Northern Trust Open: Round 3 Notebook

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Saturday afternoon weather: Mostly cloudy with intermittent rain showers, temperatures in the mid- to high 50s. Winds SW 5-10 mph. Total rainfall for Friday and Saturday -- 3.27".

Related

Leaderboard: Round 3
Live Report: Round 3
Ross: Donald's 'tidy' round
Transcript archive

Weather and field recaps:

Sunday: The third round resumed at 7 a.m. A total of 12 players had to complete their third round. The third round was completed at 7:50 am.

Saturday: The second round resumed at 9 a.m. (90-minute delay from the original projection of a 7:30 a.m. start). A total of 41 players had to complete their second rounds on Saturday, but four players withdrew before play resumed: Scott Piercy, Daniel Chopra, Stephen Ames and Ben Crane.

The second round was completed at 10:49 a.m. The third round began at 11:10 a.m.

The cut was 81 players at 144 (2 over).

The third round was suspended due to darkness at 5:34 p.m. Twelve players will return to complete Round 3 at 7 a.m. on Sunday. There will be another cut to the low 70 and ties and then players will be re-paired. The final round is expected to start at approximately 8 a.m.

Friday: Rickie Fowler, Alex Prugh and Brett Lederer all made par on the 18th hole after resuming play at 8 a.m. to complete the first round. The second round began as scheduled. Chris Couch withdrew during the second round due to a recurring shoulder injury. Jesper Parnevik and Rocco Mediate withdrew due to back injuries.

The second round was suspended at 5:02 p.m. due to darkness. A total of 41 players were to return at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday to complete the second round.

Thursday: The first round was suspended due to darkness with three players remaining on the course with one hole to play: Rickie Fowler, Alex Prugh and Brett Lederer.

Three of the six players from the United States under 30 with multiple PGA TOUR victories are in contention at the Northern Trust Open -- Anthony Kim (T8 with 1 hole to play in Round 3), J.B. Holmes (T2, completed Round 3) and Dustin Johnson (T5 with four holes to play in Round 3). D.J. Trahan, Sean O'Hair and Nick Watney are the other three.

Steve Stricker
Steve Stricker, No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking and runner-up to Phil Mickelson at last year's Northern Trust Open, has a six-shot lead after shooting a third round 5-under-par 66. Stricker, at 15-under-par for the tournament, returned on Sunday morning and holed his first shot, a 37-foot birdie putt on the 15thgreen.

Stricker has recorded nine consecutive rounds in the 60s this season -- the final two rounds of the SBS Championship, all four rounds of the Sony Open and three rounds of the Northern Trust Open. He leads the PGA TOUR in this category this season. Steve Elkington is second with five.

Stricker matched the record for consecutive rounds in the 60s at the Northern Trust Open at 8, set by Johnny Miller in 1981-82. He shot 69 in the final round of the 2008 event, 68-66-69-67 in 2009 and has rounds of 67-65-66 so far this week.

Stricker was the runner-up to Phil Mickelson at last year's Northern Trust Open. A win would make him the fifth player in the event's 84-year history to win the tournament the year after finishing second or T2.

Stricker has held or shared a 54-hole lead eight previous times in his career and he has gone on to win three of those events. He has never been over par on Sunday when he was the 54-hole leader. Stricker has won both times when he has been the outright leader heading into the final round, including the 2006 Motorola Western Open when he had a five-shot lead.

Stricker is one of two players with top-10 finishes in the first two events of the season: T10 at the SBS Championship and 3rd at the Sony Open.

Stricker is coming off the best season of his career, having captured three PGA TOUR events (Crowne Plaza Invitational, John Deere Classic, Deutsche Bank Championship); he is one of just nine players since 2000 to win three or more times in a season (Woods, Singh, Els, Love, Perry, Weir, Mickelson, Toms).

Luke Donald
Luke Donald moved into contention with a bogey-free 66 (-5) in Round 3. He is T2 at 204 (-9) and is six shots behind Steve Stricker.

This is Donald's ninth consecutive start at the Northern Trust Open. He has finished in the top 10 the last two years: T3 in 2008 and T6 in 2009. He has made the cut four previous times and has shot 68 on Sunday three of those times.

Donald, a two-time PGA TOUR winner, last won in March 2006 at The Honda Classic. This is his 68th PGA TOUR event since winning.

Donald is looking to become only the second Englishman (Nick Faldo, 1997) and fifth European to win the Northern Trust Open. Considering the event's 84-year history, there are relatively few winners from outside the United States (10 international players accounting for 14 wins):

J.B. Holmes
J.B. Holmes continues his solid play at Riviera Country Club and the Northern Trust Open with three rounds in the 60s, 68-69-67= 204 (-9). The two-time PGA TOUR winner has finished in the top 10 in each of his past two appearances at Riviera with a T7 in 2008 and a T6 in 2009.

Holmes' two wins on the PGA TOUR came at the FBR Open in 2006 and 2008.

Andres Romero
Argentina's Andres Romero finished with a third-round 1-under-par 70 and is T2 and six shots off the lead. A T3 at last year's Northern Trust Open was Romero's best finish on the PGA TOUR in 2009 and one of two top-10 finishes last year.

At the 2008 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, his lone PGA TOUR victory, bad weather forced the third round to be completed on Sunday. Players kept the same pairings for the final round, so even though Romero had moved into a tie for second after Round 3, he was not in or near the final pairing. After carding a 68, Romero had to wait nearly 2-1/2 hours to see if he was the champion.

Dustin Johnson
First- and second-round leader Dustin Johnson fell back during the third round as the only player in the top 15 to shoot over par for Round 3 -- he finished the third round 3 over.

Johnson's ace on Friday during the second round (No. 6, 8 iron from 152 yards) was the 34that the Northern Trust Open since 1979 (when hole-in-one records began). If Johnson goes on to win the tournament, he would join TC Chen (1987) and Gil Morgan (1983) as Northern Trust Open champions who made an ace the year that they won the event. Johnson's ace on Friday was the second hole-in-one of his PGA TOUR career (2008 Crowne Plaza Invitational).

If Johnson were to go on to win, he would be the youngest winner of the tournament at 25 years, 7 months and 16 days since Pat Fitzsimmons won in 1975 at 24 years, 2 months, 8 days.