The Honda Classic, Round 3
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By PGATOUR.COM Staff
VILLEGAS ALL ALONE (5:40 p.m.): Talk about opposite rounds for Camilo Villegas and Anthony Kim. They shared the lead at the start of the day and the third round ended with six strokes separating them. Advantage Villegas, who shot a 67 to forge a three-stroke lead with one round to play.
Kim, meanwhile, closed with three straight bogeys after nearly flubbing a chip on the 18th hole. In all, Kim had four bogeys, one double bogey and three birdies in a round of 73. The biggest problem for Kim Saturday? He hit only 50 percent of his fairways and 61 percent of his greens in regulation. He also took an uncharacteristic 32 putts.
As for Villegas, he hit 79 percent of his fairways and 78 percent of his greens. More importantly, though, his six-birdie effort (and this week) seems to be the culmination of the last few weeks. Villegas won the consolation match of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and tied for eighth in Phoenix. Now all that's left is a win, something that seems certain if Villegas plays anywhere near this good on Sunday. -- Brian Wacker
KIM FALLS FURTHER BACK (5:25 p.m.): Anthony Kim began the day with a share of the lead, but he won't end there. Not after a second straight bogey to fall five shots back with one hole left in his round.
Kim missed the green on his approach at the par-4 16th, then failed to get up-and-down to save par, missing a putt from 12 feet. One hole later, Kim missed the green again, finding the greenside bunker. He pitched out to just inside 8 feet, but missed the par putt. -- Brian Wacker
ROUND 3 WRAPPING UP (5:12 p.m.): Camilo Villegas just extended his lead to three thanks to his sixth birdie of the day. Villegas has just two holes left in his round and despite three bogeys in six holes at one point, appears poised for his first win since the 2008 TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. -- Brian Wacker
VILLEGAS STUMBLES INTO BEAR TRAP (4:50 p.m.): Camilo Villegas heads to the Bear Trap (Nos. 15, 16 and 17) with his lead intact, but it is now down to one shot after his third bogey on the back nine.
Second-place Nathan Green is playing the par-5 18th. It will be interesting to see if Villegas is still alone in front after this punishing stretch.
In the first two rounds, Villegas navigated the three holes rather calmly at even with one birdie and one bogey at No. 15.
His playing partner, Anthony Kim, went birdie-birdie-double bogey through the Bear Trap on Thursday but parred each hole Friday. -- Nick Zaccardi
LEADERBOARD CHECK (4:30 p.m.): Camilo Villegas has hit a couple bumps on the back nine at PGA National with bogeys at Nos. 10 and 12 to fall to 11 under. He's still two shots clear of the field, though.
Nathan Green remains bogey-free on Saturday. He has sprinkled in four birdies and is in solo second behind Villegas. Green (9 under) is currently playing the Bear Trap. Vijay Singh (8 under) and Anthony Kim (7 under) round out the top four.
George McNeill just missed a par putt on 18 and lost the round of the day in the process. He settled for a 4-under 66 to move into a group at 6 under. -- Nick Zaccardi
SMOKE IN THE AIR (4:15 p.m.): A controlled burn about 15 miles from the site of The Honda Classic sent smoky air over the tournament course for Saturday's third round.
The burn was in Jonathan Dickinson State Park, located in Martin County, and northeast winds carried the smoke into Palm Beach County -- including the area around PGA National Resort and Spa, which hosts the Honda.
Haze could be seen all around the course, thicker in some areas than others. Fire officials in both Martin and Palm Beach counties said the burn was proceeding as planned. -- Associated Press
GATOR GATHERING (4:00 p.m.): Camilo Villegas and Matt Every played together for two years on the University of Florida golf team, Villegas' last two and Every's first two.
They're in good company at The Honda Classic. Villegas, bogey-free so far Saturday, leads by three shots heading to the back nine. Follow his round with Shot Tracker here.
The upstart Every is tied for fourth at 7 under, four shots behind his college teammate. Follow Every's final holes here.
If Every finishes well, they could be paired together in the final round, but truth be told, Villegas and Every brought different personalities to Gainesville. Villegas, known for his vigorous workouts, and Every, a big joke-maker. Similar on the course, both were All-Americans.
Watching Villegas and Every play so well in the same tournament brings to mind one of Every's quotes from last year's Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island. Every won the season-ender to secure his PGA TOUR card for 2010.
"I'm looking forward to playing on the PGA TOUR next year. It's hard to watch your college buddies play on TOUR and in the Presidents Cup," Every said. "You start to think, 'Are these guys really that much better than me?' and I know the answer to that question. Deep down I do."
Wonder who Every was talking about? -- Nick Zaccardi
WHAT'S IN A NAME (3:47 p.m.): Over 150 years after the first major golf championship began on the British Isles, the guys with "Mc" and "Mac" in their names are still near the top of the game.
American George McNeill and Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell are in the top 5 at The Honda Classic midway through the third round. McDowell's countryman -- and the ninth ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking -- Rory McIlroy is already finished for the day after a 5-over 75, while the United States' Scott McCarron is watching his "Mc" colleagues from home after missing the cut. William McGirt held the lead on the Nationwide Tour in Colombia for part of the afternoon.
And where's American Will MacKenzie? Tied for 31st at PGA National. -- Lauren Deason
MORE ON SAUNDERS (3:40 p.m.): If Sam Saunders keeps playing this well, he won't have to be referred to as Arnold Palmer's grandson quite so often.
Saunders is making a name for himself and working on the best TOUR result of his young career. He's at 3 under through 16 holes and is tied for 16th. If he can get into the top 10 at the end of Sunday, Saunders will earn an automatic spot in next week's TOUR stop in Puerto Rico.
