Lehman Has Major Concerns Despite Record 64 In Third Round And Six-Stroke Lead, Faldo Still Remains

Tom Lehman only needed to look back as far as the Masters to know that his six-stroke lead over Nick Faldo after three rounds at the British Open was anything but safe.

Lehman’s course-record 64 on Saturday and his 54-hole British Open-record 198 was a masterful domination of Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club. Now he will find out if he can dominate Faldo.

“To play head-to-head with Nick Faldo will be something to tell my grandchildren about,” Lehman said. “He is one of the best, if not the best player in the world.”

No one in the world is a more relentless match-play player than Faldo. No one can put more pressure on an opponent. Faldo proved that in April at Augusta when he went head-to-head with Greg Norman on Sunday trailing by six strokes and won by five.

“Obviously it’s a similar scenario. In that sense it is quite similar. But it’s a different period of time, a different golf course,” Faldo said, sounding like he wanted to add that it also was a different opponent.

“But the objective is still the same,” he said. “To shoot a great score and see what happens. I’ve got to aim for 63 tomorrow.”

There was an eerie sense of familiarity to Lehman’s position.

Here he was once again leading a major championship going to the final round, the fourth time in three years he has been in the last group on Sunday in a major, most recently at the U.S. Open last month when he finished second to Steve Jones.

Yet Lehman has never won a major.

And here was Faldo once again making a birdie on the 17th hole - just like he did at Augusta - to force a final-round pairing with the man he has to catch, as he tries for his seventh major and fourth British Open.

“Being in the last group again may help,” Faldo said after his 68 put him at 9-under-par 204. “If anything is going to happen, it is the best place to be.”

Mark Brooks and Vijay Singh were seven strokes back at 205, with Ernie Els and Fred Couples at 206.

Jack Nicklaus, who started one stroke behind midway leaders Lehman and Paul McGinley, shot a 77, the 11th time since the 1986 Masters he’s shot 76 or higher in the third round of a major championship. McGinley fell back with a 74.

Nearly everyone fell back on another sunny, relatively calm day at Lytham, mostly because Lehman was putting up numbers that were impossible to match.

His eight-birdie, one-bogey round in which he made a half-dozen putts from 12 feet or longer, broke the Lytham course record of 65 and was just a single stroke off the lowest score ever in any major championship.

“It was definitely one the the best rounds I’ve ever shot, if not the best,” Lehman said. “I don’t think I could have putted any better.”

He started quickly with birdies on four of the first six holes - all from 15 feet or longer - and made a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 9 to turn the front in 30.

Lehman picked up three more birdies on the back nine - Nos. 11, 14 and 16 - and made his only bogey when he drove into a bunker on the last hole and could only pitch back to the fairway.

Asked if Faldo’s comeback at the Masters crossed his mind, Lehman said: “You mean like lightning striking twice? Yeah.”

Then, with resolve in his voice and determination in his eyes, he said, “This is a different place, a different time. It’s my tournament to win or my tournament to lose. I’m going to try to not pay attention to him (today).”

Lehman played well the three previous times he was in the last group on Sunday. He shot a 71 at the U.S. Open on a very difficult course, but Jones slipped by him with a 69.

Lehman finished third when he was in the last group of the 1995 U.S. Open, and was runner-up when paired in the final group with winner Jose Maria Olazabal in the 1994 Masters.

“One of the biggest things was actually losing to Olazabal in 1994,” Lehman said, explaining his confidence. “I felt like I held up under the pressure.”

Faldo has proven over and over again he can hold up under pressure. He also played brilliantly on Saturday but putted nowhere near as well as Lehman, missing four makeable birdie putts in the first five holes and three-putting No. 4 from 18 feet for a bogey. Taking advantage of the easiest stretch on the course, Faldo played Nos. 6 through 11 at 5 under, making an eagle on No. 6 when he hit a driver and a 9-iron to 25 feet on the par-5.

He gave two strokes back on the difficult closing holes, making bogeys on 14 and 16 when he drove into the rough then hit greenside bunkers on both. The key birdie on No. 17 came when he hit a 7-iron to 2 feet.

“I wasn’t trying to hit it there,” Faldo said. “That was my break of the week.”

Lehman’s lead was the largest going into the final round of the British Open since Tony Lema was up by seven strokes in 1964. He won by five.

Four times on the PGA Tour this year, a player has taken a six-stroke lead into the final round and only Norman was not able to protect it.

“It’s like a pitcher having his good stuff and hitting the corners,” Lehman said of his round.

He’ll need his good stuff again today against Faldo.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: LEADERBOARD LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England Scores Saturday after the third round of the 125th British Open at the 6,892-yard, par-71 Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Club: Lehman 67-67-64-198 Faldo 68-68-68-204 Singh 69-67-69-205 Brooks 67-70-68-205 Couples 67-70-69-206 Els 68-67-71-206