The Starter, Saturday: the Memorial Tournament

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Jun. 5, 2010

ROUND 3 BEGINS (11:48 a.m.) -- The field is finally on the course after a delay of just over four hours. The field is heading out on split tees. The final group of Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose and Tim Petrovic will tee off at 1:40 p.m. ET.

FINALLY, SOME GOOD NEWS (10:40 a.m.) -- It looks like the third round will likely start around 11:45 a.m. ET, but there are still some scattered showers around the area. Stay tuned.

UPDATE (10:10 a.m.) -- Officials were going to try to start play around 10 a.m. ET, but there is no official word on when the third round will begin. The good news? The practice facility has been opened. If the weather lets up, there should be plenty of time to complete the third round barring any more delays.

PLAY PUSHED BACK AGAIN (8:40 a.m.) -- The start of the third round has been delayed again - this time until at least 10 a.m. ET.

TEE TIMES DELAYED TWO HOURS (8 a.m.) -- There is a lot of rain around Muirfield Village, and tee times are now pushed back until 9:30 a.m. ET. The radar doesn't look too bad, but when play begins, the wind will play a major factor. Currently, there are gusts up to 35 mph.

ROUND 3 UPDATE (7:20 a.m.) -- Inclement weather has delayed the start of the third round. Tee times were already moved up for a 7:30 a.m. ET start off split tees, but play will not begin until 8:30 a.m. ET at the earliest.

The third round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley is set to begin. Here's a preview:

Groups We're Watching
Tee time Players  
8:01 a.m. ET,
No. 1
Ricky Barnes, Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods
Woods feels his game is getting stronger every day. Is it strong enough to make a run at the lead?
9:04 a.m. ET
No. 1
Stewart Cink, Phil Mickelson, Alex Cejka
Phil Mickelson is in contention at 6 under, with the No. 1 ranking still a possibility.
9:25 p.m. ET,
No. 1
Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, Tim Petrovic
Fowler and Rose are both under 30 and searching for their first TOUR win at Memorial this week.

EXPERT PREVIEW: PGA TOUR NETWORK on-site correspondent Michael Collins previews Friday's action:

Sirius-Collins.jpg

Well with two weather delays on Friday and weather in the forecast for Saturday, the PGA TOUR has decided to move up tee times for the third round and have split tee threesomes. That's a smart move that'll keep Ricky Fowler and Justin Rose playing together for the first time in their careers. Here's what we can look forward to for the third round.

Saturday's forecast

Scattered T-Storms
Temp: 81 high/71 low
Chance of precipitation 50 percent. Winds from SW at around 12 mph.

• Watch for Jason Day to make a move towards the top of the leaderboard, he's won once already -- just a couple weeks ago at the HP Byron Nelson Championship -- and he's in his wife's hometown, where she just found out, with a PGA TOUR win comes relatives you never knew you had... and they ALL need tickets!

• And watch out for Tiger Woods. I talked to him after his round and he said every day he's feeling better and hitting fewer bad shots and his stats back him up. Said he had five lipouts in Round 2, which left him with 27 putts. That means if the putts had dropped he'd have had 22 putts and shot 64... Something big is coming for the World No. 1... Trust me.

INSTRUCTOR'S CORNER: Ed Brill, head instructor at TOUR Academy Hilton Head Island, analyzes the playing conditions this week:

tour-academy3.jpg

Exciting leaderboard at the Memorial. Rickie Fowler, who has a three-shot lead, is due. There is no denying that. Phil is in range and should be a factor on the weekend. Jim Furyk, Justin Rose and Jason Day? Take your pick. Pretty neat to see the cut being over par, you don't see that very often.

Some great conversation during Round 1 with Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus. One major point of discussion was how to help Tiger. Both agreed it should take about 10 minutes. Mr. Faldo went on with a short laundry list of things Tiger needs to do (not so laid off, learn to release it, etc.), which was amusing as all of that would be in only 10 minutes. Mr. Nicklaus went with what I thought was a short, but powerful response. Jack said something to the effect of 'the game is played with the clubhead, swing the clubhead and let the body respond to that.' He felt Tiger looks to be swinging or moving the body and trying to get the clubhead to respond to his body.

I wrote something similar a couple of days ago about slowing down your body and allowing the hands, arms and clubhead to catch up to your body. At the TOUR Academies this would be called hands-controlled pivot. This isn't the only way to swing the club, but if it's good enough for Jack...

The Film Room
PGA TOUR Today: June 5, 2010
Rookie Rickie Fowler leads by three strokes at the 2010 Memorial Tournament heading into the weekend. Watch it
Round 2 highlights
Rickie Fowler ties the 36-hole course record shooting a 6-under 66 and has a 3-shot lead at 13-under par during second round coverage of the 2010 Memorial Tournament. Watch it
Shot of the Day: Phil Mickelson
Phil Mickelson shows some magic with his putter on a 69-foot putt for eagle at the par-5 7th hole during second round coverage of the 2010 Memorial Tournament.Watch it
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