Third round: Stricker slides while Streelman soars
PARAMUS, N.J. (AP) -- Steve Stricker shook his head and flashed a wry smile when he walked out of the scorer's room Saturday at The Barclays.
If nothing else, the defending champion was glad he was finally off the sun-baked Ridgewood Country Club course after a humbling round that left Kevin Streelman atop the leaderboard and more than two dozen players in the title chase.
"I just stunk it up," Stricker said. "I've got to try to regroup."
He lost a ball and the lead on the par-4 12th.
After fading a drive into the rough, his aggressive approach shot from a tough angle skipped along the far side of the left rough and into a tangled mess of shoulder-high grass, bushes and weeds.
Despite TV replays and a large search party, the ball couldn't be located and Stricker -- four strokes ahead after 10 holes -- took a penalty stroke and trudged back to the spot where he hit the costly shot.
The winner last year at Westchester Country Club, Stricker advanced the new ball 40 yards short of the green, hit his fifth shot 30 feet past the hole and two-putted for a triple-bogey 7 to drop to 7 under -- a stroke behind Sergio Garcia.
"I got off to a good start, then I made two stupid plays in a row on 11 and 12," Stricker said. "The one at 12 was one of the dumbest plays I ever made trying to do what I did out of the rough there. From that point on, it was a struggle to get in."
By the time Stricker signed for a 6-over 77, he was four strokes back at 4 under in a 12-way tie for 11th. On Friday, he shot a 7-under 64 in perfect morning conditions to take a three-stroke lead over Hunter Mahan in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup opener.
Stricker was 12 under through six holes, then dropped a stroke on No. 7 to end a 23-hole stretch without a bogey. He also bogeyed the 11th, made the triple on 12 and dropped three more strokes with bogeys on 14, 16 and 17.
"It's tough," Stricker said. "It got a little crusty and the wind picked up a little bit. But I didn't do very well."
Streelman, a 29-year-old Q-school graduate in his rookie season on the PGA TOUR, took the lead at 8 under with a 25-foot birdie putt from the fringe on the par-4 16th and parred the final two holes for a 68 and an 8-under 205 total.
"It will be a fun day for me," Streelman said. "I'm interested to see how I kind of react to it. That's what I've been working for my whole life."
Streelman made news this year at Torrey Pines, playing with Tiger Woods on the weekend in the Buick Invitational in January and sharing the first-round lead in the U.S. Open in June on the San Diego course.
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| Saturday's Best |
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The par-4, 380-yard 1st was the easiest with a Saturday scoring average of 3.681.
The par-3, 230-yard 10th was the toughest with a Saturday scoring average of 3.444.
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Rookie Kevin Streelman read the green perfectly on the 16th hole to roll in a putt for birdie and take a one-shot lead at 8-under par going into the final round. 
Another rookie, Jason Day, shot a bogey-free, 5-under 66 Saturday to move into a tie for sixth. Vijay Singh and Robert Allenby also had 66s, but with bogeys. | QUOTE OF THE DAY | ||
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WEIR FEELING RIGHT AT HOME AT AUGUSTA-LIKE RIDGEWOOD
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
PARAMUS, N.J. -- The lead would be nice, of course, but Mike Weir is more than comfortable with his position entering the final round of The Barclays.
Weir trails Kevin Streelman by a stroke after firing a 67 Saturday that moved him to 7 under through 54 holes of the first event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Oh, and did we mention that Weir has come-from-behind in seven of his eight PGA TOUR victories?
"That's true, for whatever reason," Weir acknowledged. "I can't put my finger on it. ... I would like to be in the lead sometime and telling you how I'll stretch a lead out from in front. I am coming from behind here and it is a comfortable place for me I guess and we'll see what happens for me tomorrow.
"But there are so many guys there, I know tomorrow I'll probably have to play a little more aggressively."
So many, indeed. Weir joins Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey, who will be his playing partner in the penultimate group on Sunday, at 7 under. Not to mention, there are a total of 22 players within four strokes of the lead after Steve Stricker had a meltdown of a 43 on the back nine and dropped seven shots from 11 under.
"I was surprised," Weir said. "I thought if I could get to 8, that would get me within two or three of the lead and I was surprised to look up when I tapped in there to see that the guys had come back.
"It's going to be a tight race tomorrow, a lot of guys, and you're going to have to shoot a low one tomorrow, probably 4 or 5 under, 6 under, maybe, to win this thing, with that many guys close to the lead. ... It's going to be a bit of a shootout tomorrow."
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MAHAN TAKES A TUMBLE
Steve Stricker seemed to be rolling along, padding his score and maintaining the lead as he reached the par-4 seventh hole. Hunter Mahan, his playing partner, was staying right on his tail, having reduced Stricker's lead to two strokes.