Saunders, 22, is playing just his fifth career PGA TOUR event. Four of those starts have come this year, with his only made cut a tie for 70th at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
You may remember Saunders from his collegiate days at Clemson. He dropped out after three years to focus on a pro career, getting started on the Nationwide Tour at the Albertsons Boise Open last summer.
He has no status on either Tour this year after failing to advance out of the first stage of q-school last fall. However, his lineage should lead to more sponsor's exemptions. If he keeps playing like this, Saunders won't have to rely on the family name anymore. -- Nick Zaccardi
SHAKEUP AT NO. 6 (3:20 p.m.): Much is made of the Bear Trap holes -- Nos. 15, 16 and 17 -- but the par-4 sixth just rattled the leaderboard at PGA National.
Anthony Kim found the water on the left with his tee shot, and Vijay Singh splashed his approach. Both made double bogey. Meanwhile, leader Camilo Villegas birdied the sixth (watch it here
). The Colombian's lead is now three shots over Nathan Green and Singh.
Not surprisingly, the sixth is playing the toughest of any hole Saturday with a 4.398 scoring average. It was the seventh-toughest hole Thursday and the second-toughest Friday. -- Nick Zaccardi
GREEN ON THE GO (2:50 p.m.): Nathan Green's bogey-free streak came to an end on the par-4 16th hole during the second round, but he's already erased that bogey with three birdies through his first eight holes Saturday.
Not surprisingly, Green's been getting it done with his accuracy and his putting, having hit all but one green in regulation so far in the third round while taking 12 putts -- or a very good 1.57 putts per green in regulation. -- Brian Wacker
PERFECT 10 (2:40 p.m.): The birdie barrage continues for Camilo Villegas, who just became the first player in the field to get to double digits under par with a birdie on No. 4, his second in a row.
For the week, Villegas has 13 birdies, which is fourth-best in the field, but he's now birdied six of his last 11 holes going back to the second round. -- Brian Wacker
LIVE: Click here to follow Villegas' round with Shot Tracker.
TWEET OF THE DAY (2:30 p.m.): What do you when you miss the cut at The Honda Classic as Rickie Fowler did this week with back-to-back rounds of 72? You take advantage of being in South Florida and go fishing, of course. ...
Fowler will have next week off, too. He needed a strong performance at PGA National in order to qualify for the World Golf Championships-CA Championship. He's not in the alternate-field event in Puerto Rico, either. -- Brian Wacker
KIM BACK IN FRONT (2:15 p.m.): The good news for Anthony Kim? He just birdied the par-5 third hole for the third day in a row to get to 9 under and into a tie for the lead with Vijay Singh.
The bad news? Holding the second-round lead hasn't been a good omen at The Honda Classic. Only twice in the past 13 years has the 36-hole leader gone on to win -- Jesper Parnevik in 2001 and Y.E. Yang in 2009. Kim and Camilo Villegas began the third round here tied for the lead at 8 under.
Over the past 22 years, only five second-round leaders have won -- Yang, Parnevik, Tim Herron (1996), Mark O'Meara (1995) and Steve Pate (1991). -- Brian Wacker
LIVE: Click here to follow Kim's round with Shot Tracker.
SINGH ON THE MOVE (1:45 p.m.): Last year at this time, Vijay Singh was being hampered by early-season knee surgery. He never fully recovered and it showed in the results through the course of the season.
This year, aside from a slight tweak to his back in the first two weeks, he's feeling much better. "Everything's good," Singh said. "I just have to stop playing like crap."
Well, he's certainly not doing that. Singh has birdies on seven of his last 14 holes, including one on No. 2 Saturday that has him 1 under on the day and now tied for the lead at 8 under. -- Brian Wacker
A.K. VS. CAMILO (1:30 p.m.): Today's third round, by the way, marks the eighth time Camilo Villegas and Anthony Kim have been paired together in a PGA TOUR event. Villegas has bested him five of the eight times (see below).
You'll notice the first time they played together was at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola in 2007. Villegas' final-round 66 at East Lake lifted him to the victory, while Kim finished third. -- Brian Wacker
| Camilo Villegas/Anthony Kim pairings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A.K. AND CAMILO (1 p.m.): Camilo Villegas and Anthony Kim share more than just the lead going into today's third round of The Honda Classic. Each player has posted two career wins, three runner-up finishes and six third-place finishes.
This represents the seventh 36-hole lead of Villegas' career. A victory at the 2008 BMW Championship and a runner-up finish at Doral in 2006 are his best finishes in those events.
Kim is making his third start at The Honda Classic, finishing T46 in 2007 and T49 in 2008. Kim has made the cut in all four starts in 2010, with a T24 at last week's Waste Management Phoenix Open his best finish. He is seeking his third-career win (2008 Quail Hollow Championship, 2008 AT&T National). -- John Bush
WEEKEND SHOOTOUT? (12:30 p.m.): If the third round is anything like the second, we could be in for a lot of low scores. Friday, four players shot 64 to match the course record at PGA National's Champions Course.
That's a big if, though, with the wind blowing more like it was in the opening round than in the second. Still, it was an impressive day as you'll see below.
Mike Weir: His best round on TOUR since a final-round 61 at the 2009 Frys.com Open
Paul Casey: He equaled his career-best round on TOUR (his last 64 was at the 2007 Arnold Palmer Invitational).
Stephen Ames: His best score since a 63 in the final round at the 2009 Bob Hope Classic.
Anthony Kim: His best round since opening with a 62 at 2009 AT&T National. -- Brian Wacker
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