Sony Open in Hawaii, Round 3
| PGATOUR.COM Instant Access | ||
| Sony Open in Hawaii | ||
|
By PGATOUR.COM Staff
ALLENBY IN POSITION (10:35 p.m.): It's been nine years since Robert Allenby won on the PGA TOUR. Think about that. We were a week removed from the greatest tragedy this country has ever seen, the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington D.C. No one could concentrate that week in Pennsylvania, including Allenby, who would win by two.
Nearly a decade later he's in position to win again, sharing the lead with Ryan Palmer going to Sunday's final round after a spotless 3-under 67 Saturday. Spotless because it was a bogey-free round on a difficult day of scoring that was made even better by the fact Allenby hit half his fairways. He made up for that, though, by hitting 15 greens in regulation. Allenby is also doing all this on a bad wheel, having injured his right ankle on Monday. He's been receiving treatment for it daily and battling all week. Now there's just one more round to fight through. -- Brian Wacker
THIRD ROUND WINDING DOWN (9:50 p.m.): Conditions have been much different today than the rest of the week, especially in the afternoon with the greens firming up and crusting up. As such, the scoring hasn't been overly low.
Robert Allenby is in the lead thanks to a round of 3 under as he plays his last few holes. Ryan Palmer, who opened the day in the lead, is a shot back and 1 under for the day. Davis Love III and Troy Matteson are two back after each were 2 under today. Only Nathan Green, Briny Baird and Charles Howell went deeper than 3 under. That should tell you how difficult things have been as play starts to wind down for the day. -- Brian Wacker
BOMB-AND-GOUGE LIVES (9:25 p.m.): The bomb-and-gouge era of golf may not be dead just yet. Case in point: Robert Allenby ranks 50th in the field in driving accuracy, having hit 47 percent of his fairways. Yet, he's ninth in greens in regulation at 75.5 percent. And rest assured Allenby is one of the longer hitters on the PGA TOUR -- this week, he's averaging 305.5 yards off the tee. -- Brian Wacker
BOGEY-FREE SO FAR (9:10 p.m.): Robert Allenby is atop the leaderboard by a stroke as the third round plays on. While he continues to miss fairways -- he's hit just four of 10 -- it hasn't seemed to matter. Allenby has yet to make a bogey today and has three birdies, bringing him to 11 under for the week. The last time Allenby had a bogey-free round? You have to go back to last year's opening round of the HP Byron Nelson Championship. Click here to follow his round live with Shot Tracker. -- Brian Wacker
ON THE REBOUND (8:45 p.m.): Zach Johnson's day got off to a shaky start with two bogeys in his first four holes, but he's since recovered with three straight birdies at Nos. 9, 10 and 11. Two of those birdies came from close range -- inside 6 feet -- while the other, on No. 11, came courtesy of a 28-foot putt. -- Brian Wacker
CLAWING HIS WAY TOWARD THE TOP (8:30 p.m.): Robert Allenby has been using a claw grip since last fall, and it appears to have helped his putting. It may strike some fans as strange that Allenby got the tip to try the claw from Vijay Singh, though. It is certainly something you don't see in other sports. Can you imagine Peyton Manning strolling over to the Ravens bench to help Joe Flacco with his throwing motion? -- Brian Katrek
A LOOK AT THE LEAD (8:05 p.m.): Taking a page out of Briny Baird's book, Nathan Green went out early, shot a good score -- in this case, a 65 -- and is now watching his name steadily rise up the leaderboard. Green began the day in a tie for 32nd, but is now in a tie for third at 7 under for the week.
It didn't hurt any that Green eagled the par-5 18th coming in after closing out the front nine with three straight birdies. Ryan Palmer, meanwhile, has since moved to 10-under and is back in the lead by himself, but who knows what his score will be when the day is done. For the most part, the round is only going to get more difficult. -- Brian Wacker
LOVE ON TARGET (7:50 p.m.): Davis Love III has only missed one fairway and two greens in regulation as he heads to the par-5 ninth 9th hole. He has missed a couple of short putts in a row, however, and is only even par for the day, but he looks poised to make a strong move in the next couple of holes. -- Brian Katrek
MOVIN' ON UP (7:30 p.m.): Apparently the best way to gain ground on the field at the Sony Open in Hawaii today is to play early, shoot 64, sit back and watch. At least that's what Briny Baird did. As such, he keeps moving up the leaderboard and is now in a tie for third. A big reason why: Waialae is starting to play a lot more difficult for the guys who went out in the afternoon with the greens drying out and crusting up. That wasn't the case this morning. -- Brian Wacker
SLOW START (7:05 p.m.): For the second day in a row, Zach Johnson bogeyed the first hole. Johnson came up short on his approach on the opening hole and wasn't able to get up-and-down for par. As a result, the defending champion has dropped a shot on the lead and trails Ryan Palmer and Robert Allenby, who just earned a share of the lead with an early birdie, by two. -- Brian Wacker
BLOWING IN THE WIND (6:55 p.m.): The scoring at this golf course is very much dependent on the wind. It was down this morning and Briny Baird took advantage with a 64. When he finished, he was tied for eighth. Since then, he has already picked up three spots and moved into a tie for fifth. Whether Baird is off windsurfing or not this afternoon, a little increase in wind velocity would not hurt his feelings. -- Brian Katrek
INSIDE THE NUMBERS (6:45 p.m.); Chad Campbell just teed off about 15 minutes ago, trailing by a stroke here in the third round. One reason he's in that position? A second-round 64 that was sparked by teriffic iron play (his approach shot distance to the pin was 9 feet closer in Round 2 than Round 1). -- Brian Wacker
