Three back, Woods is still in it

    Saturday, September 8, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    Tiger Woods’ golf weekends have, with three exceptions, been woeful this year.
    He won those three times.
    Woods is at 13-under-par 203 and three strokes behind co-leaders Vijay Singh with a round to play at Crooked Stick Golf Club.
    What will Sunday bring? Does he have one good round in him?
    “You would think,” Woods said after his 1-under-par 71. “I’m just trying to scrape it around out there. I’m just waiting for that one good ball-striking day, and with the way I’m chipping and putting right now, it can be done. I just need to do it.”
    Woods has struck only 79 putts in three rounds, and just 26 on Saturday, because he hit only nine greens in regulation. He has scrambled with alacrity.
    That’s good. But he also had five 5s on his card in that 71, including a pair on back-to-back bogeys on the front nine. That’s why the pitch-in birdie from a nasty lie and stance on the par-5 ninth, immediately following those bogeys, pleased him so.
    “I needed to get back in the tournament,” Woods said. “I hit it about 30 yards left of where I wanted to hit it, then all of a sudden I had an impossible shot, just trying to get it anywhere around for a putt, and a drew a nice lie and chipped it in.”
    Earlier, he had a not-so-nice lie, the ball on a severe sidehill below his feet, which bothered his often-operated on left knee hurts when you played the shot. (He flinched after tee shots on the seventh and ninth, but took a pain pill and was fine thereafter, or so it appeared.)

    So the chip on 9 goes in, Woods salvages a front nine 38, then birdies the 10th, 11th and 13th on the back nine, parring the rest of the holes.
    “I grinded hard,” Woods said. “I probably have to shoot 63 or 64 tomorrow to have a chance.”
    Woods can do that. He has a 62 and two 63s on his Western Open / BMW Championship ledger, one reason why he’s tied with Walter Hagen for the lead in tournament titles with five.

    Department of crazy numbers

    Phil Mickelson’s 10-birdie day was astonishing, but not unusual for him. Mickelson has done that three other times this season and six other times in his career.
    The scoring average for the day was well under par again, 70.771 on the par-72 course, which was set up as a 7,343-yard test on Saturday. That was 1.229 strokes under par, the eighth-lowest round in relation to par in Western Open history. Of course, Thursday and Friday rank first and second by a wide margin.
    The 15th hole, a 507-yard par 5 on Saturday, has settled in as the pushover hole. It played to 4.4 strokes in round three, less than the dogleg par-4 14th, which, at 4.457 strokes, was Saturday’s toughest hole. Those rankings also reflect the week’s play.
    
    Two-by-two tomorrow

    The regular weekend plan for pairings will be in effect on Sunday, with twosomes beginning at 8:05 a.m. ET with William McGirt and Hunter Mahan, whose 8-over 80 on Saturday is the highest score of the three days. Co-leaders Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson start at 1:45 p.m. ET.

    Around Crooked Stick

    Tee times were delayed until noon because of the overnight rains, the severity of which dumped more than 1.5 inches of rain in this tony suburb of Indianapolis in about an hour during the peak of Friday’s severe thunderstorm. The total at the course was 2.94 inches (while downtown Carmel, about a mile to the east, had 2.60 inches), that added to the quarter-inch received on Wednesday and the 2 inches of last weekend. And to think there was a drought in central Indiana from May to late August, and a 66-day stretch without rain. ... The Illinois contingent isn’t lighting it up. Mark Wilson is at 2-over 218, D.A. Points stands at 3-under 213, and Luke Donald, the Land of Lincoln’s England-born Ryder Cupper, is at 6-under 210, 10 strokes behind. ... Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, site of next year’s Western / BMW, is hosting the U.S. Mid-Amateur, a USGA production. Stroke play qualifying is Saturday and Sunday, with the low 64 continuing to match play. The 36-hole final is on Thursday. Admission is free throughout.
    – Tim Cronin

Mickelson on the move on Moving Day

    Saturday, September 8, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    Phil Mickelson never played very well at Cog Hill, even before Rees Jones made the substantial changes that Mickelson thought unwise. His best finish there was a tie for eighth two years ago, when his total of 8-under 280 was five strokes behind winner Dustin Johnson thanks to a closing 67.
    He seems to be a Pete Dye fan, though. Mickelson opened the third round of the BMW Championship at 8-under, and after a bogey on the third hole, went on a tear. He birdied the fourth to stand level for the day, then birdied five of six holes starting on the par-3 sixth, including four in a row.
    That places Mickelson at 13-under for the tournament, and only a stroke behind leader Vijay Singh, 14-under through seven holes, as of 3 p.m. ET. Rory McIlroy, only 1-under on the day, is also 13-under for the BMW, a.k.a. the 109th Western Open.
    Tiger Woods? He’s going backwards, 3-over for the day and 9-under, tied for 17th after eight holes.
    Updates as warranted; a full report at the end of the day.
    Follow us on Twitter at Illinois Golfer.
    – Tim Cronin

Curtis, Johnson moving on Moving Day

    Saturday, September 8, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    The entire concept of “the leader in the clubhouse” in golf went out the clubhouse window when electronic scoring allowed everyone to know their standing at any time.
    But it might still have merit to the person who makes a big move on Saturday, which Ken Venturi long ago named Moving Day. Say, to Ben Curtis, who is 3-under for his first 10 holes in the third round of the BMW Championship – a.k.a. the 109th Western Open – at Crooked Stick Golf Club.
    Curtis, in the first threesome to tee off the first hole, thus has moved to within five strokes of leader Vijay Singh some 40 minutes after Singh’s tee time.

