Round 3 Notebook: the Memorial Tournament

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Jun. 5, 2010
By Laury Livsey, PGA TOUR Staff

Weather: A dangerous weather situation delayed the start of the third round until 11:45 a.m. ET. Play was again suspended at 3:31 p.m., with action resuming at 5:15 p.m. Due to inclement weather prior to Saturday's third round, officials grouped players in threesomes off two tees. The third round was played with preferred lies in closely mown areas.

Rickie Fowler has never had the lead going into the final round of a PGA TOUR event. He is three shots ahead through 54 holes. Fowler's best PGA TOUR performance was his runner-up showing at this year's Waste Management Phoenix Open, where he finished second.

• Seven of the top-11 players are in their 20s, led by 54-hole leader Fowler who will be 21 years, 5 months, 23 days Sunday. The others under 30 are Ricky Barnes (age 29, tied for second), Justin Rose (age 29, fourth), Brendon de Jonge (age 29, fifth), Sean O'Hair (age 27, tied for sixth), Jeff Overton (age 27, tied for sixth) and Spencer Levin (age 25, tied for sixth).

• Barnes continued his solid play, carrying over from last week, where he tied for seventh at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. Barnes moved into a tie for second Saturday with his 10-under 62. This was his sixth consecutive under-par PGA TOUR round, going back to the first round last week. After shooting rounds of 66-66-67-66 in Fort Worth, Barnes opened with a 70-71 at Muirfield Village and added the 62 Saturday, which is a career-best, topping the second-round 64 he shot at the 2003 Las Vegas Invitational.

• Prior to this week, Tim Petrovic had two rounds in the 60s at Muirfield Village in 22 rounds and six tournaments. His tie for 14th in 2006 is his best Memorial finish. Saturday, Petrovic had his third consecutive sub-70 round with his 68. He is tied for second. His top 2010 performance is a tie for sixth at the Valero Texas Open.

• The last player to record four rounds in the 60s at the Memorial was Bart Bryant on his way to victory in 2005 (69-69-66-68). Two players this week -- Rickie Fowler (65-66-69) and Tim Petrovic (69-66-68) -- have opportunities to duplicate that feat. Prior to Bryant's four rounds in the 60s, Fred Couples was the last. He shot 69-69-68-68 to finish second in 2004.

• Over his last 12 holes, Barnes was 8-under. He made birdies at No. 7 (7-foot putt), No. 8 (15-foot putt), No. 10 (9-foot putt), No. 14 (12-foot putt), No. 15 (2-foot putt) and No. 16 (14-foot putt) and had an eagle at No. 11 (holed out from 108 yards). He also chipped in for birdie from 39 feet on No. 1 and made an 11-foot birdie putt on No. 3.

• Barnes played in a threesome with Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson on Saturday. The 62 Barnes shot is the lowest by someone in Tiger Woods' group since Jim Furyk fired a 62 at the Doral Resort and Spa's Blue Course of the 1998 Doral-Ryder Open and Paul Goydos had the same score at the 1999 HP Byron Nelson Championship.

• Eleven players playing in their first Memorial Tournament made the cut this week. Here is how those players stack up through 54 holes

Player 54- Hole Position Scores
Rickie Fowler 1 65-66-69--200
Ricky Barnes T2 70-71-62--203
Brendon De Jonge 5 71-69-65--205
Spencer Levin T6 68-68-71--207
Rory McIlroy T12 72-68-68--208
Andres Romero T28 67-75-70--212
Chad Collins T32 73-72-68--213
Tom Gillis T37 71-72-71--214
Henrik Stenson T47 73-70-72--215
Peter Hanson T54 71-71-74--216
Martin Laird T54 72-71-73--216

• No player from the British Isles has ever won the Memorial. England's Justin Rose is fourth going into Sunday. Rose tied for second in 2008, two shots behind Kenny Perry. The only European winner in Memorial history is Sweden's Carl Pettersson in 2006.

• Tiger Woods, the world's No. 1-ranked player, added a second consecutive 69 and is at 6-under 210, tied for 20th. He has only finished outside the top 10 once in his last five appearances at the Memorial (tied for 15th in 2007).

• With his third-round 72, Jim Furyk watched his streak of six consecutive sub-par rounds at Muirfield Village Golf Club come to an end. His streak dated to the first round of the 2009 event. Thirty-seven of his 58 rounds have been under par at the Memorial.

• Playing on a sponsor's exemption this week, Mark Calcavecchia made the most of his opportunity. Not only did he make his 24th start, tying him for fifth on the all-time Memorial starts list, with John Cook, Mark O'Meara and Craig Stadler, Calcavecchia also made his 18th cut. He shot a third-round 74 and is tied for 66th.

• With a top-10 finish this week, Kenny Perry would become the seventh player in Memorial Tournament history with at least seven top-10 finishes. He is tied for sixth going into Sunday. A win would be his fourth, tying him with Tiger Woods for the most victories in tournament history.

• Perry continues moving closer to Jay Haas' all-time Memorial record for most rounds at par or better. Perry has rounds of 71-68-68 this week, giving him 54 total in 22 tournaments. In 29 appearances and 110 rounds between 1978 and 2006, Haas had 68 rounds with a score of 72 or better. Haas' son, Bill, has seven under-par rounds at the Memorial after his 71 Saturday.

• Two players over age 50 made the cut this week. They were Tom Lehman and Tom Pernice Jr. Last week at Colorado Golf Club, Lehman won the Senior PGA Championship for his first individual Champions Tour title. Pernice, who turned 50 in September, has played 13 PGA TOUR events since turning 50, making the cut in 10 of them. Pernice is tied for 17th, while Lehman is tied for 32nd.

Vijay Singh just missed matching his career-best 18-hole score at Muirfield Village. He had a 6-under 66, just shy of the 65 he shot in 1997. The 66 was Singh's best Memorial score since he had a 66 in 2001.

• Brendon de Jonge turned in his low 18-hole score of 2010 with his 7-under 65. He's shot 66 three times this year -- at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial (second round), Quail Hollow Championship (fourth round) and Bob Hope Classic (fifth round).

• Seven past champions accounting for 12 Memorial titles made the cut this week. Here's how they stand through 54 holes:

Player Year(s) Won 54-Hole Position
Jim Furyk 2002 T6
K.J. Choi 2007 T37
Vijay Singh 1997 T17
Kenny Perry 1991, 2003, 2008 T6
Carl Pettersson 2006 T47
Tiger Woods 1999, 2000, 2001, 2009 T20
Tom Lehman 1994 T32

• In two of the last three years, a player has been tied for seventh through 54 holes and gone on to win the tournament. Tiger Woods was in that position a year ago, four strokes behind Mark Wilson, and K.J. Choi was tied for seventh, five strokes behind Rod Pampling. Jim Furyk, in 2002, was tied for 10th when he eventually won. He came from five strokes back. Fifteen times in tournament history a player in the lead/tied for the 54-hole lead has gone on to win. The last to do so was Carl Pettersson in 2006.

• In Friday's second round, Argentina's Andres Romero had a triple-bogey-8 on the par-5 15th hole. Saturday, he had an eagle-3 there. After a 278-yard drive, Romero hit his second shot into the 518-yard hole to within 7 feet and made the putt. In the first round, Romero made par at the hole.

• Scoring averages at the par-72 Muirfield Village Golf Club:

Round Front 9 Back 9 Total Cumulative
Thursday 35.683 36.392 72.075 72.075
Friday 35.717 36.925 72.642 72.358
Saturday 35.239 35.732 70.972 72.042
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