Senior Players Championship: Third-Round Notes  PGA TOUR Staff TIMONIUM, Md. -- Loren Roberts' three-stroke margin is the largest 54-hole lead in the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship since 2004, when Mark James held the same lead over Gary McCord and Jose Maria Canizares. James went on to post a one-stroke victory over Canizares when the event was played in Dearborn, Mich.  Home-state favorite Fred Funk will play in the final group on Sunday. (Condon/PGA TOUR/WireImage)
This is the second consecutive year Roberts has led the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship after 54 holes. A year ago when the tournament was played at the TPC Michigan in Dearborn, Roberts held a two-stroke lead over Lonnie Nielsen. He closed with a 74 to tie for third, two strokes behind Bobby Wadkins, who overcame a four-stroke deficit to win. The Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship offers the winner a check for $390,000, but the winner also earns double points in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup race based on double points for major championships and the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. The winner will receive 780 points. Heading into Sunday's final round, the top five players in the race (points and current tournament position in parentheses) are Jay Haas (2,459/T7), Brad Bryant (2,019/T68), Loren Roberts (1,840/first), Denis Watson (1,707/tied for 17th) and Tom Watson (1,574/tied for third). So far this year, 15 of 25 events have been won by the leader/co-leaders heading into the final round. Loren Roberts will be seeking his third major championship on the Champions Tour. A win would give him at least one major championship three years running. He won the JELD-WEN Tradition in 2005 and the Senior British Open Championship in 2006. Roberts owns three top-10 finishes in major championships in 2007. After finishing tied for 12th at the Senior PGA Championship, he was third at the U.S. Senior Open, tied for fourth at the Senior British Open and tied for fourth at the JELD-WEN Tradition. Joining Roberts in Sunday's final threesome will be Fred Funk and Tom Watson. Funk is Roberts' closest pursuer and trails by three strokes, while Watson, the 2007 Senior British Open winner, trails by five strokes. Roberts, Funk and Watson are the only three players in the 78-player field to have posted three consecutive sub-par rounds. The largest come-from-behind win in tournament history came in 2000, when Raymond Floyd came from six strokes back of Tom Kite to win. Floyd finished one stroke ahead of Larry Nelson and Dana Quigley. Don Pooley, who won the 2002 U.S. Senior Open title at nearby Caves Valley GC, continues to climb up the leaderboard. After a 4-over-par 74 on Thursday, Pooley has shot back-to-back rounds of 67 to move from a tie for 59th on Thursday to a tie for 31st on Friday. His 3-under-par 67 on Saturday moved him to a tie for 10th. Loren Roberts has the fewest putts after three rounds with 81 and also shares the lead with Tom Watson in birdies with 14 each. Gil Morgan and Wayne Levi have each hit 45 of 54 greens in regulation and Levi leads in driving accuracy at 92.86 (39 of 42 fairways hit). Dana Quigley continues his solid late-season play. He is currently tied for seventh and could be in line for his fourth top-10 finish in his last five starts. During that stretch he has two second-place finishes to his credit, including one in his last start at the SAS Championship. During his current run, Quigley has earned $315,586 of his current $712,861. The current run has helped him move from 34th on the money list to 22nd. Larry Nelson withdrew after Saturday's round due to a knee injury. Jay Haas, who is looking to become just the second player to earn $3 million in a season on the Champions Tour (Hale Irwin the other in 2002), is currently tied for seventh. Haas has three events remaining on the 2007 schedule after this tournament. |
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