Sunday, August 27, 2000
A real stinger: Woods leading
by nine
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Fourteen straight
pars and a wasp sting failed to stop Tiger Woods from running
away with the NEC Invitational on Saturday.
Woods finally cooled off at Firestone Country
Club after a birdie-eagle-birdie start. He got stung on his left
finger when he tried to remove a wounded wasp on the 15th green.
All that mattered at the end of the day was his 3-under 67, which
gave him a nine-stroke lead.
“It hurt quite a bit,” he said.
That was in reference to the sting, not a game that failed to
produce a birdie from the fourth hole on. Woods knew the size
of his lead at the time — 11 — and what it would take
to catch him — a lot.
“I had a big lead,” Woods said.
“You don't need to put pressure on yourself. They've got
to come get you.”
Woods was at 18-under 192, a 54-hole record
at Firestone. Hal Sutton had a hole-in-one on the 12th hole and
nearly holed out on the 18th for a 65, the best score of the day.
He was at 201, along with Phillip Price and fast-fading Phil Mickelson.
Price, a Welshman playing his first tournament
in America, bogeyed the last hole for a 66. Mickelson finally
got Woods' lead down to six strokes until he bogeyed the 17th
with a flubbed chip and made double bogey on the 18th with a three-putt
from 8 feet.
Coming off a pulsating playoff victory over
Bob May in the PGA Championship, Woods liked his situation much
better this week in the tournament for Presidents Cup and U.S.
Ryder Cup teams, and the top 12 Europeans from the European tour
money list.
“A big lead, any time,” Woods
said when asked whether he would prefer that or a competitive
final round.
“I know it's much more drama for all
of you when the finish is like last week,” he said. “But
I'd much rather have it when its like the U.S. Open.”
He led by 10 strokes after three rounds
at Pebble Beach, the only competition coming from the record books.
He tied the U.S. Open scoring record of 272, and shattered the
record in relation to par by finishing 15 under.
More records are still on the line Sunday.
Woods needs a 64 to break the PGA Tour scoring record of 257,
set by Mike Souchak in the 1955 Texas Open.
Even if his lead is double digits, Woods
said he is only interested in winning, his only strategy to hit
fairways and greens. That seems to be working just fine.
Woods, who raised hopes of a 59 in his opening
two rounds of 64-61, looked as though he might establish a new
magic number on Saturday.
He birdied the first hole from 10 feet,
then made eagle for the third consecutive day on the par-5 second
with a 15-foot putt from the fringe. Then, Woods' approach over
the water to the third green landed 4 feet behind the hole and
spun back to a foot.
Three holes. Four under. In about 30 minutes,
his lead went from seven to 11.
The fans who covered every inch of grass
along the fairways weren't the only ones who took notice. Jose
Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie were on the 13th tee when
they saw Woods' scores go up.
“Monty said, 'He's already 3 under
through three holes,'” Olazabal said. “I said, 'Monty,
you don't know what you're talking about. He's 3 under through
two holes.' It looked like it was going to be one of those days
again.”
Alas, Woods didn't birdie every hole.
After taking a drop because his foot was
on the sprinkler in the left rough, Woods caught a flyer out of
the rough with a 9-iron from 176 yards away and went through the
green. He chipped to 10 feet and missed the putt.
It was all pars from there. Woods broke
the 54-hole scoring record at Firestone — previously 15-under
195 by Olazabal — but failed to break the PGA Tour record
of 189 set by John Cook at the 1996 St. Jude Classic in Memphis,
Tenn.
Olazabal first set the Firestone record
of 61 in 1990, and he was proud to note that he still has a share
of the mark.
“I think it will survive another day,”
he said.
It would have been an ideal day for Mickelson
to make a move, or at least cut into the seven-stroke deficit
he faced at the start of the round. But he started with three
pars, needing a 20-footer on the third hole, and twice missed
birdie putts inside 10 feet on the front nine.
Whatever charge Mickelson put together came
too late, and didn't last long. He chipped in for birdie on the
15th, got up-and-down from behind the 16th green for another birdie,
and then chopped up the 17th for a bogey and was back where he
started.
And then sank even lower with his double
bogey, which knocked him out of the final pairing with Woods on
Sunday.
That duty now falls to Sutton, who stated
his intentions of beating Woods in The Players Championship and
did just that. Of course, he had a one-stroke lead going into
the final round, instead of being nine strokes behind.
Sutton's ace wasn't his only great shot
in the third round. He also hit it to 6 inches on No. 3 and to
a foot on the final hole.
“Tiger is playing awesome,” Sutton
said. “He'll have to help us a little bit, and he doesn't
do that very often.”
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