Third round: Winless Clark surges ahead by two
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Tim Clark isn't thinking about how close he has come to winning his first PGA TOUR title only to come up short.
The South African's approach? He will win -- eventually.
If Clark plays his final round as he finished up Saturday, that just might happen at the Stanford St. Jude Championship.
On a day that started with six players tied for the lead, and 52 within six strokes of the top, Clark broke a logjam at the top by finishing a bogey-free 6-under 64 with three birdies and an eagle on his final five holes. Then he watched as his 5-under 205 total held up for a two-stroke lead.
"I feel like I've given myself chances to win," said Clark, who has finished second or tied for second six times -- most recently at the Colonial. "Just going to take the position that it's going to happen at some stage. I just need to go out and play and see what happens come the end of the week."
Five players have made this tournament their first PGA TOUR win, the last Dicky Pride in 1994.
This is Clark's 157th start on the PGA TOUR. He has won more than $10.5 million since joining the PGA TOUR in 2002, with one of his runner-up finishes coming in the 2006 Masters. This is the second time he has had the lead after 54 holes.
"Whoever is going to be leading is going to have a chance," Clark said. "I think whoever plays the best golf tomorrow is going to win the tournament.
Gusting wind that had made par a valuable score through the first two rounds eased enough to make club selection a bit easier, but the wind often came up or changed directions at the wrong time. With the greens firming up even more in heat feeling like 100 degrees, scoring consistently remained a problem with 15 players under par through 54 holes.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
"It's amazing to me how he's never won over here before because when we were kids growing up, he used to win everything down in South Africa. " -- Masters champion Trevor Immelman on fellow South African Tim Clark's lack of wins on the PGA TOUR.
AS USUAL, LEONARD FEELS RIGHT AT HOME IN MEMPHIS
By Bobby Hall, Special to PGATOUR.com
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- If Justin Leonard can rally his way into the Seersucker jacket that will be presented to the Stanford St. Jude Championship champion on Sunday, it'll definitely be a different experience than the time he won here in 2005.
One reason is because this is the first year of what tournament officials are calling "Seersucker Sunday," in which a stylish jacket will be awarded to the champion. Another is because in 2005 Leonard took an eight-stroke lead into the final round.
Never mind that he won by only one stroke and fell to the green in a mock collapse after making a short putt for bogey on the final hole.
"Just relief," he later explained.
In Saturday's third round, Leonard charged into contention with a 67 -- matching his best total in the 11 trips around TPC Southwind since his victory.
"It was nice to get a few under par and give myself a chance for Sunday," Leonard said. "I played pretty well today. I was 3-under on the front nine. I missed a couple of 8-footers on Nos. 12 and 13 but made a couple of nice ones coming in at Nos. 15 and 16."
Leonard is tied for seventh at 208 -- three shots behind leader Tim Clark.
When Leonard won in Memphis, he said he'd been in "kind of a valley." Actually, he hadn't planned on playing here, but his wife, Amanda, started looking at his schedule for the year and his history at various events.
She noticed he'd had two top-five finishes and another Top 10 finish since 1996. She basically asked, "Why isn't Memphis on our schedule?"
Apparently, it was a good question.
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ESTES OVERCOMING NAGGING ALLERGIES, PENALTY STROKES
By Bobby Hall, Special to PGATOUR.com
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- After 20 years on the PGA TOUR and career earnings of more than $16 million, Bob Estes says, "I'm still trying to find my game." He vows he's searching harder than ever at age 42.
Actually, he's a little more adamant about the search than those comments might suggest.
"I'm just trying to get where I can enjoy the game," he said this week during the Stanford St. Jude Championship -- an event he won in 2001. "I haven't had any fun for years and years. I'm just doing this because this is what I do."
But at least one member of his gallery Saturday in the third round at TPC Southwind found Estes' play quite enjoyable. It was Memphis resident Loren Roberts, the reigning Schwab Cup winner on the Champions Tour.
"Hey, I'm having fun," said Roberts, who has the week off and decided to see what the spectator role is like, following his friend Estes with friends in the gallery. With a laugh, he said, "I'm seeing golf from a different perspective. It's good. I'm enjoying it."
Estes, who has been battling allergies this week, hung on for an even-par 70 on Saturday, following his impressive 65 on Friday, and is only four shots off the lead at 209. Estes is tied for 11th in the logjam at the top of the leaderboard with 18 holes remaining.
"I've had allergies for a week and a half," Estes said. "I felt good warming up, but once I started to play, I felt terrible. I had the shakes and I was weak all day long. I just hung in there the best I could."
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WARMING UP FOR NEXT WEEK
| 2 | Number of players in the top 10 going into Sunday under the age of 30. |
| 23 | The average number of feet to the hole that Tim Clark's third-round approach shots have landed, which, incidentally, puts him in first place Saturday for that category. He was in 76th place for both the first and second rounds. |
| 267 | Tim Clark's lowest total score so far this season, which came at the Crowne Plaza Invitational where he tied for second place. |
Reigning British Open champion Padraig Harrington had a third round that was nothing to sneeze at. He shot a bogey-free 66 that included a birdie-birdie-birdie finish on holes 16, 17 and 18.
Harrington has been fairly quiet this season, but it's not for lack of trying. The Carnoustie champ has actually recorded three top-five finishes so far -- a tie for third at the Northern Trust Open, a tie for fourth at the Zurich Classic and a tie for fifth at the Masters -- but lurking in the vicinity of a win is not quite enough for a major champion.
In his last start on the U.S. track, Harrington missed the cut at THE PLAYERS Championship, and his title defense on the European Tour a week later at the Irish Open ended in a disappointing tie for 31st. But Harrington has tasted major glory before, and he is now perhaps getting amped up for next week's challenge at Torrey Pines with a questionably healthy Tiger Woods making a return.
The affable Irishman had a rough second round with four bogeys and a double bogey, but he played his way back into contention Saturday and sits four shots back of the leader going into the final round of what might be just the practice he needs for next week.
OH TO BE AN AUSSIE
Gavin Coles has taken the cue of his countrymen on the Nationwide Tour this week, as he tries to make a bid for his first PGA TOUR victory. The 39-year-old Australian has tasted victory once this year, but it wasn't on this TOUR.
Coles became the third Australian to win on the Nationwide Tour when he captured the crown at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by Dynamic Industries in March, but he needs to take that energy and turn it into a PGA TOUR victory.
He's as close as he's been all year this week at the Stanford St. Jude Championship where he shares second place at 3-under par with four other players, two shots back from leader Tim Clark. His best finish of 2008 was a tie for 15th at the Puerto Rico Open presented by Banco Popular, and he tied for 20th at last month's AT&T Classic.
It was Coles' second-round 64 that put his name on the leaderboard, and his even-par 70 in the third round kept him in the mix, but he'll need to do better than 70 on Sunday if he wants to claim the Stanford St. Jude Championship for the land Down Under.
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THREE THINGS TO WATCH ON SUNDAY
1) Tim Clark. The short-hitting South African hits his irons as well as anyone, and his peers on the PGA TOUR are miffed that he hasn't won yet. On a tough course like TPC Southwind, you want the lead heading into the final round.
2) The Woody Austin factor. Austin blew through the field here last year with a 62 in the final round. It was arguably the best round of the year in 2007. Can anyone repeat his feat this year? It will be tough to go low in Memphis, but Austin proved last year that it could be done. We might see a surprise winner on Sunday.
3) Trevor Immelman. It would seem improbable for Immelman to be listed as a favorite to win the U.S. Open next week, but if he can win on Sunday, the pre-Torrey Pines pressure will immediately increase.
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