike McAllister (6:45 p.m.)
MICKELSON LIKES HIS CHANCES: Defending champion Phil Mickelson finished at 1-under 71 after a bogey on 18. That leaves him at 2 under for the tournament and certainly within striking distance of the lead.
"One bad swing cost me two strokes," Mickelson told NBC, referring to his drive on 14 that landed in the water. "I don't feel like I'm that far off."
Mickelson said he thinks he can get into the "mid-to-high 60s" on Sunday and put pressure on the leaders. If he does -- and if he wins -- he'll be the first PLAYERS champion to successfully defend his title. -- Mike McAllister (6:16 p.m.)
YOUTH TALK: Former Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman likes what he sees in young guns Anthony Kim and Boo Weekley.
On Kim: "He's exactly what you're looking for. Great attitude. Very confident. Good attitude, great putter."
On Boo: "I don't know him well, but what I know about Boo is he hits the ball right in the middle -- dead center of the clubface every single time. Very dependable. And obviously he knows how to win. His personality, his attitude would be great with a team. In a tense situation like a Ryder Cup, it's great having a guy who's loose, relaxed and able to make fun of himself and tease the guys.'' -- Melanie Hauser (5:44 p.m.)
STREAK OVER: Second-round leader Kenny Perry just three-putted from 49 feet on the par-4 10th. That's the first time in 90 holes Perry has three-putted at TPC Sawgrass. The bogey dropped him to 5 under, two strokes off the lead. -- Mike McAllister (5:16 p.m.)
REDEMPTION: Tim Petrovic called it a nice payback.
He hit the green at the par-5 16th in two, but his ball rolled into the water. So he dropped ... and made the putt for a birdie. He also made a 4 at 18 from "another part of the property" -- his term for way right. He had 182 to the pin and hit to 7 feet to shoot 69 and move into contention.
"It's tough conditions,'' he said. "It's still windy out there.''
After his round, Petrovic raved about the greens, which he said aren't showing any wear from the wind or heat.
"These are, by far, the best Bermuda greens I've ever seen,'' Petrovic said. "I used the word stunning when i walked onto the practice green monday and i've never said that about a green before, are you kidding? I wanna get my lawn like this.
"There's not a spike mark out there. You hardly make a ball mark.'' -- Melanie Hauser (5:07 p.m.)
LOW SCORES ARE AVAILABLE ... Jerry Kelly, who shot a third-round 70, isn't sure what all the fuss is all about. TPC Sawgrass too tough? Nope. He says you can score on this course.
"You've got a wedge, 9-iron or 8-iron and if you're hitting it in the right spots and hitting good shots, you're good,'' he said. ''People are trying to keep it under the wind and when it hits, it scoots. You've gotta hit it and trust it.'' -- Melanie Hauser (4:50 p.m.)
... JUST NOT AT 14: There still hasn't been a single birdie at the 14th, which is playing at 483 yards today. Woody Austin hit his approach to 16 feet but missed the putt.
The fact that the 14th is the hardest hole of the week is a surprise, considering that "honor" usually goes to the par-4 18th. But the 14th has always had length, and in the previous 26 years of THE PLAYERS at TPC Sawgrass, it ranks as the second-hardest next to the 18th.
Still, its lack of water and its huge green usually lead to a lot of pars. But with the wind this year, it's now tougher than 18 ... thus far.
The field has made more bogeys (33) than pars (22) on the 14th today. It is averaging 4.496 strokes and will certainly be among the toughest 10 holes on the 2008 PGA TOUR when the data is released on Monday morning. -- Ryan Smithson (4:50 p.m.)
CINK'S BOMB AT 17: His putt wasn't nearly as long as Bernhard Langer's near-60-footer the day before. But at 57 feet, 8 inches, Stewart Cink's birdie putt that he rattled home on the 17th on Saturday was pretty darn impresive. Not to mention that it produced a roar that shook the ground.
"When I was looking over it, the first thing I thought is don't hit it in the water,'' Cink said. "I looked up and it was going so fast. I'm glad it hit dead center.''
Cink, who shot 73 and is at 3-over 219 after three rounds, said the crowd at 17 is definitely looking for something special out of the players.
"You get the feeling they want you to miss it and hit it in the water or hit one high and bounce up,'' he said. "You almost don't want to give them their wishes.''
The longest putts at the 17th since the ShotLink era (2003):
| Longest putts at No. 17 (since 2003) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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-- Melanie Hauser (4:40 p.m.)
LEHMAN'S 69: We could say Tom Lehman's not getting older, he's getting better. And we'd be right. Kind of.
Saturday, the former Ryder Cup captain and British Open champ shot a 3-under 69 to settle in at 1-under for the tournament. The only thing he missed? He misread a 30-footer at 12 -- perfect speed, perfect line, just 4-1/2 feet to the right -- and missed short ones at the sixth and 17th.
