Deutsche Bank Champ: Round 3 notebook

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NORTON, Mass. -- After the 36-hole cut was determined Saturday, any player currently ranked 37th or higher in the FedExCup standings cannot mathematically fall below 70th and is guaranteed to advance to the BMW Championship.

• Steve Stricker recorded seven birdies, three bogeys and an eagle at the final hole to post 6-under 65 in the third round. Stricker had 11 one-putts in a round that required just 23 overall.

• Stricker is 13-under through 54 holes, having played the front nine 8-under. Retief Goosen is also 8-under for the front nine after three rounds. The South African was bogey-free on the front nine until he missed an 8-foot par putt at the ninth hole in Round 3.

• Four players can potentially pass Tiger Woods this week for the No. 1 position in the FedExCup standings:

• Stricker has held the 54-hole lead/co-lead seven previous times in his PGA TOUR career, most recently the 2007 BMW Championship where he finished in third place. Stricker has won twice after holding the 54-hole lead/co-lead: 1996 Motorola Western Open; 2007 The Barclays.

• Goosen has held the 54-hole lead/co-lead seven previous times in his PGA TOUR career, most recently the 2009 RBC Canadian Open where he was defeated by Nathan Green in a playoff. Goosen has won four times after holding the 54-hole lead/co-lead:2001 U.S. Open; 2002 Bellsouth Classic; 2003 Chrysler Championship; 2004 U.S. Open.

• Sean O'Hair has held the 54-hole lead/co-lead four previous times in his PGA TOUR career, most recently the 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational where he finished in second place. O'Hair has never won on the PGA TOUR after holding the 54-hole lead/co-lead.

• Paired together for round three were the Madison, Wis., duo of Steve Stricker (65) and Jerry Kelly (67) -- for the second time this year. The last time the pair played together was round three of the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational where Stricker shot 71 and finished T6 while Kelly posted 69 for an eventual T11 finish.

• Goosen is No. 16 on the PGA TOUR career money list with seven wins while Steve Stricker is No. 17 with six victories and Sean O'Hair is No. 80 with three wins.

• O'Hair is bogey free on the back nine through 54 holes and is 7 under over the back nine this week.

RELATED LINKS

Leaderboard: Round 3 scores
Round 4 tee times
Transcript archive
Live Report: Round 3
Photos: Round 3

• O'Hair was attempting to shoot his third consecutive round in the 60s but early bogeys at Nos. 1, 3 and 7 made his task difficult. The last time O'Hair posted three consecutive rounds in the 60s was the first three rounds of the 2009 FBR Open (69-69-69), a string of six straight rounds in the 60s which also included rounds 2, 3 and 4 at the 2009 Sony Open in Hawaii (68-66-68). O'Hair birdied two of the last three holes to shoot 1-under 70.

• Prior to this week, O'Hair had made just 12 birdies in his last three events, the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, PGA Championship and The Barclays. Through three rounds here, he has already amassed 16 birdies and an eagle.

• Headed into this week, O'Hair had racked up six top-10 finishes, highlighted by a victory, the third of his career, at the Quail Hollow Championship. He missed the cut at last week's The Barclays, following a pair of 77s in the first two rounds. Last week's missed cut was just his fourth in 20 starts this year.

• The 54-hole leader/co-leader went on to win the first three Deutsche Bank Championships (Adam Scott in 2003, Vijay Singh in 2004 and Olin Browne in 2005), but have failed to do so the last three years.

• The third-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win 20 of 37 stroke-play events on the PGA TOUR in 2009, most recently John Rollins at the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open.

• Kevin Na, No. 22 on the FedExCup standings entering the week and 20th on the Presidents Cup standings after the PGA Championship when the U.S. Team was determined, is attempting to earn his ninth top-10 finish of the year. It would represent Na's 19th career top-10 in his sixth season on TOUR. Na is tied for fourth after 54 holes. Only Tiger Woods (12) and Steve Stricker (9) have more top-10 finishes than Na this season.

• Padraig Harrington was bogey free in the third round. In fact, Harrington has made just three bogeys through 54 holes, the fewest of any player in the field along with Goosen (-13), Mark Wilson (-8) and Jason Day (-7). Day has also posted two double bogeys.

• Although Harrington won the Irish PGA Championship by seven strokes the week before the British Open this year, he is looking for his first official victory of the season. Harrington was No. 130 on the FedExCup standings after the 2009 British Open a little less than 50 days ago and began this week at No. 14 after three consecutive top-10 finishes (T2/WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, T10/PGA Championship, T2/The Barclays).

• Jerry Kelly was a Presidents Cup team member in 2003. Kelly was No. 16 on the Presidents Cup rankings when the qualifying period to determine the 2009 team concluded after the 2009 PGA Championship. Captain Fred Couples, along with International Team Captain Greg Norman, announce their two Captain's picks at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, September 8.

• Kelly ranks T1 in Fairways Hit (36/42 - 85.7%) and first in Greens In Regulation (44/54 -- 81.5%) through 54 holes.

• It took Tiger Woods 15 holes to record his first birdie of the third round when he holed a putt from 5 feet, 11 inches.

• Woods is T30 and nine strokes off the lead through 54 holes. In 13 stroke-play events on the PGA TOUR this season, Woods has finished outside the top 10 just once, a missed cut at the British Open. Woods has come back to win twice in his career from five strokes back through 54 holes (2000 AT&T Pebble Beach, 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational).

• In 70 career victories, Woods has never won when heading into the final round of a tournament outside the top 10. Woods was T8 heading into the final round of the 2000 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am when he came from five strokes back to win. Earlier this year, at the Memorial Tournament, Woods was T7 entering the final round and won by one stroke, marking just the second time in his PGA TOUR career Woods has won when entering the final round outside the top five.

• Mike Weir held the third-round lead in 2008 and finished second after a final-round 71. This year the left-hander enters the final round tied for 17th at 8-under.

• Justin Leonard made his first (and only) front-nine bogey of the week at the par-4 6th today when he three-putted from 70 feet.

• Hunter Mahan was 6-over after seven holes in his opening round and posted 2-over 73. Rounds of 66-69 have Mahan at 5-under through 54 holes and T25. Maybe he still has Captain Fred Couples' attention for one of the two available Captain's picks for The Presidents Cup team?

• Round three featured three pairings of major championship winners -- Phil Mickelson (72) and Zach Johnson (67), Lucas Glover (72) and Tiger Woods (72), Angel Cabrera (70) and Padraig Harrington (67) -- with the Cabrera/Harrington pairing recording the lowest scores of the three groups.

• Mark Wilson, a winner earlier this season at the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun, got off to a great start when he holed a 97-yard pitch for eagle at the par-4 first hole. It was the fourth eagle scored at the first hole in tournament history, the other three coming in the 2004 Deutsche Bank Championship (Vijay Singh/Round 2, Casey Wittenberg/Round 2, Justin Rose/Round 3). Wilson began the day in T43 position before posting a bogey-free 5-under 66 to jump to T17 after 54 holes.