Thursday
Aug202009
Furyk not along in lead after 12-under-par day
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 11:13PM
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Writing from Town and Country, Mo.
That Jim Furyk hasn't won a tournament all year can't be discovered by watching him this week at Bellerive Country Club.
A Chicago favorite thanks to wins in the 2003 United States Open at Olympia Fields and the 2005 Western Open at Cog Hill, Furyk won over a massive gallery of fans on Saturday with a magnificent 36-hole performance in the 105th Western Open.
His morning round of 8-under-par 62 shattered the 61-year-old Western Open single-round scoring record, and dazzled those in the know among the gallery of approximately 35,000 in the second Western dubbed a BMW Championship. The 7-under 28 he scored on his final nine – Bellerive's front side – wiped out a mark that stood for 53 years.
And Furyk wasn't done. Whereas many players will cool off after an extremely low round, Furyk kept battling. Starting on the front side in his afternoon round, Furyk opened by holing a 20-foot birdie putt, and went through the nine holes in 3-under 32, the centerpiece to his round of 4-under 66, giving him a total of 12-under 128 for the day and, most important, 12-under 198 heading into Sunday's final round.
"I liked the idea of turning around and going right back after it," Furyk said. "The idea is, 'Hey, you're playing well. I just hit it at every flag and shot 7-under on a side, and now I get to do it again.' You want to keep that momentum going.
"Also, you can get impatient and try to force the ball. I just wanted to go out there and play solid, try and keep up front and make the rest of the field chase me."
That they are doing, and, to this point in the third round, only Camilo Villegas, the leader after 18 and 36 holes, is succeeding. When play was suspended by darkness, Villegas also stood 12 under, with five holes remaining in his second round.
"We knew we weren't going to finish," said Villegas, who started Round 3 at 3:50 p.m. "It's not easy, but you've just got to come with a good attitude and stick with it."
He did, surviving a double bogey in the morning round to post a 4-under 66, and going 3-under through 13 holes in the afternoon and early evening.
Meanwhile, Furyk was insane. Put together his consecutive front nines, and Furyk played 18 holes, in 60 strokes. That's not a golf score, it's a typographical error.
"Obviously, he had an unbelievable day," Villegas said. "But that show you there's some birdies out there."
Plus an eagle, which Furyk made early in his second nine in Round 2. That was the trigger for his binge of red numbers. Everything considered, Furyk may want to take Bellerive's front nine home with him. Through three rounds, he's 11-under on that side, and only 1-under on the back nine.
His 62-66 day, which included a 91-minute fog break after he played the first of the 36 holes, added up to 128, which leads him back to the record book. That matched Tiger Woods' last two rounds on Dubsdread last year, and stands two strokes better than the middle two rounds by both Aaron Baddeley and Steve Stricker last year.
What's more, Furyk's 54-hole total of 12-under-par 198 matches the totals for the first three rounds of a Western, established by Woods in 2003 and equaled by Stricker and Baddeley last year. It's three strokes off the 195 Woods stitched together in the final three rounds last year, but, as 11-handicapper Scarlett O'Hara once said, tomorrow is another day.
With all that, it should be expected that Furyk has a big lead on the field, but Villegas is hanging around him like a bad cold. Thanks to the fog delay, he and 22 other players will have to finish the third round Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. After that, the field will be re-paired and the final round will commence at 10 a.m. And, ideally, will finish on Sunday as well.
Furyk has slept on many a third round lead, including when he won the Western in 2005. But this is new territory for Villegas, a 26-year-old Columbian looking for his first victory in a PGA Tour tournament in his 85th start.
"I'm just excited," Villegas said. "I'm excited to come back tomorrow, play some good golf and see what happens."
The aforementioned aside, this is not a two-man race. At this juncture, there are nine other players within five strokes of Furyk and Villegas, including Anthony Kim (fourth at 9-under with one hole remaining), D.J. Trahan (at 8-under 202, and whose 7-under 63 in the second round would have tied the Western Open scoring record, except for Furyk finishing in the group ahead of him), 2004 Western Open winner Stephen Ames (at 7-under 203), and one Phil Mickelson (at 7-under with two holes to play).
Additionally, K.J. Choi, whose 6-under 64 for a total of 8-under 202 is the best score of the third round to this point, will tell you not to forget about K.J. Choi. Told the leader is at 13-under, Choi said, "So we hurry up and catch him tomorrow."
The way things have gone at Bellerive, which is French for "birdie heaven," it's certainly possible, and will be one stroke less arduous than Choi believes.
