In what seems like a common occurrence lately, Stewart Cink finds himself atop the leaderboard after 54 holes. With six top 10’s this year and several meltdowns while leading it’s hard to figure how tomorrow will play out.
Mr. Cink did birdie the last two hole after dunking his tee shot into the water on the 16th hole, allowing him to finish with a 65 and a 15 under par total 195. “I felt like I gained some momentum back and put myself in a good mind-set for tomorrow,” Cink said. He’ll need it. Heath Slocum is in second at 13 under par, while last years champ Hunter Mahan, Kenny Perry, Vijay Singh, Tommy Armour III, and Kevin Streelman are another shot back.
“I think this will be fun for the fans out there (Sunday), for the guys playing, for the TV audience,” Slocum said. “I think it will be a shootout, and it seems like we haven’t had a ton of those this year. It ought to be fun.” Of course you’ll have to be up early, since weather of the ugly variety is expected to show up Sunday afternoon, so the tee times have been moved up to 7:30am off both tees. The winner should be decided by 2PM eastern time. Tape delay is fun for no one, except tape manufacturers. And TV producers with a predictable time slot to fill.
Mr. Slocum hit all nine greens on the back side, and had 8 birdies in all. Having shot a final round 65 at the US Open last week he seems to be continuing that good play this week. “Definitely the putter has carried over to this week,” he said. “I’m going to probably have to lean on it tomorrow hard if I’m going to think about winning this golf tournament.” I think that means he brought the same putter with him to this tournament, but I wonder if he’ll get the same kind of results leaning on it as holding it in his hands? Guys who think about winning worry me, all the expensive head shrinker gurus say one should not focus on results, one should focus on the shot at hand. There’s a great deal of turmoil created by expensive head shrinker gurus. Perhaps they should spend more time with lawyers. Just a thought.
Another name from the Open, Mr. Streelman began the week with a 73 and followed that with a 63 Friday and a 62 today. “I was very proud of the way I bounced back and then to back it up with a 62 is pretty cool,” Streelman said. Proud and cool, hmmm, a combination of feelings without the ring of pride and prejudice, but what the heck, the guy’s a golfer so he can be forgiven. I’d say those two rounds are very cool indeed.
Tommy Armour III is another man out of nowhere who finds himself in contention. Quietly, Mr Armour has had a respectable year for a 49 year old liver of the high life. He’s made 10 of 15 cuts and has 3 top ten’s this season. I like to root for the old guys. (I think his whole body is 49, not just his liver)
Mr. Mahan is the player to watch tomorrow. He practically owns this golf course, finishing second 2 years ago and winning last year. I just can’t see Mr. Cink getting it done, even though he’s due to win ( at least all the pundits on the GC say that) I think his throat gets a tad tight come Sunday. With a big group giving chase applying pressure, history will repeat itself and Mr. Cink will finish behind one or more players. Mr. Mahan goes home a repeat winner. Unless Mr Armour finds a little magic at the bottom of a glass tonight.