The best in golf returned to Indiana for the first time in more than 20 years, and based on the All-Star performance that broke out Saturday in the BMW Championship, this show might leave these golf-hungry fans even more mesmerized.
The last big event at Crooked Stick was the 1991 PGA Championship featuring an unknown rookie named John Daly who turned it into a one-man show of power golf.
There are no mystery guests this time.
Not with Phil Mickelson making 10 birdies, including a 6-iron on the par-3 17th that he described as a “salty little cut, back into the wind." He had a 64 and wound up tied for the lead with Vijay Singh, who has taken only 74 putts through three rounds, but had a three-putt on the 18th hole that gave him a 69 and cost him the outright lead.
Mickelson and Singh, both in the World Golf Hall of Fame, were at 16-under 200.
Right behind them were two-time major winner Rory McIlroy and former world No. 1 Lee Westwood, followed by the likes of Adam Scott and Dustin Johnson. And only three shots behind was Tiger Woods, who keeps getting the most out of a scrappy game and is very much in the mix going into today.
“The cream has risen to the top, hasn’t it?" Westwood said.
This follows the Deutsche Bank Championship in which McIlroy held off Louis Oosthuizen, Woods, Mickelson and Johnson. The opening week at The Barclays featured Nick Watney beating Ryder Cup pick Brandt Snedeker, Johnson and Sergio Garcia.
And now this — perhaps the strongest leaderboard in golf all year going into the final round.
How strong?
The 16 players separated by five shots have won 29 majors and 21 World Golf Championships, and four of them have been No. 1 in the world over the past decade.
“The crowd is pretty rowdy, and it’s an incredible leaderboard," Scott said. “It’s going to be fun. I’m glad I put myself in that position."
Singh was the dominant figure throughout the day. The 49-year-old Fijian hasn’t won on the PGA Tour in four years, and he was desperate to show that he could put four good rounds together and end that drought.
Also on Saturday:
Creamer takes lead at Kingsmill
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Paula Creamer moved into position to end a two-year victory drought, shooting a 6-under 65 to take a two-stroke lead into the final round of the Kingsmill Championship. The nine-time LPGA Tour winner chipped in for birdie on the par-4 13th in her bogey-free round on Kingsmill’s River Course. She had a 16-under 197 total, the lowest 54-hole score in the history of the event. Second-round leader Jiyai Shin was second after a 69. She also is winless since 2010.
Storm drops into 4-way tie for
lead in KLM Open
HILVERSUM, Netherlands — England’s Graeme Storm blew a five-stroke lead midway through the third round and dropped into a four-way tie for the KLM Open lead. Storm finished with a 1-under 69 to match Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Scotland’s Scott Jamieson at 12 under. Larrazabal had a 64, and Fernandez-Castano and Jamieson shot 66.