Round 4, Verizon Heritage

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Apr. 22, 2009
By PGATOUR.COM staff

The first groups are ready to tee off in today's fourth round of the Verizon Heritage. Here's how it sets up:

Groups We're Watching
Charles Howell III, Camilo Villegas
What's up with Villegas? He hit 93 percent of his fairways on Thursday, 86 percent on Friday and only 43 percent on Saturday. Tee time: 10:02 a.m. ET. Track 'em
Luke Donald, Alex Cejka
Only two of Donald's 11 career rounds at Harbour Town have been in the 60s, but one was Saturday's 65. Can he do that again? Tee time: 1:14 p.m. ET. Track 'em
Lee Janzen, Todd Hamilton
These two major winners have some serious ground to make up on Gay, but either could cap an amazing career comeback with a win. Tee time: 1:40 pm ET. Track 'em

EXPERT PREVIEW: PGA TOUR Network on-site correspondent Mark Carnevale previews Sunday's fourth round:

Sunday's forecast

Cloudy
Temp: 76 high/62 low
For the first time all week, it'll be more cloudy than sunny. The wind will also change directions, coming out of the south at 10 to 20 mph.
Sirius-Carnevale.jpg

As predicted, most of the low scores in the third round were carded during the early hours on Saturday. The winds picked up in the afternoon, creating some difficult conditions for the players, but Brian Gay maintained his position heading into the final round. Based on his stats, and they way he has played so far this week, don't expect Brian to back up.

His first win on TOUR in 2008 didn't qualify him for the Masters, but a win here Sunday will earn him a deserved invitation for 2010. But strange things have happened here and low rounds have been posted in the final round before, so I'm not giving it to Brian just yet.

How about this stat: Davis Love III has won this event five times. In three of his victories, the final round fell on April 19. Guess what Sunday is -- April 19. Davis is well back, but he already has shown he can produce some magic here; he will need some in his final round to gets his sixth tartan jacket here at Harbour Town.

The man in second place, Tim Wilkinson, is very soft-spoken. Over the last few weeks, he's been spending a great deal of time on the back of the driving range at TPC Sawgrass, and his efforts have proven worthwhile this week as he goes for his first PGA TOUR win on Sunday.

The lefthander from New Zealand has one thing in common with the world's best lefty golfer, Phil Mickelson -- they both play golf left-handed and write right-handed. I know Tim would like to have a few more things in common with Phil -- like 36 PGA TOUR wins. I think one would suit him just fine for now.

Stat of the day
Lee Janzen is looking for his first win since the1998 U.S. Open. Since that victory, Janzen has made 282 PGA TOUR starts, played 885 rounds, finished 15,930 holes, made 172 cuts and carded 23 top-10s.

NEWSWORTHY NUGGETS
• Eight of the last 13 outright third-round leaders have failed to win the Verizon Heritage. Over the last nine years of this event, the third-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win four times.

• Brian Gay turned his only previous outright third-round lead into a victory at the 2008 Mayakoba Golf Classic. He was tied for the lead at the 2004 Crown Plaza Invitational at Colonial before a final-round 75 dropped him to a tie for 14th.

• Tim Wilkinson has used only 70 putts through the first three rounds to move into sole possession of second place. Wilkinson is on pace to break the PGA TOUR record for fewest putts for four rounds, which is 92 by David Frost at the 2005 Verizon Heritage.

• The average age of the 16 winners on the PGA TOUR this season is 35 years old. There have been two winners in their 20s, 11 in their 30s and three in their 40s. Last year, 31 percent of the 48 winners on TOUR were in their 20s. This season only 13 percent of the 16 winners have been in their 20s.

Thus far at Harbour Town
Round Leader Low round (par 71) Key links
Alex Cejka (-7) 64: Alex Cejka Daily Wrap-Up | Live Report
Stan Awtrey column | Notebook
Brian Gay (-9) 66: Brian Gay, Todd Hamilton, Scott Verplank Daily Wrap-Up | Live Report
Stan Awtrey column | Notebook
Brian Gay (-13) 65: Tim Wilkinson, Briny Baird, Luke Donald Daily Wrap-Up | Live Report
Stan Awtrey column | Notebook
The Film Room
PGA TOUR Today
Win McMurry updates action from the third round of the 2009 Verizon Heritage and previews what to watch for in the final round. Watch it
Shot of the day
Matt Weibring hits it to inches on the par-4 finishing hole during the third round of the 2009 Verizon Heritage. Watch it
Third-round highlights
Brian Gay takes a three-shot lead into the final round of the 2009 Verizon Heritage, looking for his first PGA TOUR victory of the season. Watch it
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