Sunday, July 9, 2000
Flesch, Henninger share lead,
Woods only six strokes back
By NANCY ARMOUR
AP Sports Writer
LEMONT, Ill. (AP) - Tiger Woods finished
yet another frustrating day of struggling with his putter and
stood atop a hill behind No. 18, watching the leaders finish.
"I think it will be a greater lead
at the end of today," he said. "... If I play well tomorrow,
obviously I have a chance of winning. If I don't play well, I'm
so far behind, I have no chance. That's just the way it is."
Not exactly. Brian Henninger and Steve Flesch
both wasted chances to pull away from the rest of the field Saturday,
finishing the day tied for the lead at 13-under-par 203 after
54 holes. Henninger bogeyed the 18th hole while Flesch had three
bogeys on the last seven holes.
That leaves Wood just six strokes back at
7-under 209. A large deficit, perhaps, but certainly not impossible,
especially for Woods. He dominated the rest of the field in the
U.S. Open, winning it by a whopping 15 strokes.
And in his other tournament at Pebble Beach
this year, he came back from seven strokes down with seven holes
to go to win.
"I just need to go out there and take
care of my own business, shoot a good, low round and see what
happens," he said. "If I can just putt better, I'll
be all right. If not, it's just one of those weeks and go on to
the next tournament."
Lee Janzen is one stroke behind Flesch and
Henninger after shooting a 66 - tied for best round of the day.
Kenny Perry, Jim Furyk and Nick Price, a two-time Western Open
winner, are two strokes behind at 11-under 205.
For a while, both Flesch and Henninger looked
as if they might make things tough on everybody else Sunday. Flesch
was superb early, eagling the par-5 fifth and adding three more
birdies on the front nine.
He moved to 14 under with a birdie on the
par-5 11th and then things went haywire. He bogeyed two par-3s,
the 12th and the 14th, then birdied the par-5 15th. He gave the
stroke right back with a bogey on the par-4 17th.
He finished up with a birdie on No. 18 that
looked like something out of "Caddyshack." His 12-foot
putt rolled right to the edge of the cup and then hung there for
almost three seconds before finally dropping in.
"Six birdies, one eagle and four bogeys.
That's as erratic as you can get, isn't it?" he said. "I
was just making everybody in the crowd feel good because I was
playing like a lot of them do."
Henninger, who missed the cut in 11 of the
first 18 tournaments he played this year, didn't play as well
as he did Friday, when he tied the course record with a 63. But
he held onto his new, more relaxed attitude and turned in a solid
round.
A birdie on the par-3 14th put him at 14
under and gave him the lead by himself, but he dropped back into
a tie with a bogey on 18.
"I played really solid really throughout
the whole round until the last couple of holes," Henninger
said. "I think tomorrow I'm going to have to step it up a
little bit because, obviously, there's great players out there
who are going to be shooting to make birdies."
He can count on Woods being one of them
- if he can make his putter work. He's had trouble with it all
week, and Saturday was no different. His good putts lipped out
and his bad putts, well, they weren't even close.
He's putting so poorly that when he finally
made a 20-footer for a birdie on the par-4 eighth, he gave a smile
of relief, licked two fingers and pretended to put a mark on a
chalkboard.
"I need a Seeing Eye dog out there,
basically. I'm putting so bad it's a joke," he said. "But
the good news is putting terrible, I'm still seven-under par."
The course didn't give him any breaks, either.
After his tee shot went into the rough on No. 9, he "caught
a little squirter" and his second shot landed well short
of the green, near a tree and behind a few bunkers.
His next shot hit a branch and went only
about 50 yards forward, landing in the gallery. With another tree
in his way, he hit a flop shot and landed in a trap right in front
of the green.
He got close to the hole, but it rolled
about 2 feet past and he settled for bogey.
"My game isn't quite as sharp as it
has been in the past," he said. "But then again, it
ain't that bad, either."
Divots: Dennis Paulson, who had several
near-misses on the green Saturday, didn't fare much better throwing
the ball. After finishing with a 71, leaving him seven strokes
behind at 6-under 210, Paulson tossed his ball toward the lake.
The ball took two hopes and then stopped dead in the grass. ...
Fred Couples, two shots off the lead after the second round, shot
a 73 and dropped five strokes back. ... Jimmy Green had the worst
round of the day with an 82.
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