And then everything fell apart.
| 1 | The number of 2008 major champions playing on the weekend at The Barclays -- Trevor Immelman |
| 29 | The number of players in serious contention for the first Playoff win of the year -- all within five strokes of the lead |
| 31 | The number of players who shot over par in the third round, including Trevor Immelman |
While Stricker's game was taking a hit, Mahan double-bogeyed the eighth, bogeyed the ninth and then played his back nine in 3-over 39.
As a result, Mahan tumbled down the leaderboard, finishing at 4 under for the tournament, four strokes behind leader Kevin Streelman.
Mahan really struggled on the greens. He needed 33 putts Saturday -- 10 more than the 23 he used to shoot a course-record 9-under 62 in the first round. He three-putted from less than 30 feet on the par-3 eighth and three-putted from 45 feet on the par-5 13th for bogey.
Starting on the par-3 eighth, Mahan's late Saturday play consisted of two bogeys and two double bogeys -- ouch -- with no birdies to make up for it.
Yet he's not out of it. He's still among the group of 21 players who are within four shots of Streelman's lead.
Mahan, by the way, will be paired with Stricker again in the final round. But instead of being in the last group to tee off, they'll be in the 11th group left to tee off.
INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
Sirius XM Radio announcer Fred Albers offers these observations from Saturday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
There is something to be said for innocence. Kevin Streelman is a PGA TOUR rookie and was blissfully unaware of his position in The Barclays. Playing four holes in front of tournament leader Steve Stricker, Streelman rolled in a birdie at the 16th, while Stricker was making a triple bogey at the 12th. Smiling all the way, Streelman made par on the last three holes to take the clubhouse lead at 8 under.
The fifth hole is a 271-yard par 4 at Ridgewood Country Club, but it proved costly for Angel Cabrera. The former U.S. Open champion was 1 under on his round when he walked to the tee. Some 20 minutes later, Cabrera walked away with a triple bogey after losing his tee ball in the rough 20 yards from the green.
Ridgewood designer A.W. Tillinghast was a great admirer of Pine Valley, the No. 1 ranked course in America. You can see the Pine Valley influence in several of his designs, including Ridgewood Country Club. The par-5 13th features its own "Hell's Half Acre," similar to the seventh at Pine Valley, which has a half acre of sand that must be crossed. Tillinghast did not use sand but rather mounding and shaggy rough that must be traversed with the second shot at the 13th.
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STATS AND FACTS: AUG. 23, 2008
Compiled by Elias Sports Bureau, Inc.
• Steve Stricker bogeyed his first two holes in the first round at The Barclays. From then on, he did not play a single hole over par until the seventh hole in the third round. This streak of 40 straight holes without a bogey is the third longest streak of his career. His only longer streaks occurred at the 2000 COMPAQ Classic of New Orleans, where he played 43 consecutive holes at par or better from the 11th hole in the second round to the 17th hole in the final round, and at the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open, where he ended the tournament with a 41-hole, bogey-free streak starting at the 14th in the second round.
• Steve Stricker and Hunter Mahan entered the third round in first and second place respectively. However, they both finished the third round tied for 11th place largely due to their play on the 12th hole. Stricker made a triple bogey, and Mahan made double bogey combining to play the 12th at 5 over par. There have only been seven other instances in the last 25 years in which the top two players entering a round have combined to play a single hole 5-over par or worse. The last instance occurred at the 2007 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational where Rory Sabbatini bogeyed the par-4 ninth, and Zach Johnson quadruple-bogeyed it.
• Steve Stricker entered the third round of The Barclays with a three-shot lead. He tied a career worst when he shot a seven on the par-4 12th. He also tied the worst score relative to par in a round in which he started with the lead or a share of the lead. The last time was at the 2006 U.S. Open Championship when Stricker entered the third round with the lead and finished his round with a 6-over par 76.
• Jonathan Byrd was the only player to play the par-4 first over par in the third round at The Barclays. In the last 25 years of this tournament, no par-4 hole has had fewer players bogey it.
• After three rounds of play at The Barclays, Kevin Streelman leads all players by one stroke heading into the final day. Streelman is only the seventh TOUR rookie to lead a round in this tournament's history. The only TOUR rookie to win this event is Vijay Singh, who is currently only one stroke behind the leader.
THINGS TO WATCH ON SUNDAY
1. Lee Janzen: No. 144 -- the guy who made it into The Barclays by the skin of his golf ball's teeth -- shouldn't have a problem making the second Playoffs event (unless he has a Sunday disaster), but he might just be playing well enough to set himself up for a spot in the BMW Championship in two weeks, too. Not bad for a bubble boy.
2. Steve Stricker. He's not only the defending champion of The Barclays, he's also the defending champion of the best story in the 2007 Playoffs. Who doesn't want to see him play well again this year? It can't be denied that he struggled in the third round, but don't write him off yet...
3. Mike Weir. And not just to check up on that Playoffs beard. Whether he's taking the Great One's advice seriously or not, his game is serious this week. He's come close but hasn't won yet this year; will The Playoffs be his chance?
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