Leonard and Love share lead in rain-delayed
PGA Championship; Tiger plus 1
By RON SIRAK AP Golf Writer
MAMARONECK, N.Y. (AP) - The greens had the yellow sheen of
aged wax on a linoleum floor and putted just as fast. The pressure
was as suffocating as the stifling heat and humidity. Of the few
who remained calm and cool at the PGA Championship, Justin Leonard
was the best.
The British Open champion, trying to become the first to win
consecutive major titles since Nick Price took the British Open
and the PGA in 1994, played with enormous control on Saturday,
never trying to impose his will on the firm and fast Winged Foot
course.
His patience was rewarded with a bogey-free round on a day
when double and triple bogeys abounded. Leonard needed to par
the final hole for a course record-tying 66 that would put him
at 6-under-par 204 after three rounds when lightning and torrential
rain stopped play.
Leonard was tied for the lead with Davis Love III, who was
on the 15th hole, while Jeff Maggert was one under par through
16 holes and Lee Janzen was one under through 14 holes.
No one who had finished 54 holes was under par.
"I hit the ball more solidly today," Leonard said
after he missed no fairways, unlike his brilliant scrambling efforts
of the first two rounds.
"I kept the ball in play and put the ball in the middle
of the fairway," he said. "It seemed like I always had
the right club and was pin-high all day. It's fun to be able to
two-putt for pars."
Leonard needed only 50 putts the first two days as he continually
made 5-footers for par. His driving and iron play was simply perfect
on Saturday, taking the pressure off his putter and wedge.
"I just try to stay in the hole," Leonard said. "Guys
are going to make mistakes out here."
Love, who at age 33 has 10 career victories but has yet to
win a major championship, also made few mistakes.
"I don't think I've ever been as comfortable in a big
tournament with the way I'm playing," said Love, who had
a 12-foot putt to win the U.S. Open last year but three-putted
to hand the victory to Steve Jones.
On a day when the temperature climbed into the 90s and the
humidity make it feel like 103 degrees, 15 players started the
round under par and only four were in red numbers when play was
suspended.
Strokes seemed to pour from the players like sweat.
"This afternoon it was a completely different golf course
than we played the first couple of days," Love said. "The
greens were a lot faster and a lot harder and a lot more difficult."
Among those who lost their cool on Saturday was Tiger Woods,
who made two double bogeys and shot a 71 to finish at 1-over par
211, and John Daly, whose hopes evaporated in the heat with a
77 to be at 216.
Phil Mickelson was also in the thick of it until he made a
triple bogey at No. 16 to fall to even par.
No aspect of the course was easy on Saturday.
"You have to be really good off the tee, really good into
the green and then all the work starts," Love said about
the difficulty of the greens.
Greg Norman, who was in the hunt until he made a double bogey
on No. 16 and a bogey at the 17th to fall 3 over par, said the
"greens are 2 feet faster today than they were yesterday."
The round started with Janzen playing in the same group with
Love and one stroke ahead of him at 4 under par. But a two-stroke
swing at the sixth, when Love made a birdie and Janzen - who hit
into a divot - made a bogey, put Love in the lead.
Janzen, the 1993 U.S. Open winner, fell farther behind with
bogeys at the 11th and the 14th holes.
Woods floated into and out of the picture as he once again
was plagued by big-number holes in a major championship. He made
a double bogey on No. 4 when he drove into the right rough, chunked
it back to the fairway then hit the right bunker and couldn't
get up-and-down.
He got a wake-up call on No. 10, the hole described by Ben
Hogan as like hitting a 3-iron into someone's bedroom, when he
made a par and then birdied No. 11 with a shot to 2 feet and eagled
the par-5 12th hole with a 30-foot putt.
Woods bogeyed No. 13 when he drove into the right rough. He
then made a sensational birdie on the 16th hole when he drove
into the left trees and hit a cut 5-iron from 157 yards under
the limbs that bounced several times and trickled to within 9
feet of the hole.
But he finished with a double bogey and a bogey on the last
two holes and walked off the final green as if he had injured
himself hitting out of the thick rough.
"There's nothing wrong," Woods said. "I'm just
angry."
Anger is not an emotion that will win at Winged Foot on Sunday.
If Leonard and Love can keep their cool in the final round
it should be a compelling finish to the PGA Championship.
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