Notebook: Round 3, WGC-CA Championship

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Mar. 13, 2010
By Joel Schuchmann, PGA TOUR Staff

Weather: Sunny with temperatures in the high 80s with SE winds 10-15 mph.

Ernie Els (T1) and Vijay Singh (T7) are the only two players among the top-10 through the first round that have captured World Golf Championships events. Els won the 2004 American Express Championship in Ireland while Singh won the 2008 Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio.

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Two South Africans -- Charl Schwartzel and Els -- will play in the final group on Sunday, paired off No. 1 at 2:45 p.m. ET.

Having finished T4 last week at The Honda Classic, Singh is looking for his first back-to-back top-10 finishes since winning The Barclays and Deutsche Bank Championship in consecutive weeks in 2008.

Robert Allenby played the front nine 8 under through the first two rounds, and 1 over on Saturday.

Hole-in-one, eagles on par-4 and par-5 in same PGA TOUR event (since 1983)

Year Player Event Name
2010 Robert Allenby WGC-CA Championship
2009 Fowler, Rickie Frys.com Open
2008 Day, Jason Turning Stone Resort Championship
2002 Parnevik, Jesper BellSouth Classic
1998 Kamm, Brian Kemper Open
1988 Koch, Gary Shearson Lehman Hutton Andy Williams Open
1987 McCallister, Blaine Seiko Tucson Open
1984 McGowan, Pat Isuzu-Andy Williams San Diego Open

Allenby has three eagles this week. He recorded only eight eagles during the entire 2009 season.

Ernie Els 68-66-70--204 (-12)

Els has dominated the par-5s this week, as he has birdied 9 of the 12 par-5s through three rounds. Adam Scott has seven birdies and one eagle on the par-5s.

Els has won 10 of 15 the previous times he has held or shared the 54-hole lead on the PGA TOUR, with an active streak of six consecutive wins with the third-round lead.

Els won the 2004 CA Championship (American Express Championship at the time) when it was held at Mount Juliet Conrad in Kilkenny, Ireland. A win this week would make Els only the third player to win the same World Golf Championships event more than once, joining Tiger Woods (7-Bridgestone Invitational; 6-CA Championship; 3-Accenture Match Play Championship) and Geoff Ogilvy (2-Accenture Match Play Championship).

Els, who will be 40 years, 4 months and 25 days old on Sunday, could become the second-oldest winner of a World Golf Championships event and the oldest in CA Championship history. The oldest player to win a World Golf Championships event is Singh, who is also the only player in his 40s to win a WGC.

Singh, 2008 Bridgestone Invitational, 45 years, 5 months, 12 days old

Phil Mickelson, 2009 HSBC Champions, 39 years, 4 months, 23 days old

Phil Mickelson, 2009 CA Championship, 38 years, 8 months, 27 days

David Toms, 2005 Accenture Match Play Championship, 38 years, 1 month, 23 days

Kevin Sutherland, 2002 Accenture Match Play Championship, 37 years, 7 months, 20 days

Els is one of three players in the field who have competed in all 11 CA Championships since 1999 (the 2001 event was cancelled), with Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen.

Charl Schwartzel, 67-70-67--204 (-12)

Schwartzel is T1 through 54 holes and looking for his second consecutive top-10 finish -- if not a win -- at a World Golf Championships event. Schwartzel finished T9 at the 2010 Accenture Match Play Championship after being ousted in the third round by Stewart Cink after 19 holes.

Schwartzel, who will be 25 years, 6 months and 14 days old on Sunday, could become the second-youngest winner of the CA Championship, behind Tiger Woods. Woods was 23/11/7 when he won the 1999 event.

Schwartzel continues his fine play in 2010, having won the first two events of the European Tour season, the Africa Open and the Joburg Open. He is currently third in the European Tour Race to Dubai and 35th in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Padraig Harrington 70-68-67 -- 205 (-11)

Despite hitting just 47.6 percent of his fairways this week, Harrington is T3 in Greens in Regulation (72.2 percent) and sits third entering the final round.

Harrington's bogey on the 18th hole Saturday was his first miscue since bogeying the 18th(his ninth hole) on Friday, a span of 26 holes without a bogey.

Harrington is playing in his 32nd official World Golf Championships event this week at the CA Championship. Harrington has only missed the 1999 Accenture Match Play Championship and the 2008 CA Championship. Harrington's best WGC finish was T2 at the 2009 Bridgestone Invitational.

Miscellaneous

The low round of the day was recorded by Germany's Martin Kaymer with a 66 (-6). Kaymer is in sixth place through 54 holes.

David Toms has posted rounds of 72-72-72 this week.

Here's a look at the closing hole so far this week.

Round Scoring average Bogeys or worse Balls in the water
Thursday 4.647 37 18
Friday 4.258 17 11
Saturday 3.956 14 2
Cumm. 4.279 68 31
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