Former college standout Molder vying for first win

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Bryce Molder may not have gotten to play in the Verizon Heritage last month but Brian Gay's 10-stroke victory wasn't lost on him.

Related

Molder's scorecard
Molder's 2009 results
Player profile: Molder

He was suitably impressed. At the same time, though, Molder knows the only thing he can do when the two tee off with Robert Allenby in Sunday's final group with the St. Jude Classic presented by FedEx on the line is play his own game.

Gay owns the edge at 14 under, but this time he only leads by one stroke, not three as he did at Hilton Head. And Molder, who grew up about two-and-a-half hours away in Conway, Ark., is riding the momentum of his three best rounds of the season.

"If I was trying to guard Kobe Bryant who can close off games pretty well, then that's something I would have an effect on him or wouldn't have an effect on him," Molder said -- although he might have chosen a better analogy given the Los Angeles Lakers' 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals.

"He can't really do anything about my game. I can't really do anything about his game. You just play it. ... Obviously I'm not going to go out there expecting him to play poorly at all, because he's had a very good year. ...

"But tomorrow is a completely different day, and the golf ball doesn't know about the history of either one of us."

While he is still looking for his first PGA TOUR win, Molder's history is pretty impressive. He is one of a quartet of four-time first-team All-Americans and he won all three national player of the year awards at one time during his career at Georgia Tech.

Molder has persevered as a golfer despite being born with no left pectoral muscle, which makes that side of his chest concave. He also has Poland Syndrome, which made his left hand smaller than his right, and he had surgery twice before he was 5 because three fingers on his left hand were webbed together up to the knuckle.

The 2009 season is Molder's third on the PGA TOUR, this time courtesy of finishing No. 23 on last year's Nationwide Tour money list. But he's only gotten to play in eight tournaments this year and cashed checks in just three so Sunday could be life-changing.

Molder played with Gay and Allenby in the final group on Saturday -- his first experience in that position on TOUR. It didn't start off that well, either, as he made a bogey at No. 2 to Gay's birdie and suddenly found himself four strokes off the pace.

"It was a slow start. It wasn't an accident," Molder acknowledged. "I for some reason got out there and got on the range and my swing felt different than I did yesterday.

"Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was whatever, but I was able to get it in the middle of the fairway on 1 and kind of said a little prayer to myself, just to kind of have some peace out there and have some fun and, you know, within two, three, four holes, I kind of worked my way back into feeling the way I was yesterday."

The turning point, Molder thought, came when he walked into the fifth fairway and was confronted by a mudball. He took his best guess, aimed and ended up with a 15-footer for birdie that got him back on track.

Molder played his final 14 holes in 5 under, including birdies on two of his last four to shoot 65 and pull within a stroke of the leader. Allenby, who tried to keep pace with a 68 on Saturday, is two more back at 11 under.

"Bryce got off to a slow start, but played really well after that," Gay said. "The whole group was hitting it pretty well. I made the comment to my caddy that I couldn't get the tee box back for it seemed like nine holes."

Molder was pleased with the round after what he called that "little hiccup to start." Most importantly, though, he gained confidence that he can turn things around if they start to go south on Sunday.

"That's the second round this week that I got over-par early and was able just to kind of play," Molder said. "So much can happen. And I'm a very streaky putter, and so I know when they start falling that a lot of them fall. ...

"I'm not going to say I'm never out if it, because once again that's kind of getting in a chess match and playing to a score, but I know that I can make a lot of birdies if I'm seeing my line well and hitting some decent iron shots.

"So, getting off to a good start would be great. If not, I still got some birdies in me."