A four-man battle in Akron? Mickelson thinks so

By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents

AKRON, Ohio -- Phil Mickelson doesn't plan to look back. He doesn't expect Lee Westwood or Vijay Singh or Stuart Appleby to look back, either.

So unless you're one of the four men in the last two groups during Sunday's final round of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, Mickelson doesn't give you much chance to win the Gary Player Cup.

Why not? Well, Mickelson and Singh are the only two players who have shot all three rounds in the 60s this week. The left-hander's 68 and Singh's 69 Saturday left them in a tie with Westwood at 8 under as each chases his first World Golf Championships title and the $1.35 million first prize.

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Vijay Singh is hoping to extend his streak of consecutive years with a TOUR win to seven on Sunday.

Vijay Singh

Through 54 holes

STATS Rnd1 Rnd2 Rnd3 EAGLES -- -- -- BIRDIES 5 5 5 PARS 12 12 9 BOGEYS -- 1 4 DOUBLE BOGEYS 1 -- -- OTHER -- -- -- DRIVING ACCURACY 93 43 50 DRIVING DISTANCE 299.5 292.5 326.0 PUTTS PER ROUND 29 28 27 PUTTS PER GIR 1.692 1.714 1.727 GREENS IN REG 72 78 61 SAND SAVES 100 100 100

And Appleby finds himself in the penultimate group with Mickelson despite playing his first nine holes in 5 over. His recovery and striking ascent up the leaderboard shows the Aussie is playing well at the right time, too.

The way the four have separated themselves from the rest of the star-studded pack certainly doesn't bode well for players like Retief Goosen, who is alone in fifth, three strokes off the pace. Ditto for Darren Clarke, Chris DiMarco, D.J. Trahan, Rory Sabbatini and Miguel Angel Jimenez who are another stroke back at 4 under.

"Even though normally you would say four shots, you're right in it, I think it's going to take a 6- or 7-under par round from one of those guys to catch all four of us, because all four of us are playing well," Mickelson said.

"I expect at least one and probably two or three of us to have good rounds in the 60s tomorrow and force the guys behind us to catch up with birdies. I don't think all four of us are going to come back to them, so they're going to have to go make birdies to catch us, I believe."

Ironically, Tiger Woods -- the six-time champion now resting his surgically repaired left knee at home in Orlando -- is the only player who has come from behind to win the Bridgestone Invitational. And he's done it three times.

Firestone Country Club will certainly have its say in the outcome, too. A course of major proportions, literally as well as figuratively, Firestone has dried out from Wednesday's rains and its tight, tree-lined fairways can wreak havoc with the best of them.

"The course has gotten tougher," Appleby said. "Today will be the best of whatever scoring is left out there. I think tomorrow if you shot 3 or 4 under, that would be excellent golf, if we have conditions with the amount of breeze that we had, which was varying between well, at least a half a club, I guess."

Mickelson, who only made one bogey over the first 36 holes, had three on Saturday. He was hardly disappointed with the 68, which included three straight birdies from Nos. 14-16, but he hopes to be more steady in the final round.

"I want to play more like the first two rounds, a lot of pars, a scattered birdie here or there so I'm not giving a lot of shots back," he said. "I think in the end, the marathon type mentality or trying to outlast will end up winning."

Mickelson compared the way Firestone has been set up with the way he expects next week's PGA Championship to be with fast greens, narrow fairways and rough that allows for recovery shots. A potential winning score of 10 or 11 under is right where he thinks it should be.

"To me, that's a great quality golf course," Mickelson said. "That's what the best players in the world should probably shoot under a tough test, so it probably does have a major feel."

The three-time major champion sees plusses to being in the penultimate group with Appleby as well as in the finale as he was on Saturday with Singh. He's the only one among the four to have won this year, and he's already done it twice.

"If I get off to a good start, it's tough to follow birdies when you know you have to make birdies," Mickelson explained. "But on the other hand, it's nice to be in the last group and know what you need to do."

Westwood's appearance in the final pairing is his second straight on U.S. soil. The Englishman played with Woods in the final group on Sunday at Torrey Pines and went on to finish third, one stroke out of the playoff between the world's No. 1 and Rocco Mediate. It was his eighth top-10 of the season.

"I'm not worried about not winning," said the 25-time European Tour champ. "I'm just delighted about the consistency. I know that winning is very fickle. I went three years without winning and then won twice within four weeks. Winning is strange. Sometimes it doesn't go your way, sometimes somebody else plays a bit better.

"I could easily be U.S. Open champion, but I didn't do the job when I needed to. All you can do is give yourself chances, and I've given myself a lot of chances."

Singh has five top-10s this year, including a tie for second at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship and a playoff loss at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. A 31-time winner on the PGA TOUR, the big Fijian is in danger of seeing his streak of six straight years with at least one win snapped.

"It's in the back of my head," Singh admitted. "It's not going to be there tomorrow when I start off. I'm going to go out there and focus on the day and see if I can put it up."

Appleby is the only man to have played in all 29 World Golf Championships. Singh has played in 26 while Mickelson and Westwood have played in 25 each. All four have runner-up finishes in the global series but have yet to light that cigar.

"Still a long way to get the job done, though, but it's certainly a very comfortable spot to know, good resources to use knowing that I've come back after an awful nine holes," Appleby, who met his wife at Firestone in 2000, said.

"When you normally waste a couple shots, sometimes you can think yourself out of the tournament, but when you waste five you think you've made a whole mess of it. But to know I haven't leaves me in good stead for tomorrow maybe."