| Chad Campbell - Round comparison | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
WHERE'S WEBB? (6:20 p.m.): A year ago, Webb Simpson finished in a tie for ninth in this event in what was his rookie season on the PGA TOUR. He went on to add three more top-10s in 2009, finishing 62nd in the FedExCup standings. It's been a much different story this week, though, with Simpson likely headed toward a missed cut. He was 1 under entering today, but has ballooned to 4 over thanks to a triple bogey, a double bogey, a bogey and just one birdie through his 12 holes. That drops Simpson to 79th place at the moment and unless he can move into the top 70 (and ties) before the day is over, he'll be going home early. That triple bogey, by the way, came on one of the easiest holes on the course, the par-5 ninth. Simpson hit his tee shot well right and into the water. After taking a drop and hitting out (and into the rough) his next shot sailed out of bounds over the green, forcing him to replay from the same position. From there, he found a greenside bunker before getting up and down for an 8. I mean his ShotLink info for the hole looks like a telestrater that John Madden got a hold of. -- Brian Wacker
DÉJÀ VU? (6 p.m.): No wonder Zach Johnson is only a shot off the lead. He's putting up eerily similar numbers to last year, when he won by two over David Toms and Adam Scott. In fact, some of the numbers are almost identical, as you'll see below. -- Brian Wacker
| Zach Johnson - 2009 Sony Open vs. 2010 Sony Open | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
ALLENBY'S TURNAROUND (5:50 p.m.): Robert Allenby is a shot off the lead and will tee off in about an hour from now, but if he keeps putting the way he has so far, it's hard to imagine him not winning. How much has putting hurt the Aussie through his career? Well, he hasn't won since 2001. This week, however, he's third in the field in putting average (through two rounds).
Last year, Allenby ranked 173rd in putts per round and 182nd in putts per green in regulation with 62 total three-putts (or one every 20 holes; 183rd on TOUR). Not only does Allenby not have a three-putt this week, he has 18 one-putts. -- Brian Wacker
| Robert Allenby - Stats this week | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
LOW ROUND OF THE DAY, SO FAR (5:35 p.m.): Naturally, right after telling you how tricky Waialae is, Briny Baird goes out and shoots 64. It happens, though it shouldn't happen much today. Still, Baird's 64 is the best round of the day. He took just 25 putts, 11 of which were one-putts as he went 15-for-16 from inside 10 feet. More importantly, Baird, whose career has spanned 302 starts without a victory, moves from a tie for 59th into a tie for eighth.
Baird came close to winning last year twice. He opened with rounds of 67-66-67 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, but stumbled in with a 73 to finish in a tie for sixth. He finished second at the Verizon Heritage, but that one wasn't close with Brian Gay running away from the field and winning by 10. At three shots back with the leaders still yet to tee off, Baird will probably need another 64 to have any hope of ending his winless drought. -- Brian Wacker
Below is a look at Baird's scorecard from today. Click here to replay his round with Shot Tracker.
THE HOLE STORY (5:20 p.m.): Same state, far different story this week. At the SBS Championship, Rory Sabbatini shot a final-round 10-under 63 on his way to a runner-up finish. While the course record at Waialae is a 9-under 61, no one's approaching that number this week.
"You can't be very aggressive here," Steve Stricker said yesterday. "It's a course where you have to play position golf. You have to try and get it in the fairway off the tee."
The second part of that statement isn't entirely true -- Ryan Palmer and Robert Allenby have hit 50 percent (or less) of their fairways -- but it obviously helps. The point is, you have to pick your spots. The front nine doesn't have many of them, either, with three of the first four holes ranking fourth, first and third in difficulty. The par-5 ninth and par-5 18th, though, are the two easiest holes on the course.
"But, again, those easy holes can sometimes jump up and grab you," Stricker added. "I think that's the whole conservative approach that you need to take, is that any hole can become difficult if you don't drive it in the fairway. It's just a tricky course." -- Brian Wacker
| Scoring averages | |||||||||||||||
|
| Bogey-free rounds | |
|
CUT DAY, AGAIN (5:10 p.m.): In addition to being the proverbial moving day, it'll be cut day again at Waialae, where 80 players advanced to the weekend with a cut over 1-over 141. Because more than 78 players made the cut, however, there will be a secondary one at the end of play today with the low 70 and ties advancing. -- Brian Wacker
PALMER'S PRECISION (5 p.m.): Ryan Palmer won't tee off for nearly two hours and when he does he'll be in somewhat unfamiliar territory. Only once before has Palmer held the 36-hole lead in a PGA TOUR event -- the 2008 Ginn sur Mer Classic, which he went on to win. In four previous Sony Open in Hawaii starts, he's twice missed the cut and never finished higher than a tie for 28th with eight of his previous 12 rounds at Waialae over par.
This week? Totally different story. Palmer is top 10 in the field in greens in regulation, proximity to the hole and par-3 scoring in rounds of 65-66. -- Brian Wacker
| Ryan Palmer - This week vs. Field average vs. 2009 season | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| Groups We're Watching | ||||||||||||
|
| Live Essentials | ||||
|
Shop your favorite brand name golf equipment and accessories at SHOP.PGATOUR.COM
PGATOUR.com is part of Turner - SI Digital, part of the Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network 