Woods poised for another major championship
MEDINAH, Ill. – Moments after the final twosome teed off Saturday afternoon in the third round of the 88th PGA Championship, 10 players, including Tiger Woods, were tied for the lead at 8 under par. Throughout this humid, overcast day, no hole on the soft Medinah Country Club course seemed safe from what became another all-out assault on par in the final major championship of the year.
Shots were flying into the cup from bunkers, from deep rough and even from the fairway, where Joey Sindelar had only the third double eagle ever recorded in this event at the 537-yard fifth hole and Davis Love III holed out two shots from greenside bunkers in his first five holes. Still, by day’s end, the top of the leader board had become slightly less cluttered, and Woods, the No. 1 player in the world, was exactly where he wanted to be, once again in full flight and tied for the tournament lead with Englishman Luke Donald.
Aiming for his 12th major title, Woods jump-started his day Saturday when he ran a 30-footer into the cup to save par out of the rough at his very first hole. Already in full-throttle fist pump, he had plenty more exuberant greenside celebrations the rest of the way, with eight more birdies, a course-record-tying round of 65 and a 54-hole total of 14-under 202.
Donald, who also made a 30-footer to save par at the first, posted a 66-202, the lowest 54-hole total for a par-72 course in PGA Championship history. The co-leaders had a two-shot margin over Canadian Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters champion who came in with a 65-204.
Woods has won each of his 11 major titles either sharing or holding the lead after three rounds, and his record as a Sunday closer is unparalleled. He has led going into the final round 39 times on the PGA Tour, winning 36 times; worldwide he’s 43 for 48. He is looking for his third straight victory, 51st of his career and second straight major title after winning the British Open last month.
“As I was watching on TV this morning it looked like it could be had out there,” said Woods, who has had only two bogeys all week. “I felt like I had to go get it. If the weather stays like this (today), you’re going to have to make a bunch of birdies. In most major championships, you make pars and sprinkle in a couple of birdies here and there. Today you would have just been run over, which is different.”
Woods seized the lead for the first time this week after he hit a 9-iron out of a fairway divot at the 392-yard 15th hole to within three feet of the flag, then made his third straight birdie putt. At the 605-yard 14th, he had a one-footer after a sweet shot from the greenside sand, and at the 250-yard 13th, his 3-iron sailed majestically over the flag and stopped eight feet from the hole. He made that putt, too.
Woods’s run of 50 straight holes at par or better ended at the 453-yard 16th, when he three-putted from 40 feet – his first three-putt in 147 holes – though his first putt nearly went in before rolling five feet past the cup. He missed for his only bogey, but typically he followed that misstep with one last birdie, a 10-foot putt at the 197-yard 17th that caught the right edge, spun around the back of the cup and went down. He finished just as he began, salvaging a par at the 443-yard 18th after a drive in the rough.
On Sunday, he’ll have some formidable foes to contend with as he tries to become the first to win two PGA Championships on the same course. Donald, 28, who played college golf at nearby Northwestern, also got off to a quick start with four birdies in his first six holes. He turned for home at 5-under 31 and came in with his third round in the 60s this week and personal best score in a major.
Donald’s best major finish was a tie for third in the 2005 Masters, and this season he began each of the three previous 2006 majors with poor opening rounds, recovering from a Thursday 78 in the U.S. Open to tie for 12th. He’ll play in the final group today with Woods and will have to deal with swirling crowds, hordes of photographers and his own churning emotions.
“It’s my first chance to try and impress,” Donald said. “Playing Tiger Woods in the last round of a major, especially in Chicago where I’ve made my home the last nine years, it’s definitely going to be exciting, quite a thrill.”
Weir went very low with a run of four straight birdies in the middle of his round, then made it six birdies in seven holes when he knocked in a six-footer at the 14th hole and hit one of the day’s finest shots, a faded 6-iron from 159 yards out of a fairway bunker, to within a foot of the hole at the 15th.
There were other big-time names within five shots of Woods, including U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, alone in fourth place at 68-205, and Sergio Garcia, runner-up to Woods here in ‘99 as a 19-year-old, was at 67-206 and tied for fifth.
Phil Mickelson got to 8 under through seven holes, before playing his last 11 holes in even par.