Buick Open: Round 3 Notebook
 
Jun. 30, 2007

Jesper Parnevik made the biggest early move by shooting an eight-under-par 64. He was en route to carding birdies on all the par-3s and par-5s until his lone bogey of the day came at the par-3 17th. This is his first time playing the Buick Open since joining the PGA TOUR in 1992.

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Parnevik

Parnevik's 64 was his best score in a PGA TOUR event since round four of the 2006 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic where he finished T2.

Parnevik's opening rounds of 72-68--140 allowed him to make the 36-hole cut by one shot. No player in Buick Open history has made the cut by one shot or less and gone on to claim the title. Denis Watson (1984) and John Fought (1979) each made the cut by two shots before claiming their respective Buick Open titles.

Tripp Isenhour's round of 66 has him eyeing his first PGA TOUR title. The last player to capture his first TOUR win at the Buick Open was Tom Pernice Jr. in 1999. Isenhour's best finish on TOUR is T5 at the 2002 Stanford St. Jude Championship.

• PGA TOUR Rookie Brandt Snedeker's third-round 66 has him in position to make up ground on Anthony Kim and Jeff Quinney in the TOUR's Rookie of the Year race. Here is a look at the top four TOUR rookies and their standings this week:

Tale of the rookies
Starts/Cuts FedExCup Pos. Earnings This Week
Anthony Kim 17-13 32 $1,325,828 DNP
Jeff Quinney 16-11 33 $1,307,715 72-67-75--214
Brandt Snedeker 19-14 43 $1,146,486 71-69-66--206
Steve Marino 18-13 61 $879,612 69-70-68--217
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Jacobson

• Frederik Jacobson is also playing in his first Buick Open. Statistically, Saturday was Jacobson's best day, as reflected by a five-under par 67 to finish at 11-under par. Friday, Jacobson hit just 7 of 14 fairways, while he was 11 for 14 Saturday. On Friday, he hit 11 of 18 greens in regulation, but on Saturday, he was 17 for 18.

• 1999 Buick Open Champion, Tom Pernice Jr., played the last six holes in six-under par to match Trip Isenhour's 66. After 54 holes in 1999, he trailed Tom Lehman's lead by five strokes. Prior to his win here, he had missed the cut six out of seven times. Since his '99 win, however, he has made the cut six out of seven times, highlighted by two top 10s. Pernice has lead or shared the 54-hole lead at two other PGA TOUR events, both of which ended in runner-up finishes.

• Tripp Isenhour, Marco Dawson, and Kevin Stadler posted the only bogey-free rounds Saturday.

• If history repeats itself, things bode well for the last group, as the winner has emerged from that last group every year since 1999.

RELATED
• Video:  Round 3 highlights
• Video:  Gore's shot of the day
• Story:  Round 3 recap
• Gallery:  Round 3 photos

• Of five previous starts at the Buick Open, Brian Bateman has only been around for the weekend twice. His best finish here was a T-60 in 2006.

• How tough is the finish at Warwick Hills? Through three rounds, three of the closing four holes rank as the three hardest on the course. The par-4 15th (1st: 4.256), the par-3 17th (2nd: 3.106), and the par-4 18th (3rd: 4.093) have all caused their fair share of problems for players in this year's Buick Open.

• Another figure that bodes well for Tom Pernice Jr. is the fact that the solo third-round leader has gone on to win this event each of the past six years.

• Tom Pernice Jr.'s back-nine tear of eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie on holes 13-17 is not the best birdie/eagle streak on the 2007 PGA TOUR. TOUR rookie Brandt Snedeker played a seven hole stretch in eight-under-par at the Buick Invitational earlier this year.