Sunday, August 27, 2000
Tiger Woods leads NEC by nine
strokes after third round
By Marla Ridenour
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
AKRON, OHIO — Tour records, course
records or birdie binges could be out of the question for Tiger
Woods on Sunday. All the king of golf cares about is winning.
Woods shot a 3-under-par 67 and opened up
a 9-stroke advantage over his three nearest competitors on Saturday
after the third round of the $5 million NEC Invitational at Firestone
Country Club.
And if there's one thing King Woods doesn't
do, it's get overthrown on the final day. He's won 17-of-18 times
when he's held or shared the third-round lead. He's probably already
planning how to invest his $1 million first-place prize.
“Tiger played awesome,” Hal Sutton
said. “He'll have to help us a little bit, and he doesn't
do that very often.”
Woods' lead entering the final round is
the second-largest on the PGA Tour this year, topped only by his
10-shot bulge at the U.S. Open. His 18-under 192 total is a course
record for 54 holes, besting the 1990 mark of 195 by Jose Maria
Olazabal.
Six of those 18-under strokes have come
at the par-5 No. 2, which he eagled for a third straight day.
With cards of 64-61-67, Woods has posted scores in the 60s in
nine of his 15 career rounds at Firestone.
Tied for second at 9 under are Sutton, whose
hole-in-one at the 12th helped him to post the best score of the
day (65), Phillip Price of Wales (66) and Phil Mickelson, who
came home bogey-double bogey for a 1-under 69.
Being waved at in Woods' rear-view mirror
are Loren Roberts (8 under), Jim Furyk (7 under) and Justin Leonard
(6 under).
Woods started birdie-eagle-birdie and, after
a bogey at No. 4, came home with 14 straight pars. After three
holes, he held an 11-shot lead over Leonard and Mickelson. That's
when Woods went into his conservative mode.
“If they were going to come get me,
they had to make up 11 shots if I made pars all the way through
the end of the day tomorrow,” Woods said. “Eleven shots
is a lot to make up on this golf course.
“I felt like if I hung around, hit
solid shots, put the ball on the green on the fat side, I might
be able to make one or two (birdies). I never made one, but I
did the right thing by trying to fire away from a lot of the pins,
leave myself uphill putts.”
The only drama of the round lasted little
more than 15 minutes. Playing with Woods, Mickelson cut Woods'
lead to 6 shots after his second straight birdie at No. 16 got
him to 12 under. But as soon as it looked like a tournament again,
Mickelson self-destructed.
Even Woods was surprised. He also explained
what happened at 17 and 18, because Mickelson didn't feel like
facing a grilling in the interview room.
“He hit a wonderful second shot out
of the bunker; that lip was pretty high,” Woods began. “It
surprised me he was actually able to get it to the hole. He tried
to play the best shot he could, try to land it in the first cut
and roll it through. If he lands it anywhere near the green, it's
going down to the bottom.
“The next shot, I thought for sure
he'd hole. He'd been chipping wonderfully all day. He just came
up short and made the bogey putt.”
Mickelson's double bogey on the final hole
shocked Woods just as much.
“He'd been putting so well all day,
had wonderful pace,” Woods said. “I think he only made
three bad putts all day, on 10 and the two at 18.”
Woods' only moment of anxiety might have
come at the 15th green, when he was stung by a wasp that hopped
into his putting line.
“It was laying on the ground kind of
wounded and I had my glove on,” Woods said. “I tried
to pick it up and not kill it. When I tried to throw it, I lightened
up my grip pressure, it came around and got me on the tip of my
index finger.”
Woods left the course with the stinger still
embedded.
“I'll dig it out when I go home,”
he said.
Woods could shoot a 65 on Sunday and tie
the PGA Tour 72-hole scoring record of 257, set in 1955 by Mike
Souchak in the Texas Open. Woods also could try again for the
course record of 61 held by Olazabal that he tied Friday.
Woods also could get a big enough lead that
he could have some fun. But he likely won't shoot for the flags.
“I really don't like to play that way,”
he said. “I'd much rather play my own game and kind of put
the ball on the green where I have a lot of putts at it.
“Like I told (caddie) Stevie (Williams)
at the Buick (Open) when the greens were really soft. I said:
`You know what? It feels weird to fire at every pin.' I don't
really enjoy that. I enjoy putting the ball 10 feet right, 10
feet short, having certain putts.”
(c) 2000, Akron Beacon Journal
(Akron, Ohio).
Visit Akron Beacon Journal Online at http://www.ohio.com/.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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