   Dustin Johnson was moving as fast, and is even closer. He's 3-under through five holes and has joined world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and Ryan Moore at 12-under, a stroke behind Singh.
    The field is destined to be well under par again today, even though there’s a stiff breeze of  12 miles per hour from the northwest, and the mercury has reached only 70. It’s the 2.60 inches of rain that fell here in Carmel from 6 p.m. last night through the wee hours, the highlight a severe thunderstorm that hit in early evening, which has kept the course soft and kept the PGA Tour’s “lift, clean and place” rule in effect.
    The leaders at 2:45 p.m. ET:
    Vijay Singh -13 (3)
    Dustin Johnson -12 (5)
    Ryan Moore -12 (3)
    Rory McIlroy -12 (3)
    Graham DeLaet -11 (4)
    Tiger Woods -11 (3)
    Lee Westwood -11 (3)
    Phil Mickelson -10 (7)
    Television coverage is on NBC until 2:30 p.m. CT, then shifts to Golf Channel for the rest of the afternoon.
    Updates as warranted; a full report at the end of the day’s play.
    – Tim Cronin

Singh a song of Vijay, but don't forget McIlroy and Woods

    Friday, September 7, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    Here’s a leader board the Western Golf Association needed at Cog Hill the last few years.
    Vijay Singh, the 49-year-old Fijian who came close to winning on Dubsdread on three occasions, is in the lead at Crooked Stick Golf Club by a stroke, at a stylish 13-under-par total of 131.
    Those nipping at his heels: world No. 1 Rory McIlroy, billionaire Tiger Woods, and Ryan Moore, who still calls the BMW Championship by its traditional name, the Western Open. All of them stand at 12-under 132. Indiana native Bo Van Pelt and Lee Westwood, whom should not be forgotten, are two behind at 11-under 133. Twenty-one players are within five strokes of Singh.
    That ought to pack them in over the weekend at Crooked Stick even more than they’ve been packed in the first two days. And with about 30,000 on hand again Friday, dodging thunderstorms projected for later in the day, golf fans in this part of the midwest have been treated to the lowest scoring Western / BMW in history when the relationship to par is considered. And there have been 109 of them going back to 1899.
    The soft conditions, little wind, and the PGA Tour’s decision to continue the “lift, clean and place” policy to eliminate mud on balls in the fairway, along with greens smoother than a newborn’s rump – and usually flatter – has created a perfect storm for scoring, and there’s no sign of a tourniquet being applied to the blood-red leader board. Jimmy Walker and Mark Wilson were the high scorers on Friday. Each fired 4-over-par 76.
    Bill Haas was the low man of the day, at 8-under 64 to tie the course record. Adding in Thursday’s 71 gives the defending FedEx Cup champion an aggregate of 9-under 135, four strokes in arrears of Singh.
    In other words, Haas is very much in the hunt, for the rainstorms that lashed Crooked Stick after the conclusion of play and into the evening drenched an already soggy course once again. And that will mean another round of low scoring on Saturday, when play is once again in threesomes.
    Which both wreaks havoc on the record book and is thrilling for the fans. There have been Augusta-like roars on the golf course. There was even noise early in the morning, when Steve Stricker aced the sixth hole, using a 6-iron from 198 yards. Alas, Stricker promptly doubled the par-4 seventh, giving it all back, but it earned a $100,000 scholarship for the Evans Scholars Foundation thanks to BMW.
    Singh’s 6-under-par 66 was marred by only one bogey, on the par-4 fourth. Otherwise, he was Mr. Smooth, especially in the middle of the round, when he made four straight birdies and five in eight holes.
    “That kind of got me going,” Singh said. “And when I did miss the green, I stuck my chip shot very close.”
    A two-putt birdie from 13 feet at the par-5 ninth finished Singh’s day, and early. With storms looming, even the world’s top practicer didn’t repair to the range or putting green for remedial work. Well, not much, anyway.
    It’s the presence of McIlroy and Woods among the leaders that is creating much of the buzz. They were in the same group for the first two days along with Nick Watney, who might be third in the world but probably felt like a non-competing marker at times. Even on Friday, Watney’s 69 was overshadowed by McIlroy’s 68 and Woods’ 67, as they continued to chase the leaders.
    “Look at those scores!” Woods said. “Guys were running off and away from us. I just wanted to get do double-figures (under par). It’s a lot of pressure when you see guys going low.
    “I don’t think Pete Dye is very happy about this.”
    Dye, the founder and architect of Crooked Stick, said before the tournament began that the soft conditions would bring forth low scores. After all, this is not the octogenarian’s first rodeo. He knows these guys are stupid good.
    Take McIlroy, for instance. You’ve got to be good when your 68 includes four bogeys.
    “I didn’t play as well as yesterday, but I was able to get it around,” McIlroy said.
    And that is the key to consistent brilliance. Scoring when you’re on, as McIlroy was on Thursday, is one thing. Doing so when you’re just a bit off the mark, as in hitting only five of nine greens on the back side, is the mark of a champion. But McIlroy’s putter has been on from the start.
    “You shoot a couple of decent rounds, you’re just going to get lapped,” McIlroy said. “You know you’ve got to go out there and make birdies, and I suppose that’s just your mindset from the start.
    “It seemed like every time I missed the green, I missed it in the wrong spot and left myself difficult chips. And I’m putting so well recently that anytime I get a look at birdie, I’m sort of making those, and that’s making up for some of it. When you keep seeing putts go in, you build up confidence, and I feel I’m pretty high on confidence right now.”
    – Tim Cronin

