Third round: Cink still in control, building lead
CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) -- Stewart Cink birdied the final two holes Saturday to take a two-stroke lead into the final round of the Travelers Championship.
Cink followed his opening rounds of 66 and 64 with a 5-under 65 to reach 15-under 195 on the TPC River Highlands, the best 54-hole score of his career.
Heath Slocum (64) was second, and defending champion Hunter Mahan (67), Vijay Singh (64), Kenny Perry (65), Tommy Armour III (65) and Kevin Streelman (62) were 12 under.
On a day when 24 golfers shot 66 or better, 17 players ended up within five shots of the lead going into Sunday's final round. The average score of 68.2 was the best ever for a third round on the course.
Cink expects to have to be at 20 under on Sunday to have a chance to win.
"Some guys got hot and boom, they're up there at double-digits under par," Cink said. "I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be the same way tomorrow."
Cink is looking for his first victory this year after six top-10 finishes. He is ranked seventh in the FedExCup point standings, the highest ranking of any golfer who hasn't won a tournament. But he usually plays well here, on a course where he earned his first PGA TOUR victory as a rookie in 1997.
Cink had dropped into a tie with Slocum after hitting his tee shot on the 16th into the water but rebounded with an 11-foot birdie putt on No. 17, and he hit an approach within 2 feet on 18.
"I felt like I gained some momentum back and put myself in a good mindset for tomorrow," Cink said.
Slocum, who shot a 65 last Sunday for the low round at the U.S. Open, said that play has carried over. He bogeyed two holes on the front nine, then adjusted his swing and hit all nine greens after the turn. He finished with eight birdies.
"Definitely the putter has carried over to this week," he said. "I'm going to probably have to lean on it tomorrow hard if I'm going to think about winning this golf tournament."
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I'd say it was a good confidence boost for me. It was a ton of fun to be honest. To have my friends and family and have everyone out there and enjoying it, and all the calls from everybody back home and text messages and stuff, that was pretty neat. Just a year ago, I was chasing mini-tours and driving three cars into the ground over the past seven years. You know to come here is a dream come true, but it's just the beginning of more hard work I got to do to get where I want to be." -- Kevin Streelman on his fine showing in the U.S. Open followed up by a third-round 62 to put him in the mix this week in Hartford.
IMPROVED PUTTING HAS TRAHAN FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS
By Bruce Berlet, Special to PGATOUR.com
CROMWELL, Conn. -- Folks are constantly looking for a legitimate challenger to Tiger Woods.
There have been a handful of pretenders for months at a time, but no one has stepped up long-term.
Now that the world No. 1 is on the shelf for the rest of the year because of pending knee surgery, candidates have an open shot at the throne.
For two weeks, at least, youngster D.J. Trahan appears willing to accept the challenge.
Trahan, who won his second PGA TOUR title in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in January, grinded his way to a tie for fourth in last week's U.S. Open, finishing three shots out the Woods-Rocco Mediate playoff.
Showing that wasn't a fluke, Trahan shot an 8-under-par 62 on Saturday at the Travelers Championship, one off the course record and two under his previous career low on TOUR.
Trahan had eight birdies and gazed the cup from 35 feet on the last hole, or he would have tied the course record shared by Brad Faxon (fourth round, 2005), Scott Verplank (fourth, 2001), Phil Mickelson (third, 2001) and Kirk Triplett (third, 2000).
"I played excellent golf, definitely the best round I've played all year," Trahan said. "I felt really good over every putt. A lot of days, even when you play well, you don't feel good over all of them. But every time I stepped over a putt, I felt very, very comfortable.
"I've had a good feel for the greens all week. I just really truly burned the edge so much, especially the first two days. [Friday] I couldn't get a putt to go in. It's frustrating, but that's golf. I was making good putts and good strokes, but you just have to kind of take it with a grain of salt. I burned a few edges again today, but I finally saw some go in.
"It's one of those things on these greens that if you give yourself enough looks, you're eventually going to make some putts, and I finally did that."
