Quail Hollow Club is playing almost like a major championship venue this week, but that obviously isn’t affecting Sergio Garcia. He shot a third round 67 to take a commanding six shot lead going into the final round Sunday. Garcia used a stellar 32 on the back side to gain a huge lead in Charlotte. He started off the day with a birdie on the first hole. He had a double bogey on the fourth hole, and that dropped him back a little. But after that, he played one of the best ball-striking rounds of the year. He finished up by carding three solid pars on the last three holes at Quail Hollow, which have taken shots from just about every guy at the top of the leaderboard this week.
Sergio has had the lead after all three rounds so far this week, and a decent round near par tomorrow will surely be enough for his first win of 2005. His 67 today was the round of the day, followed by a 68 by Australian Stephen Leaney. Jim Furyk, who will be playing in the final group with Sergio on Sunday, had this to say about the field’s chances of catching the young Spaniard. “He’s lapping the field right now,” Furyk said. “The golf tournament is in his hands; he’s going to determine who the winner is. He goes out and shoots 70, you can hand him the trophy.”
Sergio shared the lead for most of the front nine with rookie D.J. Trahan. Trahan had it going on the front, but he started giving shots back starting at the par-4 11th hole. He hit his tee shot into the woods and left himself an uphill battle from there. He finished the back nine by carding three bogeys in the last eight holes to leave himself in a tie for second and a half a dozen shots off the lead.
D.J. Trahan is joined at -6 by Furyk and Vijay Singh. Furyk, who has three top tens in his last five starts, really got it going late to move up the leaderboard. He started off the day with back-to-back bogeys on three and four before settling in and finishing strong. At the end of the day, the 2003 U.S. Open Champion had a very solid 69 to show for his efforts, including a birdie on the very difficult par-3 13th hole. Vijay Singh, on the other hand, had a very quiet day but is still in shouting distance of Garcia. He had an over-par round going until getting birdies on both the 14th and 16th holes. All in all, he finished up with a so-so 71.
Finishing out the top five is Nick Price. He shot an opening round 73 on Thursday but has bounced back with back-to-back 69’s to put himself in position for his best finish in quite some time. His best finish this year was a tie for 18th at the MCI Heritage, and he hasn’t had a top ten finish on the PGA Tour since the Byron Nelson last May. He had one of the best approach shots of the day on the very difficult par-3 17th hole. He took advantage of it and cashed in for one of the few birdies at that hole on Saturday. In fact, he was the only player that had a bogey-free third round.
Tiger Woods, coming into the week as the top ranked player in the world, had a very wild day in Charlotte! He had his chances at birdie on the front nine but didn’t take advantage. He was all over the place on the back nine, hitting his drive way left on more than one occasion. He still kept it together on a day where he could have shot something in the mid 70’s. He scrambled to get eight straight pars before bogeying the final hole of the day. He is currently in a tie for 17th after I picked him to win earlier in the week in my Wachovia Championship Preview.
Among the players who round out the top ten include last year’s champion Joey Sindelar. He is still not backing off and is doing a great job of defending his title in Charlotte. He was near the top of the leaderboard all day until double bogeying the 10th hole. Joining him at -4 is Greg Owen, who is coming off a couple solid outings the last few weeks. There are five guys in a tie for eighth including Bay Hill winner Kenny Perry and Scott Verplank.
Some players moved south on “moving” day. Brett Quigley started off the day in a tie for fifth. He shot a 77 today to move him back to a tie for 27th. Jeff Sluman started off in a tie for eighth place before shooting a third round 75 to move back to a tie for 22nd. And just for the record, Phil Mickelson shot a quiet 73 on Saturday to hang around in the top 30.
The weather for the final round will be partly cloudy with highs in the high 70’s and low 80’s. That should dry the course up a little more and make the greens that much tougher on the players. The Wachovia Championship can be seen on CBS tomorrow from 3-6 p.m. ET. Here is a current leaderboard after Saturday’s third round.
Pos Player Tot R1 R2 R3 1 Sergio Garcia -12 66 71 67 T2 Jim Furyk -6 69 72 69 T2 D.J. Trahan -6 72 67 71 T2 Vijay Singh -6 70 69 71 5 Nick Price -5 73 69 69 T6 Greg Owen -4 74 67 71 T6 Joey Sindelar -4 68 71 73 T8 Kenny Perry -3 68 76 69 T8 Dean Wilson -3 73 71 69 T8 Patrick Sheehan -3 68 75 70 T8 Richard S. Johnson -3 68 72 73 T8 Scott Verplank -3 71 69 73
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