Notebook: Glasson dominant despite wild driving
Champions Tour staff
Bill Glasson followed his 6-under-par 66 in the opening round with a 7-under-par 65 on Saturday and will head into Sunday's final round with a four-stroke margin over Mark McNulty and Peter Senior. Corey Pavin and David Frost are five back.
• Glasson will be seeking his first victory since the 1997 Las Vegas Invitational. Should he prevail on Sunday, it would come 14 years, 10 months and 21 days since his win in Las Vegas and end a winless streak of 248 starts in PGA TOUR events (175 PGA TOUR, 46 Champions Tour, 27 Web.com Tour).
• The last time Glasson held sole possession of the lead heading into a final round was at the 1997 CVS Charity Classic where he led John Adams by one stroke. Despite a 4-under-par 67 in the final round, he finished second, one behind Loren Roberts, who closed with a 7-under-par 64 to win the event.
• Glasson's best career showings on the Champions Tour were a pair of T3 finishes this year at The ACE Group Classic and the Nature Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach.
• Glasson talked extensively of his concerns about hitting his driver following his round on Saturday. Through two rounds, Glasson has hit just 14 of 28 fairways and is T72 in that category. However, he is 1st in Greens in Regulation, hitting 31 of 36 through two rounds.
• rk McNulty, who is currently T2, is looking to move up into the top 30 which would make him eligible for the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Scottsdale, Ariz. McNulty is currently 32nd and came into this event $1,986 behind David Eger (No. 30). Larry Mize is 31st, a mere $930 behind Eger. Mize is currently T21 in this event, while Eger is T38.
• Mark O'Meara is currently T7 following a 5-under-par 67. He is bidding for his fourth consecutive top-10 finish. He lost in a playoff to Jay Don Blake in his last start at the Boeing Classic. He was also T10 at the 3M Championship and a T7 at Dick's Sporting Goods Open. Eight of his last 11 nine rounds have been in the 60s, including an 8-under-par 64 in the second round of the Boeing Classic. The last time O'Meara had four consecutive top-10 finishes was early in the 2007 season.
• Willie Wood and Morris Hatalsky remain the only two players in the field without a bogey.
The winner of Sunday's event will receive 270 points in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup race. Tom Lehman currently leads with 2,043 points followed by Bernhard Langer with 1,893. Lehman goes into the final round T9. Langer is not in this week's field.
• Mike Reid continued his streak without a three-putt and has now gone 182 consecutive holes without a three-putt.
• The last time a player who was leading or shared the lead going into the final round went on to win the event was Joe Daley at the Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS Championship in July.
• Glasson and Triplett posted the day's low rounds, a 7-under-par 65. It was quite a turnaround for Triplett, who shaved 13 strokes off his opening-round 78. It also helped him move up from T76 to T38.
• The scoring average dropped from 72.037 (+.037) in the opening round to 71.420 (-.580) on Saturday. A total of 20 players posted round in the 60s compared to 15 on Friday and there were 45 sub-par rounds compared to 36 in the opening round.
• Hole No. 10 was the most difficult with an average score of 4.222. There were six birdies, 53 pars, and 20 bogeys. While No. 10 was the hardest, No. 17 was the easiest once again with an average score of 4.444 (-.556). There were four eagles and 42 birdies.
• It was 28 years ago on Sunday (9/16/84) that O'Meara won his first PGA TOUR event at the Greater Milwaukee Open by five strokes over Tom Watson.
• Eduardo Romero has made an eagle on No. 17 in each of the first two rounds.