"I played really well from the beginning to the very end,'' he said. "You can always look back and see where you missed a few, but I made a few too. The wind is blowing, but it's not as difficult as it was yesterday. It was only 15-20 (mph) as opposed to 25-35 yesterday.''
And, he said, it's a course where experience is golden.
"This course benefits experience more than any other on the TOUR,'' he said. "Augusta's the same as well. Knowing where to hit it, where not to hit it. Where to lay up when you get into trouble. ... You need to know how to put it in a place to recover. ''
And if he would finish the day just five shots back, which is where he sat when he came off the course? "A 5-shot lead around here is something that's not really safe,'' he said. -- Melanie Hauser (4:34 p.m.)
SHORTER EIGHTH: The par-3 eighth at TPC Sawgrass is always one of the toughest on the course, but the hole has lost a little bit of its bite on Saturday.
The hole is on the front of the green Saturday, making the hole play at 219 yards instead of its usual 240-yard range. Leader Paul Goydos just took full advantage, striping a long iron to the front of the green. His ball took a big bounce and funneled to five feet, which he sank for his third birdie on the front nine. -- Ryan Smithson (4:26 p.m.)
FIVE STRAIGHT BIRDIES: J.B. Holmes reeled off five straight one-putt birdies from holes 9-13 before encountering the 14th, which he bogeyed after driving into the rough. The 14th has yet to yield a birdie today.
Holmes entered the weekend even par, giving him an early tee time on Saturday. One of the longest hitters on TOUR, Holmes birdied the short par-4 12th after getting up-and-down from a greenside bunker. He then stuck his approach on the par-3 13th to six feet for his fifth consecutive birdie. The surge shot Holmes all the way into a tie for fifth at 3 under until his bogey on 14.
Here's the list of those who share the PLAYERS record for consecutive birdies.
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-- Ryan Smithson (4:20 p.m.)
GARCIA'S DRIVING: Everytime you look up, Sergio Garcia seems to be not only in the fairway, but in the absolute center of the fairway.
We're not used to seeing consistency from Garcia off the tee -- after all, he ranks 140th on the PGA TOUR in driving accuracy and was 184th last year -- but at least this week, he is the best driver of the golf ball on the planet. And the fairways at the Stadium Course aren't exactly 50 yards wide, either.
Garcia was 14-for-14 in fairways hit on Friday, and his 83 percent average for the week ranks first in the field. He's hit two of his first three fairways on Saturday. And he's made just two bogeys all week. Guess it's hard to make big scores when your ball is always in the short grass. -- Ryan Smithson (3:39 p.m.)
TOUGH FINAL STRETCH: If you're looking to put some birdies together late Saturday, better look somewhere else. The final third of TPC Sawgrass is playing extremely tough.
More than halfway through the third round, neither the 14th or 18th holes have yielded anything under par. Meanwhile, there have been just 10 birdies combined on hole Nos. 13, 15 and 17.
The only relief, of course, is the par-5 16th, generally the easiest hole on the course. -- Mike McAllister (3:30 p.m.)
FAST START/SLOW START: Big start for Bernhard Langer, who seems to be swinging perfectly with the driver this week.
Langer hit a big drive down the hill at the par-4 first hole, leaving a much easier approach into the tucked pin. Langer hit it to four feet for an easy birdie.
On the medium-length par-5 second, Langer hit a perfect draw into the center of the fairway and then followed that up with a 260-yard bomb that stopped just nine feet from the hole. Langer missed his eagle, but his birdie-birdie start tied him with Kenny Perry for the lead.
On another note, the message is clear: If you're going to score on the Stadium Course, do it early. Par on the back side is a good score. -- Ryan Smithson (3:21 p.m.)
Meanwhile, it was a bumpy start to the third round for Anthony Kim. Coming off his maiden win at the Wachovia Championship just last week, Kim was positioned beautifully headed into Saturday, just two shots off the lead at 4-under par. However, he bogeyed his first two holes, including a three-putt on the par-5 second. -- T.J. Auclair (3:20 p.m.)
BEST MOVERS: Who are the best movers among THE PLAYERS leaders on moving day? Well, you don't have to look very far down the list. Anthony Kim ranks second (behind Jim McGovern) on the PGA TOUR in scoring average in the third round.
A list of the other names who are in the final five groups Saturday:
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-- Mike McAllister (3:15 p.m.)
EAGLE SIGHTING: There is a small marker in the middle of the fourth fairway honoring Hal Sutton, who holed out twice in his career on this hole.
Kevin Stadler became the latest to make an eagle on the 384-yard hole. After a 292-yard drive, Stadler holed a 95-yard wedge shot that took one bounce and dived into the cup. It's the 25th eagle ever recorded at the hole.