– Tim Cronin
Writing from Town and Country, Mo.
That Jim Furyk hasn't won a tournament all year can't be discovered by watching him this week at Bellerive Country Club.
A Chicago favorite thanks to wins in the 2003 United States Open at Olympia Fields and the 2005 Western Open at Cog Hill, Furyk won over a massive gallery of fans on Saturday with a magnificent 36-hole performance in the 105th Western Open.
His morning round of 8-under-par 62 shattered the 61-year-old Western Open single-round scoring record, and dazzled those in the know among the gallery of approximately 35,000 in the second Western dubbed a BMW Championship. The 7-under 28 he scored on his final nine – Bellerive's front side – wiped out a mark that stood for 53 years.
And Furyk wasn't done. Whereas many players will cool off after an extremely low round, Furyk kept battling. Starting on the front side in his afternoon round, Furyk opened by holing a 20-foot birdie putt, and went through the nine holes in 3-under 32, the centerpiece to his round of 4-under 66, giving him a total of 12-under 128 for the day and, most important, 12-under 198 heading into Sunday's final round.
"I liked the idea of turning around and going right back after it," Furyk said. "The idea is, 'Hey, you're playing well. I just hit it at every flag and shot 7-under on a side, and now I get to do it again.' You want to keep that momentum going.
"Also, you can get impatient and try to force the ball. I just wanted to go out there and play solid, try and keep up front and make the rest of the field chase me."
That they are doing, and, to this point in the third round, only Camilo Villegas, the leader after 18 and 36 holes, is succeeding. When play was suspended by darkness, Villegas also stood 12 under, with five holes remaining in his second round.
"We knew we weren't going to finish," said Villegas, who started Round 3 at 3:50 p.m. "It's not easy, but you've just got to come with a good attitude and stick with it."
He did, surviving a double bogey in the morning round to post a 4-under 66, and going 3-under through 13 holes in the afternoon and early evening.
Meanwhile, Furyk was insane. Put together his consecutive front nines, and Furyk played 18 holes, in 60 strokes. That's not a golf score, it's a typographical error.
"Obviously, he had an unbelievable day," Villegas said. "But that show you there's some birdies out there."
Plus an eagle, which Furyk made early in his second nine in Round 2. That was the trigger for his binge of red numbers. Everything considered, Furyk may want to take Bellerive's front nine home with him. Through three rounds, he's 11-under on that side, and only 1-under on the back nine.
His 62-66 day, which included a 91-minute fog break after he played the first of the 36 holes, added up to 128, which leads him back to the record book. That matched Tiger Woods' last two rounds on Dubsdread last year, and stands two strokes better than the middle two rounds by both Aaron Baddeley and Steve Stricker last year.
What's more, Furyk's 54-hole total of 12-under-par 198 matches the totals for the first three rounds of a Western, established by Woods in 2003 and equaled by Stricker and Baddeley last year. It's three strokes off the 195 Woods stitched together in the final three rounds last year, but, as 11-handicapper Scarlett O'Hara once said, tomorrow is another day.
With all that, it should be expected that Furyk has a big lead on the field, but Villegas is hanging around him like a bad cold. Thanks to the fog delay, he and 22 other players will have to finish the third round Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. After that, the field will be re-paired and the final round will commence at 10 a.m. And, ideally, will finish on Sunday as well.
Furyk has slept on many a third round lead, including when he won the Western in 2005. But this is new territory for Villegas, a 26-year-old Columbian looking for his first victory in a PGA Tour tournament in his 85th start.
"I'm just excited," Villegas said. "I'm excited to come back tomorrow, play some good golf and see what happens."
The aforementioned aside, this is not a two-man race. At this juncture, there are nine other players within five strokes of Furyk and Villegas, including Anthony Kim (fourth at 9-under with one hole remaining), D.J. Trahan (at 8-under 202, and whose 7-under 63 in the second round would have tied the Western Open scoring record, except for Furyk finishing in the group ahead of him), 2004 Western Open winner Stephen Ames (at 7-under 203), and one Phil Mickelson (at 7-under with two holes to play).
Additionally, K.J. Choi, whose 6-under 64 for a total of 8-under 202 is the best score of the third round to this point, will tell you not to forget about K.J. Choi. Told the leader is at 13-under, Choi said, "So we hurry up and catch him tomorrow."
The way things have gone at Bellerive, which is French for "birdie heaven," it's certainly possible, and will be one stroke less arduous than Choi believes.
– Tim Cronin
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