Viking Classic: Third-Round Notebook  PGA TOUR Staff MADISON, Miss. -- David Branshaw carded a third-round 69 on Saturday and will take a two-shot lead over Bill Haas heading into Sunday's final round of the Viking Classic. This marks the first 54-hole lead in a PGA TOUR event in Branshaw's TOUR career.  Chad Campbell raced up the leaderboard with a 64 on Saturday. (Ehrmann/WireImage)
• Branshaw played his first 44 holes this week without a bogey before recording a 5 on the par-4 ninth in his third round. • Branshaw will likely need a round in the 60s on Sunday in order to claim the Viking Classic title. In his last 15 final rounds on the PGA TOUR, Branshaw has recorded a round in the 60s only three times, including the final round at last week's Turning Stone Resort Championship (68). • The good news for the final pairing (Branshaw/Bill Haas) on Sunday is that the Viking Classic winner has come out of that final pairing in the last round in each of the past nine years. • The third-round leader has gone on to win five of the last eight events on the PGA TOUR, dating back to Steve Flesch's victory at the Reno-Tahoe Open in August. • Oddly enough, this is the 35th time in 41 stroke-play events on the 2007 PGA TOUR in which there has been a single player leading through 54 holes. • Shaun Micheel's name should come as no surprise to the leaderboard this week as the 2003 PGA Championship winner has recorded three top-25 finishes in his past four years at the Viking Classic, highlighted by a tie for fifth in 2005. • Chad Campbell's round of 64 on Saturday came as a bit of surprise as the native Texan has recorded back-to-back weekend rounds in the 60s only once in the 2007 season (EDS Byron Nelson Championship, 73-65-69-67--274). • Campbell, who is known as one of the better ball-strikers on the PGA TOUR, entered the week ranked 160th in Greens in Regulation on TOUR, but managed to hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation on Saturday. • While Jay Haas never played in the Viking Classic, Bill Haas' uncle, Jerry Haas, played in the event five times and recorded three top-25 finishes, including a tie for fifth in 1991. • Steve Elkington's third-round 67 has the 1995 PGA Champion eyeing a return to glory on Sunday. The Australian has not won on the PGA TOUR since 1999 (Doral-Ryder Open) and has only five top-10 finishes to his name in his last 101 starts on TOUR. • Daisuke Maruyama used eagles at the par-5 seventh and the par-5 18th en route to a round of 65 on Saturday. Maruyama is the 32nd player on the PGA TOUR this year to record two eagles in a single round. • Through 54 holes of the Viking Classic, only two players have managed to record all three rounds in the 60s: David Branshaw and Fred Funk. • Although he will begin the final round six shots out of the lead, a player to watch might be Bo Van Pelt. The former Oklahoma State standout is ranked third on the PGA TOUR in Final-Round Scoring Average (69.56). • The Viking Classic has been the site of six players earning their first PGA TOUR title. Through 54 holes, seven players still looking for their first win sit inside the top 10: David Branshaw, Bill Haas, Johnson Wagner, Jay Delsing, Kent Jones, Daisuke Maruyama, and Harrison Frazar. • Bogey-free rounds on Saturday: Shaun Micheel, Steve Elkington, Alex Cejka, and Ryan Palmer. • Players currently outside the top 125 on the 2007 PGA TOUR money list who are in the top-10 through three rounds of the Viking Classic include No. 190 David Branshaw who is leading; No. 204 Jay Delsing, who is tied for sixth; No. 164 Kent Jones, who is tied for ninth; and No. 188 Daisuke Maruyama, who is also tied for ninth. • After opening with a round of 73 on Thursday, Johnson Wagner has since recorded 14 birdies against three bogeys on his way back up the leaderboard. The highest start by an eventual winner on the 2007 PGA TOUR came at the PODS Championship, where Mark Calcavecchia fired rounds of 75-67-62-70--274 on his way to the title. • A big surprise to no one was Fred Funk as the only player in the field on Saturday to hit 14 of 14 fairways off the tee. The only other player to accomplish that feat this week was Mark Brooks in the first round. |
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