Insider: With no defense in golf, how do you hold a final-round lead?

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Dustin Johnson, Jeff Overton and Martin Laird have each put themselves in position to win only to see it slip away.

A week ago the Atlanta Braves had a 10-1 lead over the Colorado Rockies after completing three innings. Sounds like the lock of the year, right? The first-place Braves with one of their best pitchers on the mound, staked to a nine-run lead? That's a no-brainer if there ever was one.

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But no one bothered to tell the Colorado hitters, who started to chip away and focus on catching up. Not only did they catch up and tie the game, they added two more runs and won the game 12-10. It just goes to prove there is no sure thing as a safe lead when it comes to Major League Baseball.

The same thing is true on the PGA TOUR, where third-round leads have become as easy to lose as a pair of cheap sunglasses. The facts prove that a three-shot lead with one round remaining doesn't ensure a victory. In fact, the odds are this season that you will not win with a three-shot lead.

This year, 10 players have held three-shot leads after 54 holes, and seven of those failed to seal the deal -- the latest, of course, being Martin Laird at The Barclays on Sunday. Two others came in majors -- Dustin Johnson at the U.S. Open and Nick Watney at the PGA Championship.

Dean Wilson, meanwhile, failed to win the RBC Canadian Open after leading by four shots entering the final round. That's the largest blown lead on TOUR this year.

Even the players who have won after leading by three were not immune to pressure. Take Jim Furyk, who barely held on to win the Transitions Championship by a stroke.

"Just nerves got me, to be honest with you," Furyk said. And that's from a 16-year TOUR veteran with a major title on his resume.

Laird's wound is especially fresh. He three-putted on the 72nd hole to permit Matt Kuchar to catch him and force a playoff, and then lost in sudden death.

Laird, who came from one shot back to win the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open last year, knows both sides of the coin. Despite losing the lead -- and the tournament -- Laird said he felt comfortable; he said he almost holed out on the first two holes of the final round.

"When I won in Vegas I think I was one back," Laird said. "But I wouldn't say I was out there thinking too much about it. I was just trying to stay aggressive and I just came up one short."

Kuchar was victorious at The Barclays, which enabled him to vault all the way to No. 1 on the FedExCup points list. But it was only three weeks ago that he also struggled with the lead, albeit after just 36 holes of the PGA Championship.

Playing from behind in the final round of The Barclays, though, left him no choice. While Laird was playing not to lose the lead, Kuchar's only hope was to keep firing at the pins.

"My strategy was to stay aggressive out there," Kuchar said. "It was definitely trying to make birdies. Once I made I think three birdies and got off to a 10-under and saw I was close to the lead, I did say, if I can keep going, I know there are bogeys out there."

There's no such thing as playing defense on the PGA TOUR. No such thing as dropping another defender into coverage or shift the infield to one side or pull the goalie. In golf, you can only play your game and hope it's good enough.

Kuchar got in the playoff at The Barclays by shooting a 66 and put it away with by hitting a 7-iron to within 30 inches on the first playoff hole, a shot that enabled him to beat Laird. There was nothing Laird could do to stop it.

"You know, you got to smile," Laird said. "You can't do anything about that. He hit a great shot."

Sometimes the player in the lead does go the wrong way. Johnson shot an 82 in the final round at Pebble Beach, Watney had an 81 the last day at the PGA Championship and Justin Rose closed with a 75 at the Travelers Championship.

As Rose said after his final round that day, "It was obviously my tournament to lose. I could have shot 1-over par today and won the golf tournament. It's disappointing."

But sometimes it's just a matter of another player getting hot. Kuchar shot a 66 last week at The Barclays to give himself an opportunity. And a month ago Stuart Appleby shot a 59 to run down Overton at the Greenbrier.

"You know, you get beat by a 59," Overton said. "What can you say?"

The only thing you can say is "ouch" and look forward to your next opportunity. Or as Overton added, "Hopefully I can continue to sharpen up my game a little bit and hopefully shoot (a 59) sometime in my career."

Stan Awtrey is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of the PGA TOUR.