Stanford St. Jude Championship: Third-Round Notebook

text size
Increase Text Size
Decrease Text Size
Email This Story Print This Story RSS
Jun. 7, 2008
By Joan Alexander, PGA TOUR Staff

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Several players in the top 10 on the leaderboard are looking for their first career win this week including Tim Clark (first), Marc Turnesa (tied for second), Alex Cejka (tied for second), Bill Haas (tied for second) and Gavin Coles (tied for second). This tournament has produced five champions who captured their first PGA TOUR win in Memphis: Bob Lunn in 1968, Larry Mize in 1983, Mike Hulbert in 1986, Jodie Mudd in 1988 and Dick Pride in 1994.

Marc Turnesa
Marc Turnesa is closing in on his first top-10 on the PGA TOUR. (Feldman/Getty Images)
PGA TOUR in 2008
Highest 54-Hole Leads
Event 54-Hole Score
Stanford St. Jude Championship 5-under 205
PODS Championship 5-under 208
Honda Classic 6-under 204
Arnold Palmer Invitational 6-under 204
THE PLAYERS 7-under 209

• Tim Clark, making his 157th professional start on the TOUR, is still looking for has first PGA TOUR title. Currently he is 34th on the Official World Golf Rankings and is the highest ranked player on the Career Money List without a victory, ranked 73rd. He has collected over $10.5 million in earnings since joining the TOUR in 2002.

• Two weeks ago he recorded his sixth career runner-up finish with a tie for second at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. He fired a final-round 66 at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, to tie eventual winner Phil Mickelson and Rod Pampling at 13 under before Mickelson birdied the 72nd hole to win.

• Tim Clark's third-round 64 matches the low round of the tournament with Gavin Coles who posted a 64 on Friday. Clark was 5 under on his last five holes.

• This is just the second time in Tim Clark's career that he has held/shared the 54-hole lead in his PGA TOUR career. The previous time was at the 2005 Funai Classic at Walt Disney World Resort, where he went on to finish tied for 10th.

• Marc Turnesa (tied for second), who posted and even-par 70 on Saturday, is still searching for his first career top-10 on TOUR. He is making his 16th career start this week. He has made eight cuts this year with his best finish coming at the 2008 Northern Trust Open with a tie for 22nd. The rookie earned his card on the PGA TOUR after finishing 16th on the 2007 Nationwide Tour money list.

• Alex Cejka (tied for second) is the only player to post all three rounds in the 60s this week at TPC Southwind. The last time players recorded four rounds in the 60s in Memphis was in 2005, when Fred Funk (third) and Richard S. Johnson (tied for sixth) did it.

• 2008 masters champions Trevor Immelman (tied for second) has had an interesting week improving his position after both the second and third rounds into the top 10. He now sits just two strokes behind leader Tim Clark and will be in the final pairing with Clark on Sunday.

• Trevor Immelman is making just his fourth TOUR start since winning the Masters in April. He missed the cut at EDS Byron Nelson Championship and the Wachovia Championship, and last week at the Memorial he made the cut on the number and went on to finish tied for 30th. Last year after Zach Johnson won the Masters Tournament, he went on to collect a second win for the season six weeks later at the AT&T Classic (fourth start). It has been eight weeks for Immelman and he is making his fourth start since Augusta.

• Bill Haas, who is making his first appearance at the Stanford St. Jude Classic, fired a third-round 3-under-67 to move to a tie for second. Haas is looking for his second top-10 of the season and his first career victory. His best career finish is a tie for third at the 2007 Viking Classic.

• Players who were bogey-free during the third round: Tim Clark (64) and Padraig Harrington (66).

• The 54-hole lead of 3-under 205 is the highest total to lead after 54 holes since the tournament moved to TPC Southwind in 1989.

• The 2005 wire-to-wire champion Justin Leonard fired a third-round 67 (208 total) and moved into the top-10 at the Stanford St. Jude Championship. He started the year with four top-10s in his first six starts, but is still searching for his first victory in 2008. He posted his 16th career runner-up finish at the 2008 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

• Justin Leonard looks to become the fifth multiple winner in Memphis, joining Dave Hill (4), Lee Trevino (3), Nick Price (2) and David Toms (2).

• Six of the 10 past champions in the field this week made the cut. Through 54 holes, Justin Leonard is tied for seventh, Bob Estes is tied for 11th, Jeff Maggert and David Toms are tied for 51st, Woody Austin is tied for 59th and Dicky Pride is tied for 72nd.

• The last two years there were 17 players to complete three rounds at TPC Southwind with an under-par total, while in 2005 there were only 36. Total number of players under par through 54 holes at TPC Southwind since the course changed to a par-70: 15 in 2008, 17 in 2007, 17 in 2006 and 36 in 2005.

Mark Calcavecchia withdrew after the third round with a knee injury.

Email This Story   Print This Story   RSS   Bookmark and Share
SHOP.PGATOUR.COM

Shop your favorite brand name golf equipment and accessories at SHOP.PGATOUR.COM

FAN ZONE

Fan Zone
Kodak Challenge
© 1995-2009 PGA TOUR, Inc. | Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved. PGA TOUR, Champions Tour, Nationwide Tour and the swinging golfer logo are registered trademarks.
TurnerPGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network