The eagle was Stadler's second of the week. He made three on the par-5 11th on Friday -- Ryan Smithson (2:53 p.m.)
ARE YOU READY FOR SOME GOLF?: Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio was spotted in the commissioner's dining room early Saturday afternoon enjoying a bite of food before the leader's hit the tee box. -- Mark Spoor (2:28 p.m.)
UPDATE: Jesper Parnevik becomes the fourth player to post a 33 on the front nine Saturday. That moved him to 1 under for the tournament. But his momentum has stalled with a bogey at 10. -- Mike McAllister (2:08 p.m.)
KRAFT-Y MOVE: Greg Kraft made a big leap up the leaderboard as he put the finishing touches on a 68 on Saturday morning.
The recent winner of the Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular had started the day well back in a tie for 55th. He was tied for 13th when he finished -- and judging by the way the wind was blowing, Kraft could move even more as the day progressed.
"I putted pretty good," said Kraft, who used just 26 strokes with the flat stick. "After playing yesterday afternoon with it blowing and gusting to about 30 (mph), it seemed pretty easy, you know, only blowing 20 (mph) at times.
"Anything under par here is good for me. On Saturday, that's huge. You come out early, you just make the cut, the greens are softer, the wind's usually not quite a bad. You hope to do something like that to get back in it, but it's still a hard course to do it on."
Kraft got things going with a string of three straight birdies to close out the front nine. He rolled in putts of 14, 22 and 11 feet there, then sandwiched four more birdies around a bogey at the 15th hole.
"The big key was 17," Kraft said. "I kind of caught a gust and it went in that little cove over to the right, which is about 5 more yards carry and it went right ... in the water. Then I got it up and down from the drop circle."
Kraft said the pin positions were a little easier than the previous two rounds. In addition, the tees had been moved up on several holes. Will there be more 68s on the leaderboard as the third round progresses?
"All depends on what happens with the wind in the afternoon," Kraft said. "If it blows like it did yesterday afternoon it's going to be tough, but I think there will be some good scores." -- Helen Ross (2:02 p.m.)
LOVIN' IT: A 40-footer for eagle from the bottom level at the 16th hole propelled Davis Love III into red numbers Saturday.
Love, who was playing in the second group off the tee, had reached the par 5 with a driver and a 6-iron. The eagle polished off a third-round 70 that also included three birdies and a trio of bogeys for the two-time PLAYERS champion.
"It's about the same as yesterday," said Love, who stands 1 over for the tournament. "It's playing hard with the wind and the greens are firming up. So it's going to play tough again.
"We were early, so it's not quite as dry, but they're really speeding up. If you do hit a bad putt, you can putt it right off the green the way they've got some of these pins.
"I would be surprised if it didn't play just as hard as yesterday in the end." -- Helen Ross (1:55 p.m.)
TALKING WEDGES: Check out these video clips with Titleist wedge designer Bob Vokey and two PGA TOUR pros:
• Bob Vokey and Stephen Leaney on short game strategy at THE PLAYERS 
• Bob Vokey and Jason Bohn on using Titleist wedges at THE PLAYERS
Also, Vokey discussed 64-degree wedges with our Ryan Smithson earlier this week. Click here for the story. -- Mike McAllister (1:52 p.m.)
HOLE-BY-HOLE: Want to know how each hole at TPC Sawgrass ranked during the first two rounds, and how they might play this weekend? Here's the chart::
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- Mike McAllister (1:40 p.m.)
EARLY OBSERVATIONS: Of the players in the back of the pack with early tee times Saturday, no less than three have made the turn at 3-under 33 on their rounds -- Tom Lehman, Tim Petrovic and Charlie Wi.
Meanwhile, 2004 PLAYERS champion Adam Scott birdied four of his first six holes but dropped a stroke on the par-3 8th.
The tournament record in the third round is the 9-under 63 shot by Fred Couples in 1992. Doubt we'll see anyone close to that today, especially with the difficulty of the course this week. A quick glance at the leaderboard shows that 13 double bogeys have already been recorded today. -- Mike McAllister (12:58)
NUMBERS: A few interesting numbers from the first two days of THE PLAYERS
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MAGGERT LINK: For more news on the plane crash death of Jeff Maggert's brother, click here. -- Melanie Hauser (10:54 a.m.)
WEATHER OUTLOOK: Good news for the pros today -- the winds are expected to be lighter than yesterday. According to Meteorlogix, the winds will blow out of the west, 10-15 mph gusting to 20 mph.
On Sunday, a strong cold front will approach northern Florida on Sunday afternoon, which means there will be a good chance for showers and thunderstorms, some of which could be severe. The chance of precipitation for Sunday is 50 percent. -- Mike McAllister (10:45 a.m.)
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