Lift, clean and birdie

    Friday, September 7, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    When someone 20 years in the future looks at the scores from this year’s BMW Championship – or Western Open or whatever it’s called in 2032 – they’ll wonder how much a pushover course Crooked Stick Golf Club really was.
    It isn’t, not in real life. It’s a full-blooded test of golf with more trouble than the average member or guest can handle.
    But the best 70 players on the PGA Tour? In soft conditions? With next to no wind for the better part of 36 holes? And the potential to put the ball in their hands for cleaning on the fairway?
    That’s heaven for low scores, pally.
    There was more a case for playing “lift, clean and place” in fairways on Thursday than on Friday, but the PGA Tour did so for each round, just in case a downpour hit and the course became even more soggy.
    Thursday, said Ryan Moore after his 6-under-par 66, it was completely necessary. He couldn’t even put a number on how many strokes it saved.
    “Considering I had extremely large clumps of mud on the ball every single tee shot (Thursday), who knows?” Moore said. “In those circumstances you can hit great golf shots all day that end up 30 yards off a green.
    “It was a pretty significant difference. Today, not so much. It was the right decision, but it definitely would have played fine today without ball in hand.”
    Moore recalled only two mud balls in the course of the second round.
    Even with slightly more difficult pin placements, the conditions guaranteed low scores, and they were crazy low again. The par-72 course, which was set up for 7,415 yards, played to an average of 69.814, more than two strokes under par, and not too much more than Thursday’s 69.471. There have been 621 birdies in two rounds, along with 21 eagles, which includes Steve Stricker’s ace of the sixth hole.

    As for the ace...

    Stricker didn’t do much more than make that ace on Friday. He scored 1-over 73, one of only 10 rounds over par.
    “All we could see was the reaction from the crowd up around the green,” Stricker said. “It’s nice to win some money for the Evans Scholars. It’s a good cause for a deserving kid.”
    The money, $100,000 in the form of a scholarship, is donated by BMW each time an ace is scored. It was the first ace in the Western / BMW since Sean O’Hair’s on Dubsdread’s second hole in 2010, and the 41st in tournament history.
    
    Shanks, but no thanks

    Even U.S. Open champions have their unthinkable moments. Webb Simpson had one on Friday, with a cold shank of his tee shot on the sixth hole, which Stricker had aced earlier. The ball went so far the right the search was perfunctory, and Simpson re-teed, hitting the green with his third shot. He made a triple-bogey 5, the third of four 5s in succession on a front nine of 2-over 38. He followed Thursday’s 8-under 64 with a 75.

    Around Crooked Stick

    Don’t be surprised if the Western / BMW returns to Crooked Stick in the future, perhaps in 2020. Club officials have loved the show – and the rent – never mind the low scores. ... Bob Estes is the only player in the field to have played Crooked Stick in competition before this week. He wasn’t in the 1991 PGA, but NBC/Golf Channel uncovered Estes’ participation in the 1982 U.S. Junior Amateur. ... A weather scare nearly delayed play in the noon hour. A severe thunderstorm that wasn’t part of the original stormy forecast appeared to the north of Crooked Stick, but lightning was never detected closer than 17 miles out. At 10 miles, play would have been suspended. ... Kudos to Golf Channel for juggling its lineup and adding a three-hour block of live coverage in the window immediately before the original time slot, which then was rerun. And kudos to Joliet native Terry Gannon, the host of GC’s coverage, for taking a fiver from boothmate Frank Nobilo for predicting both Woods and McIlroy would birdie the 18th during a commercial break.
    – Tim Cronin