Round 3 Notebook: Waste Management Phoenix Open

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Feb. 27, 2010
By Mark Stevens, PGA TOUR Staff

Weather: Cloudy skies with temperatures in the low 70s. Morning winds SE 6-12 mph increasing in the afternoon to 15-25 mph.

• On Friday, play was suspended due to darkness at 6:30 p.m. MT with one player remaining on the course. Matt Every returned to the course at 7:30 a.m. MT Saturday morning and made a 4-foot, 4-inch putt for birdie on the 18th hole to move to 9-under for the tournament. The third round began at 8:50 a.m. MT in groups of three off two tees.

Brandt Snedeker shot a 5-under 66 on Saturday to move to 14-under 199. Snedeker leads Scott Piercy by one shot and is two ahead of rookies Matt Every and Rickie Fowler.

• Prior to Saturday, Snedeker's only other third-round lead was at the 2007 Buick Invitational before a final-round 71 (-1) left him in third. His last lead in any round was the second-round at the 2008 Transitions Championship.

• Snedeker has recorded only one over-par round in 20 total rounds this season. His only over-par round was a 1-over 72 at the Northern Trust Open. He has not finished outside of the top-21 in his four starts this year.

Tournament Finish
Bob Hope Classic T10
Farmers Insurance Open T2
Northern Trust Open T20
AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am T21

• Piercy had a pair of eagles through the first 10 holes in the third round. Piercy drove the green on the par-4, 390 yard 10th hole with a 361-yard drive that cut over the rough and landed 10 inches from the hole.

• Piercy is the ninth player to record two eagles in one round this year.

• Last year, Piercy was one stroke behind third-round leader Kenny Perry after the third round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Playing in the final group, a final-round 71 left Piercy three shots behind champion Perry. Piercy is again one shot behind leader Snedeker and in the final group.

• Piercy came within 10 inches of making a hole-in-one on a par-4 on No. 10. It is a rare feat considering Andrew Magee is believed to be the only player in TOUR history to make a hole-in-one on a par-4. Magee holed out on the par-4, 333-yard 17th hole at the 2001 Waste Management Open. Richard Johnson (2009) and Chip Beck (2003) are the only players in Nationwide Tour history to record a hole-in-one on a par 4.

• Piercy is the first player to record an eagle at the 10th hole this week and the only player to drive the green this week at that hole.

• If Rickie Fowler is able to capture his first victory on TOUR, he would be the youngest (21 years, 2 months, 15 days) player to ever win the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the second rookie (J.B. Holmes) to win in the 75 years of the event.

• Fowler (21 years, 2 months, 15 days) would be the youngest player to win on TOUR since Tiger Woods won his first tournament in 1996 at the age of 20 years, 9 months, 6 days. Sergio Garcia was 21 years, 4 months, 11 days when he won the 2001 Colonial.

Youngest Winners on TOUR since 1970
Player Event Age
Phil Mickelson 1991 Northern Telecom Open 20 years, 6 months, 25 days
Tiger Woods 1996 Las Vegas Invitational 20 years, 9 months, 6 days
Tiger Woods 1996 Walt Disney World Classic 20 years, 9 months, 20 days
Seve Ballesteros 1978 Greater Greensboro Open 20 years, 11 moths, 24 days
Tiger Woods 1997 Mercedes Championship 21 years, 13 days
Scott Verplank 1985 Western Open 21 years, 26 days
Rickie Fowler TBA 21 years, 2 months, 15 days
Youngest winners on the PGA TOUR from 2003-10:
Tournament Winner Birthdate Age won
TBA Rickie Fowler 12/13/88 21 years, 2 months, 15 days
2008 Wachovia Championship Anthony Kim 6/19/85 22 years, 10 months, 15 days
2005 John Deere Classic Sean O'Hair 7/10/82 22 years, 11 months, 29 days
2008 AT&T National Anthony Kim 6/19/85 23 years, 17 days
2003 Deutsche Bank Champ Adam Scott 7/16/80 23 years, 1 month, 16 days
2005 FBR Open J.B. Holmes 4/29/82 23 years, 9 months, 9 days
2004 Booz Allen Classic Adam Scott 7/16/80 23 years, 11 months, 11 days
2008 Turning Stone Resort Dustin Johnson 6/22/84 24 years, 3 months, 23 days
2004 EDS Byron Nelson Sergio Garcia 1/9/80 24 years, 4 months, 7 days

Mark Calcavecchia is looking to join Ray Floyd and Sam Snead as the only golfers to win in four different decades. Calcavecchia (Waste Management Phoenix Open/TPC Scottsdale) would join Snead (Wyndham Championship/Sedgefield Country Club) as the only player to do it at the same tournament on the same course.

• Matt Every has had an up-and-down rookie season. He opened with a missed cut at the Bob Hope Classic, but came back the following week with a T15 at the Farmers Insurance Open. A T27 at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am was followed by a DQ for signing an incorrect scorecard at the Mayakoba Golf Classic last week. Accepting responsibility for the DQ, Every said that his playing partner and childhood hero Mark Calcavecchia put him down for a three on a hole where he actually had a four. Every signed the card without checking and was disqualified. Every will play in Sunday's final group and his hero Calcavecchia will be one group behind him.

• Bogey-free rounds on Saturday: Hunter Mahan (65), Skip Kendall (67), Matt Kuchar (68).

Scoring Averages at TPC Scottsdale:
Round Front 9 Back 9 Total Cumulative
Thursday 34.979 35.130 70.109 --
Friday 34.182 35.112 69.294 69.704
Saturday 34.962 35.282 70.244 69.819

Dustin Johnson (AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am), Steve Stricker (Northern Trust Open) and Ryan Palmer (Sony Open in Hawaii) are the only three players out of seven to win after holding the lead/co-lead after the third round this season.

• Five of seven tournaments have been decided by one stroke this season. The other two tournaments (Stricker at Northern Trust Open and Cameron Beckman at Mayakoba Golf Classic) were two stroke victories. There have not been any playoffs on TOUR this season in the seven stroke-play events.

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