The Barclays: Round 3 notebook

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Steve Marino birdied three of the final five holes on Saturday to shoot 3-under-par 68 to move to 9-under par and a tie with Paul Goydos for the third-round lead at The Barclays. Marino leads the field with 76 putts thru three rounds.

• This is the second time in Marino's career that he has held or shared the 54-hole lead. He was also tied for the lead thru three rounds at the 2008 Children's Miracle Network Classic at Walt Disney World Resort. He finished tied for third.

• In his third year as a PGA TOUR member, Marino is looking for his first win. In The Barclays' 42-year history, eight players have made the event their first PGA TOUR win.

• At The Barclays, Marino missed the cut in 2007 and T69 in 2008.

• This season, Marino has recorded four top-10 finishes, including a T2 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational after losing a sudden-death playoff to Steve Stricker and a T10 last week at the Wyndham Championship. Of Marino's 14 career top-10 finishes over the past three seasons, he's never had back-to-back top 10s.

• Marino could move into the coveted top five in FedExCup standings with a third-place or better finish this week.

• Paul Goydos, co-leader after Round 1 and currently 49th in FedExCup points, birdied holes 3, 4 and 5 to jump-start his third round and finished Saturday with a 3-under-par 68 to share the lead with Steve Marino at 9-under-par. Goydos has twice held a 54-hole lead in his career. The last time was earlier this year a the Travelers Championship where he finished T2. His other 54-hole lead was at the 2008 PLAYERS Championship where he lost in a playoff to Sergio Garcia.

• Goydos' share of the lead at The Barclays is due in part to his play on the par 3s. Goydos leads the field outright in average score on the par-threes with a 2.67 through three rounds

• Goydos has never played in THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. A 28th-or-better finish this week would move Goydos into the top 30 in FedExCup points. A second-place or better would move him into the top five.

• Goydos has two PGA TOUR wins: 1996 Bay Hill Invitational and 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii.

• Goydos is competing in The Barclays for the 13th time in his career, making six cuts with three top-20 finishes (T11/1996, T13/1993, T16/2000).

• For the week, Goydos is averaging 1.545 putts per green in regulation, the second-best average of any player in the field this week.

• Sweden's Fredrik Jacobson also shot a 3-under 68 to move to 7-under par and is T3 with Webb Simpson. Jacobson has twice finished runner-up on the PGA TOUR -- 2008 AT&T National and the 2007 Ginn sur Mer Classic at Tesoro.

• Entering The Barclays, Jacobson needed to play well to continue in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. He has two top-10 finishes in 2009, both T5s at The Honda Classic and the Valero Texas Open.

• Jacobson is making his seventh career start at The Barclays with his best finish at T5 in 2006.

• Jacobson finished 104th in the 2007 FedExCup race and 53rd last year. If Jacobson were to stay in the same position (T3) that he finished the third round, he would move to No. 21 in the FedExCup standings.

• Webb Simpson is two strokes back of the lead at 7 under and is T3. His previous best position after 54 holes in his PGA TOUR career is T10 -- 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational (finished T11).

• There has not been a rookie winner yet this year on the PGA TOUR. Of course, there are still plenty of tournaments left in 2009, but the last time no rookie won in an entire season was 1998. It has happened only five times since 1970 (1998, 1986, 1981, 1978, 1970).

• Simpson is making his first career start at The Barclays. In the 42-year history of the event, only two players have won in their first starts: Jack Renner (1979) and Vijay Singh (1993). For both of those players, it was also their first PGA TOUR win. Singh was a rookie.

• Stricker continues to play well in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Stricker hit 14 of 14 fairways during round three to shot a 3-under 68 and is three strokes off the lead. Stricker leads the field by hitting 87.8 percent of the fairways (37 of 42).

• Stricker ended a winless drought of nearly seven years and 146 PGA TOUR starts when he won the The Barclays in 2007. Stricker enters the 2009 PGA TOUR Playoffs No. 2 in the FedExCup points standings on the strength of victories earlier in the year at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in May and the John Deere Classic in July. In addition to the two victories, Stricker has notched six other top-10s in 2009, highlighted by a second-place finish at the Northern Trust Open.

• A top-10 finish this week would be Stricker's fifth top 10 in a PGA TOUR Playoff event.

