PODS Championship: Third-round notebook

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Mar. 8, 2008
By Phil Stambaugh, PGA TOUR Staff

• The third round of the 2008 PODS Championship was suspended by darkness at 6:39 p.m. (ET) with two groups (six players) left to complete play. The round will resume at 9:30 a.m. (ET) on Sunday.

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Corey Pavin's 68 Saturday tied for the round of the day.

Corey Pavin

Through 54 holes

STATS	Rnd1	Rnd2	Rnd3
EAGLES	--	--	--
BIRDIES	1	3	4
PARS	13	13	12
BOGEYS	3	2	2
DOUBLE BOGEYS	1	--	--
OTHER	--	--	--
DRIVING ACCURACY	69	69	77
DRIVING DISTANCE	270.0	242.5	237.5
PUTTS PER ROUND	30	27	29
PUTTS PER GIR	1.889	1.909	1.846
GREENS IN REG	50	61	72
SAND SAVES	33	100	100

• A total of 25,000 FedExCup points will be awarded at the conclusion of the PODS Championship tomorrow and the winner will receive 4,500 points. Stewart Cink, the current leader in the tournament, is currently in 13th place in the 2008 FedExCup race and could jump all the way up into the second spot in the season-long standings with a victory tomorrow.

• Stewart Cink will be trying to win his fifth PGA TOUR title tomorrow and first in the state of Florida. Cink will also be trying to end a drought of 86 official PGA TOUR events without a victory. He last won at the 1994 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. Cink's record when leading/co-leading after three rounds is 1-8. The last time he was in this position in a stroke-play event was at the 2006 Bridgestone Invitational and he eventually lost to Tiger Woods on the fourth hole of a playoff.

• The third-round leader/co-leader of the PODS Championship has gone on to win the tournament in each of the last six seasons. The only year the eventual winner didn't hold at least a share of the 54-hole lead was during the inaugural tournament in 2000, when John Huston stormed back from four shots down to overcome 54-hole leader Carl Paulson.

• Stewart Cink's 5-under 208 score is the highest three-round total to lead in tournament history. In each of the last three years at the PODS Championship, the third-round leader(s) have been at 9-under-par 204.

• Stewart Cink, Geoff Ogilvy and Corey Pavin all posted 2-under 69s, the lowest third-round scores of the day. Cink played 28 holes on Saturday. He was even par for the last 10 holes (two birdies, two bogeys) of his second round this morning. Cink's 69 in the third round included three consecutive birdies (Nos. 10-12) and a bogey on the 18th hole. Ogilvy's 69 in the third round vaulted him from a tie for 17th into a tie for second. Pavin's 2-under par third round vaulted him up 52 spots into a tie for 13th.

• Earlier in the day, Geoff Ogilvy made his first cut of the 2008 season and first since last year's Deutsche Bank Championship.

• A total of 79 players made the 36-hole cut at this year's PODS Championship with a score of 3-over 145. It matched the highest cut score in event history (2003). Since more than 78 players made the 36-hole cut this morning, there will be a 54-hole cut tomorrow morning for the first time under the new PGA TOUR guidelines.

• Scott Verplank's 8-over 79 in the second round of the PODS Championship snapped a streak of 28 consecutive rounds at par or better for the five-time PGA TOUR winner. The last time Verplank failed to turn in a round of par or better was on the final day of The Barclays in 2007 (1-over 72).

• Brandt Snedeker's one-stroke lead over Jeff Maggert after 36 holes of this year's PODS Championship marked the first time he'd been on top through two rounds of a PGA TOUR event since the 2007 Buick Invitational in San Diego (three strokes over Charles Howell). Snedeker went on to finish two strokes back of Tiger Woods at Torrey Pines last year. Snedeker is currently tied for second with three holes left to play in his third round, two strokes back of Stewart Cink.

• For the first time in the history of the PODS Championship, the 36-hole leader's score to par (Brandt Snedeker/-5) was higher than that of the first-round leaders (Lee Janzen, Bart Bryant/-6). Last year at the PODS Championship, Stephen Leaney (-6) led Heath Slocum by one stroke after 36 holes.

• With winds gusting to 35 mph on Friday afternoon and throughout most of the day on Saturday, the second-round scoring average was 74.558, the highest in tournament history, and the second highest for a round on the PGA TOUR this year. The highest for a round on TOUR this year was 74.788-Round 4, Buick Invitational. When play was called late on Saturday afternoon, the field scoring average for the third round was 73.970. The previous high scoring average for a round at the PODS Championship was 73.106 (Round 1, 2003).

• The second round yielded just five scores in the 60s and 10 players broke par. With 73 of 79 players having posted third-round scores today, there were just three scores in the 60s and only five players had third-round scores under par. When third-round play was called, just nine players were under par in the tournament.