Daniel Chopra, playing in the first group of the day, and Lucas Glover, starting three groups later, made huge leaps up the leaderboard on Saturday. The two made the cut on the number on Friday at 2-under 142, then proceeded to shoot 6-under 66s to move up to a tie for second at the time they finished their rounds. By the end of the day, they sat in a tie for sixth. The 66s turned out to be the best rounds of the day and jumped them 50 spots from a tie for 56th to a tie for sixth. • The 54-hole total of 10-under 206 posted by Davis Love III and Chris Couch is the highest by a 54-hole leader at this tournament since Steve Elkington and Mike Sullivan sat at 8-under 208 in 1993. Elkington (73) finished second behind Rocco Mediate, while Sullivan (77) finished tied for 12th. • Thirty-two players since 1950 have held/shared the third-round lead at the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro and went on to victory, including the last seven who held at least a share of the lead -- Jesper Parnevik (1999), Hal Sutton (2000), Scott Hoch (2001), Rocco Mediate (2002), Shigeki Maruyama (2003), Brent Geiberger (2004) and K.J. Choi (2005). • Davis Love III is holding/sharing the 24th third-round lead of his 21-year TOUR career and the first since the 2005 PGA Championship, where he finished tied for fourth. His last win from this position came at the 2003 INTERNATIONAL (see below for a complete list). His next win will be the 19th of his career and move him into a tie for 37th on the Career Money List with Ben Crenshaw, Doug Ford, Hubert Green and Tom Kite. • Davis Love III actually missed the cut in 2003 and 2004 after his company redesigned the course prior to the 2003 tournament. Love has three top-10s in 12 previous starts in Greensboro, including a victory in 1992. He also has a chance to become the eighth multiple champion as he sits tied for the lead. Should Love be victorious on Sunday, the win would come 14 years, five months and 12 days since his last win in Greensboro. • Chris Couch has made just nine of 25 cuts in 2006, but one of them was a big one, his first TOUR win at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in April. It’s his only top-10 this season. With one round to play at the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro, Couch sits in a tie for first. Couch has held one third-round lead in his career, at his victory in New Orleans. • John Senden and Eric Axley also captured their first wins earlier this season at the John Deere Classic and Valero Texas Open, respectively. Senden (tie for third), Axley (tie for sixth) and Couch (tied for first) are looking to become the seventh multiple winners in 2006 following Tiger Woods with eight victories and Phil Mickelson, Stuart Appleby, Geoff Ogilvy, Jim Furyk and Ben Curtis with two each. • Chris Smith came into the week at No. 199 on the TOUR money list with $162,411 in 20 previous starts and in need of a big week. Through three rounds, he sits in a tie for third, one stroke behind the leaders at 9-under 207. Smith, who is playing as a past champion this season, has no other status for next year besides using the same category. His only win on TOUR came over four years ago at the 2002 Buick Classic. • Steve Flesch has gone his last 40 holes without a bogey, the longest current streak of the tournament. Flesch’s only bogey came on the par-4 14th hole during Thursday’s first round. The streak, and three rounds in the 60s, helped Flesch to sit in a tie for third, one stroke behind the leaders through three rounds. • Davis Love III, Chris Couch and Steve Flesch are the only players to have posted three rounds in the 60s. Since the tournament’s inception in 1938, 25 players have recorded four rounds in the 60s in Greensboro. More currently, since the tournament moved to Forest Oaks Country Club in 1977, just nine of the 2,202 (.00408%) professionals who have made the cut have posted four rounds in the 60s. K.J. Choi (1) and Carl Pettersson (tied for 11th) were the last to accomplish the feat in 2005. • There are three players inside the top 10 with one round to go looking for their first victory on TOUR -- Daniel Chopra (tied for sixth), Ryan Moore (tied for sixth) and Nick Watney (tied for sixth). • There have been 13 players that have earned their maiden PGA TOUR victory at the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro but none since Trevor Dodds in 1998. The others: Sam Byrd (1942), Art Doering (1951), Earl Stewart (1953), Stan Leonard (1957), Bob Goalby (1958), Bud Allin (1971), Danny Edwards (1977), Seve Ballesteros (1978), Joey Sindelar (1985), Steve Elkington (1990), Mike Springer (1994), and Frank Nobilo (1997). • Joe Durant (tied for sixth) is looking for the fourth top-five finish of the season as he sits at 8-under par and two back of the leaders through three rounds. He lost in a three-hole playoff to D.J. Trahan at last week’s Southern Farm Bureau Classic, finished third at the Buick Open and tied for fourth at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. • Brett Quigley came into the event with 10 top-10s this season, two behind Jim Furyk for the most on TOUR. He sits in a tie for sixth heading into Sunday’s final round in Greensboro and another top-10 would tie him with Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods for second most on TOUR. Entering this season, Quigley had recorded just six top-10s over his last four seasons on TOUR and a total of 17 career top-10s in his first nine years on TOUR. • Chris Smith leads the tournament in Total Birdies through 54 holes with 19. His career best in a 72-hole tournament is 25 at the 2002 Touchstone Energy Tucson Open, where he finished in a tie for sixth. • Chris Couch had nine consecutive one putts on Nos. 6-14 on Saturday setting a personal best in that category. Couch’s previous best streak was six consecutive in 2004. He ended the day with a total of 26 putts. • A total of 68 players broke 70 in the opening round while only 15 did so in round two and 11 in round three. • For the second day in a row there were just two bogey-free rounds. Steve Flesch improved his streak to 40 straight, while Brett Quigley has gone 30 consecutive holes. Chris Couch saw his streak of 42 holes without a bogey end with a bogey on the par-3 17th hole on Saturday. It is the longest streak of the tournament to date.
• Bubble Boys for the Top 125 to keep their card for the
2006 season. All but five players from No. 115 to 135 are on site this
week. How did the group fare the first three days?
• Bubble Boys for the Top 30 to get invited to the 2005
TOUR Championship in Atlanta. Just 10 players from No. 25 to 40 are on
site this week trying to improve their chance of making the
season-ending event. How do the players stand after 54 holes? |
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