• Both of Stricker's victories this year have come after trailing thru 54 holes. He trailed by two strokes at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial and by one stroke at the John Deer Classic.

• Stricker's eight top-10 finishes are T2 on the PGA TOUR in 2009 (Tiger Woods -- 11; Kevin Na -- 8).

• Stricker is one of three players who have played in all 32 rounds of the FedExCup before the start of The Barclays.

• Stricker also leads the PGA TOUR Playoffs for most rounds in the 60s

• Tiger Woods shot a 4-under 67 to move from T17 at the start of the third round to T7 when the round ended. Woods was eight strokes behind leader Webb Simpson following the second round. Woods' largest comeback after 36 holes in nine strokes. Below is a look at Woods' largest 36-hole come from behind victories.

• Woods has been paired with Zach Johnson during all three rounds this week. They each posted rounds of 70-72-67--209 and will be paired again together on Sunday.

• Woods is five strokes behind entering the final round. Twenty of Woods' 70 victories have been come after trailing thru 54 holes.

• After shooting 1-over 37 on the front nine on Saturday, six-time PGA TOUR winner Zach Johnson birdied holes 13-17 for a back-nine 30 to shoot 4-under-par for the day. Oh Johnson's six career PGA TOUR victories, three have come after trailing thru three rounds. His largest come-from-behind win was three strokes at the AT&T Classic.

• Johnson comes to The Barclays No. 3 in the FedExCup standings with two victories at the Sony Open in Hawaii and a second-consecutive triumph at the Valero Texas Open. Johnson has seven top 10s in 21 starts in 2009 and has posted sub-par scores in 44-of-72 rounds on the year. In addition to the two victories, Johnson notched a T2 at the John Deere Classic in July.

• Johnson is making his fourth-career start at The Barclays with his best finish at T23 in 2004. Posted three sub-par rounds in 2007 en route to a T25 and missed the cut in 2008.

• Johnson spent a total of five weeks at the top of the FedExCup points list following his two victories.

• Johnson ranked No. 1 for two weeks following his victory at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January and three more weeks following his victory at the Valero Texas Open in May. Johnson has enjoyed a top-five position in the FedExCup for 14 weeks during the season, with his lowest ranking at No. 8 following the Transitions Championship in March.

• Johnson has competed in five-of-eight PGA TOUR Playoff events since their inception in 2007 (missed final three of 2008) with his best finish at T2 at THE TOUR Championship in 2007. He finished the 2007 campaign No. 7 in the final FedExCup standings and No. 131 in 2008.

• Jim Furyk mistakenly started his round with an extra 60-degree wedge in his bag and had to take a two-stroke penalty on both the first and second holes, resulting in double bogeys. Furyk discovered the extra club on the second hole, but still managed to shot a 1-under-par 70 by the end of the day. The rule states that the maximum penalty is two strokes per hole with a four-stroke maximum penalty.

• The hardest hole thru three rounds has been the 508-yard, par-4 10th hole, playing to a 4.456 average.

• Daniel Chopra had a hole-in-one on the par 3 4th. Chopra hit a 6-iron from 179 yards.

• The 16th hole has played at our around 300 yards thru all three rounds depending on placement of the tees. Below is how the field has faired by attempting to drive the green or laying up:

• In addition to winning the FedExCup, players have other reasons to hope to reach THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. Another motivating factor is the tournaments in 2010 that a player who makes THE TOUR Championship field gains access to: Masters Tournament, U.S. Open, British Open, World Golf Championships-CA Championship, All Invitationals, except the SBS Championship, All full-field, open tournaments.

• Five players moved into the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup with top-25 performances at last week's Wyndham Championship. Only two have a chance at advancing to the Deutsche Bank Championship next week:

• As the first tournament of the four-event PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, this week's field will be cut to 100 players for next week's Deutsche Bank Championship. Players starting the week between 101 and 125 needed to at least make the cut this week in order to advance. Thirteen of the 25 were eliminated from the PGA TOUR Playoffs by missing the 36-hole cut at The Barclays.

• Ten players played in each of the nine events in the history of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Here's a look at the 10, their 54-hole scores/standing, and previous FedExCup finishes:

• After zero bogey-free rounds on Friday, Bo Van Pelt, Greg Owen, Jonathan Byrd, Brandt Snedeker and Steve Stricker shot bogey-free rounds on Saturday.