Quail Hollow Championship: Round 3 notebook
By John Bush, PGA TOUR Staff
Weather: Partly Cloudy. High of 84. Winds S/SW 10-20 mph.
Billy Mayfair carded a 1-under 71 on Saturday to take the third-round lead at the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship by two strokes over Davis Love III (68) and Phil Mickelson (71).
Billy Mayfair is seeking to become the first Monday Qualifier to win on the PGA TOUR since Fred Wadsworth at the 1986 Southern Open.
Mayfair won the Quail Hollow Championship Qualifier on Monday at Carolina Golf Club.
Mayfair's career by the numbers: 656 starts (including this week), 2,136 rounds, five wins, 15 runner-up finishes, 67 top-10s, 173 top-25s and 425 made cuts.
His last win came 345 starts ago at the 1998 Buick Open.
Mayfair has now held the lead/co-lead going into the final round seven times in his PGA TOUR career:
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Billy Mayfair's cumulative stats for the week:
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The third-round leader/co-leader has won 10 of 17 stroke-play events on the 2010 PGA TOUR, most recently wire-to-wire winner Jason Bohn at last week's Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
In the first seven years of the Quail Hollow Championship, the third-round leader/co-leader has gone on to victory three times (David Toms-2003, Jim Furyk-2006 and Anthony Kim-2008).
Of the top nine players on the current FedExCup points list, six are positioned inside the top 12 on the Quail Hollow Championship leaderboard, including second-ranked Jim Furyk (T7), third-ranked Anthony Kim (T7), fifth-ranked Camilo Villegas (T12), sixth-ranked Phil Mickelson (T2), seventh-ranked Dustin Johnson (T4) and ninth-ranked Bill Haas (T7).
Davis Love III, making his eighth-career start at the Quail Hollow Championship, posted a 4-under 68 to move to T2. He has six made cuts at Quail Hollow, with a T14 in 2006 the best of his three top-25 finishes. He is seeking his 21st career win on the PGA TOUR.
Jim Furyk had played his last 28 holes without a bogey before a three-putt bogey on the final hole on Saturday, resulting in a 1-under 71. The 15-time TOUR winner is seeking three victories in a season for the first time in his career (Transitions Championship, Verizon Heritage). He enters the final round four strokes behind Billy Mayfair.
Rory McIlroy, who eagled the par-5 seventh hole (his 16th hole of the day) on Friday to help make the cut on the number, posted a 6-under 66 on Saturday to move to T7. Despite bookend bogeys on Nos. 1 and 18, the soon-to-be 21-year-old (May 4) racked up nine birdies on his scorecard for his low round of the year on the PGA TOUR. The 66 represents just his third under-par score in 15 rounds this season (he posted second- and final-round round 1-under 69s to finish T40 at The Honda Classic.
With the exception of the majors, the Quail Hollow Championship has featured the most difficult finishing holes (Nos. 16-18) on TOUR six out of the last seven years. The only exception was 2004, when the closing holes at East Lake GC (The TOUR Championship) barely edged out Nos. 16-18 at Quail Hollow. The three holes have played the toughest so far this week. Here's a look at the cumulative stats:
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Phil Mickelson's career scoring breakdown at Quail Hollow is 66 under on Nos. 1-15 and 25 over on Nos. 16-18.
Phil Mickelson, making his first start since winning the Masters Tournament, is making his seventh start at the Quail Hollow Championship. He owns four top-10s here (2004-T5, 2005-T7, 2007-T3, 2009-T4). Here's a look at how Mickelson has fared in his next start after winning a major championship:
2004 Masters, followed by T2 at Zurich Classic of New Orleans
2005 PGA Championship, followed by T51 at World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational
2006 Masters, followed by T15 at Zurich Classic of New Orleans
2010 Masters, TBD at the Quail Hollow Championship
There are 21 players remaining in the field who need to win on Sunday to earn a last-minute ticket into next week's THE PLAYERS Championship. Of the list, only tournament-leader Billy Mayfair is inside the top 25 on the Quail Hollow Championship leaderboard. The list includes: Blake Adams (T42), Henrik Bjornstad (T52), Chad Collins (T26), Michael Connell (T72), Brad Faxon (T42), Carlos Franco (T26), Tom Gillis (T26), Tim Herron (T67), Matt Jones (T26), Jarrod Lyle (T57), Billy Mayfair (1st), Rocco Mediate (T67), Garth Mulroy (T26), Joe Ogilvie (T42), Carl Pettersson (T76), Aron Price (T52), Brian Stuard (T42), Roger Tambellini (T72), Chris Tidland (T42), Johnson Wagner (T52) and Steve Wheatcroft (T76).
Three of the seven past champions of the Quail Hollow Championship are currently ranked among the top 10 in the Official World Golf Rankings. Here's a look at how they have fared this week (2004 champion Joey Sindelar isn't participating):
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Four of the top-5 in the Official World Golf Ranking and their position through three rounds: Tiger Woods (#1/MC), Phil Mickelson (#2/T2), Lee Westwood (#4/T42) and Jim Furyk (#5/T7).
Scoring Averages:
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Bogey-free rounds:
R1: Brad Faxon, Bo Van Pelt and Camilo Villegas
R2: Phil Mickelson, Chad Campbell
R3: Davis Love III (68), Charley Hoffman (69), Ross Fisher (69)
Sixteen of Phil Mickelson's 38 career victories on the PGA TOUR have been in come-from-behind fashion. Here's a breakdown of each win:
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