May. 9, 2009
By PGATOUR.COM Staff
Alex Cejka will take a five-stroke advantage into the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. But will it be enough? He's got the game's No. 1 player chasing him, along with a host of other talented pros. PGATOUR.COM takes a look at the contenders below.
|
 |
Tiger Woods |
T2 |
71-69-70-210 |
| Comment: What's not to like about his chances? The game's No. 1 player -- a man who has won 66 times on the PGA TOUR -- playing in the final group with a veteran from Germany looking for his first victory. Sure, he trails by five, but Woods made that many up on a similar Sunday at Bay Hill last month. "It's playing just like a major championship," said Woods, who has won 14 of them. "It's fast, it's hard, it's dry. And you just have to keep plodding along." |
 |
Retief Goosen |
T2 |
67-72-71-210 |
| Comment: Looking for someone flying under the radar? Goosen just might be your man. He won once this season, finished third at Pebble Beach and tied for 11th last week on a major-league course against another strong field. Goosen finished second at THE PLAYERS in 2006 and he's putting well, which is key at the Stadium Course. Turns out that bogey at the 18th hole kept him out of the final group on Sunday. "You always want to be one or two shots better, don't you?" Goosen said. "I had a poor finish. I had a perfect tee shot on the last and I was stuck in between a hard 9 and soft 8. I went for a soft 8(-iron) and made a poor swing. Bad bogey on the last. Would have been nice to finish at 7 (under)." |
 |
Jonathan Byrd |
T2 |
67-72-71-210 |
| Comment: Talk about momentum. Jonathan Byrd has it. He fired a 66 last Sunday to tie for fifth at Quail Hollow and he has been solid all week at THE PLAYERS. "The strategy is just play the golf course," said Byrd, who ranks third in GIR on the Stadium this week. "Even though you might give yourself a little more room for error when the greens get firmer, you've still got to make aggressive swings and carefree swings, and that's my whole goal going into tomorrow." |
 |
Ben Crane |
T2 |
65-73-72-210 |
| Comment: The first-round leader's day changed dramatically over the final three holes Saturday. He was 3 over for the day and 3 under for the tournament when he came to the 16th and made an 18-footer there and a birdie at the 18th. Crane said he's been working on learning how to salvage a good day and it worked Saturday. 'Sometimes you think when you're playing bad, oh, it has to turn around," he said. "Well, it doesn't have to turn around. So... that was a big step for me to be able to finish like that." |
 |
Henrik Stenson |
T2 |
68-69-73-210 |
| Comment: He would have been in the final group instead of Tiger had the Swede been able to negotiate the Stadium Course's final three holes better. But he flirted with the water from a semi-plugged lie in the greenside bunker at the 16th and three-putted the 17th for bogeys that took him from 8 under into that big tie for second. Don't look for him to be far from the lead Sunday, though -- Stenson has finished T3, T23 and T10 in his three previous PLAYERS. "If I had my bad breaks on 16 and 17 today I can hopefully finish a bit better tomorrow," he said. |
 |
Ian Poulter |
T2 |
67-68-75-210 |
| Comment: The flamboyant Brit didn't make a birdie at all on Saturday and he put himself behind the eight-ball with three birdies in a four-hole stretch that began at No. 8. "The type of day it was, was try and take advantage of the par 5s, I didn't do it,' said Poulter, who played in the final group with Cejka. "That's what's very costly today. Turning two potential birdie chances on (par 5s at) 9 and 11 into bogeys is four shots. .. That's a very different day tomorrow. But hey ho, life goes on." |
 |
Brian Davis |
T8 |
71-69-71-211 |
| Comment: The Englishman has made 17 birdies this week, but also has had 10 bogeys and a double. In four starts at THE PLAYERS, Davis has missed three cuts but also finished tied for 20th in 2006. He's shot under par in every round so far this week -- only Woods has done the same -- so Davis must be going something right. A six-stroke comeback is an awful lot to ask of a player looking for his first PGA TOUR win, though. |
 |
John Mallinger |
T8 |
66-71-74-211 |
| Comment: Things could have been worse for Mallinger had he not birdied the 16th and 17th, rolling in a downhill 29-footer on the island green much to the delight of the ample crowd. The three-putt bogey at the 18th was typical of a day that saw Mallinger make four overall, though. He's a fairways-and-greens guy like former champ Fred Funk or David Toms, but he's left himself a lot of ground to make up. Mallinger did open with a 66 but that came on Thursday when the Stadium Course was actually yielding low scores. |
 |
Kevin Na |
T8 |
71-66-74-211 |
| Comment: He only made two pars on the back nine in this roller-coaster Saturday. Na actually was tied for second at 9 under when he entered the closing stretch but bogeyed Nos. 10 and 11 and doubled the par-3 13th to fall back into the pack. The 25-year-old didn't give up, though, making birdie on the 15th and rolling in a 14-footer for eagle at the 16th before closing with two bogeys to finish at 5 under. "The golf course can do that to you," Na said. "Every hole is birdieable but definitely you can make an X on it. ... Tomorrow I'm going to go out there like I just don't care. I'm just going to try to have a good time. ... Maybe that's the key for me to get my first win." |
|