But Trahan didn't put that much pressure on his putter. His only birdie putt longer than six feet was an 11-footer at No. 1. The longest putt he made was from 17 feet for par at No. 16.
Trahan, who just made the 3-under 137 cut, admitted the magical 59 popped in his head.
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SLOCUM'S TRAIN STILL CHUGGING
Heath Slocum has shot three rounds in the 60s this week, which might just be part of a mid-season surge the Floridian has been riding lately. Despite a tie for 10th at the Sony Open in Hawaii, the 34-year-old best friend of Boo Weekley struggled at the start of the season.
A couple of missed cuts and low finishes -- 71st at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, 77th at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship, a tie for 69th at THE PLAYERS Champhionship -- had Slocum slipping. But something lit a fire under him lately. With a tie for eighth at the AT&T Classic, a tie for 26th at the Crowne Plaza Invitational, a tie for 24th at the Stanford St. Jude Championship and a tie for ninth at the U.S. Open -- which included the lowest round of the week with a Sunday 65 -- Slocum seems to be awakening from his slump.
He has followed that streak up this week in Hartford with rounds of 67, 66 and 64 respectively to put himself -- again -- in the running for his first win of 2008.
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ANOTHER CLOSE CALL FOR VIJAY?
| 8 | The number of eagles in the third round at TPC River Highlands, where several players went very low on moving day. |
| 49 | The number of rounds below par in the third round of the Travelers Championship. To compare, there were 17 rounds over par. |
| 297 | The total number of birdies made in the third round of the Travelers Championship, contributing to the average score of 68.167 at TPC River Highlands on Saturday. |
Vijay Singh has 31 career victories, but in 2008, he's 0 for 14. The 45-year-old Fijian had two wins under his belt way before this point in the season last year, but so far, Singh has only been able to chalk up a lot of near misses this year.
Four top-10 finishes, including two runner-up places and a third, as well as five top-25 finishes have had Singh salivating over a trophy on numerous occasions this season. Will he finally break through this week, or will it be just another close call?
Going into Sunday, Singh -- who is ranked ninth in the world -- is tied for third at 12 under alongside Kevin Streelman, Tommy Armour III, Kenny Perry and defending champion Hunter Mahan. If Singh wants to break out of that logjam and give himself a chance of winning, he's going to need to go low. Very, very low.
DON'T FORGET ABOUT THIS GUY
Surely you haven't failed to notice one of the names hanging around the top of the leaderboard this week, have you? That's right, the man with a plan Kenny Perry is -- once again -- playing some fantastic golf in his week-to-week quest to earn a spot on the Ryder Cup team.
Perry, who won just three weeks ago in near-U.S. Open conditions at the Memorial Tournament, is tied for third going into the final round of the Travelers Championship. You'll remember that the Kentucky native is so passionate about being a part of the Ryder Cup in his home state at Valahalla Golf Club that he skipped qualifying for the national championship at Torrey Pines in order to focus on his goal.
It seems to be paying off for him, and U.S. Team Captain Paul Azinger must surely be watching. Perry couldn't be hotter right now, so don't count him out for a low final round to keep him within sniffing distance of the eight men who will play their way onto Azinger's team -- he's currently seventh in the standings -- or even grab his second win in a month.
THREE THINGS TO WATCH ON SUNDAY
1. Kenny Perry. After three rounds of 66, 67 and 65, Perry is right in the thick of it at TPC River Highlands. He should at least get another top-10 finish (and a ton of Ryder Cup points) if he keeps up the tempo on Sunday.
2. Hunter Mahan. The defending champion has yet to earn a second win since he broke through at the Travelers Championship last year, and if he manages to grab that follow-up win this week, he'll be the only player in the history of the event to win two in a row besides Phil Mickelson. But at three shots back and his capability of going very low in Hartford, it's not a foolish suggestion.
3. Michael Letzig. Tied for eighth at 11 under, this Nationwide Tour grad is putting on one of his best shows this season. Letzig has only made eight of 16 cuts this year with his two best finishes coming at The Honda Classic and the Verizon Heritage -- both ties for seventh. Can the Midwestern boy improve on his finishes this week in New England?
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