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By Rob Hodgetts
2105: Here goes Paddy…Harrington birdies eight to get to five under. Kjeldsen also moves up to four under. Glover birdies seven to join Hazza on five under. Ross Fisher makes a good par putt on eight to stay two under.
Leaderboard: -7 T Woods -5 P Harrington, S Kjeldsen -4 L Glover, YE Yang ** -3* E Els, H Stenson, R McIlroy2055: Alvaro Quiros bogeys last for a 69 and two under overall. Woods dribbles his birdie chance short on six but couldn’t be too aggressive down the slope. Singh has eight foot for par but drags it left and goes back to two under.
Leaderboard: -7 T Woods -4 P Harrington, L Glover, YE Yang ** -3 E Els, H Stenson, R McIlroy, S Kjeldsen2055: Singh hits the trees on the left of the 6th fairway, leaving him a long second which he leaves short. Woods wallops a nine iron to 10 ft. Els birdies nine to reach three under. Westwood in trouble on eight and makes double. Kjeldsen holes a long one on 10 to get back to three under. McIlroy skims the hole for birdie on 12 but it stays out. remains three under. Harrington hauls himself to four under on seven. YE Yang has chance to go to five under but rams it past.
Leaderboard: -7 T Woods -4 P Harrington, L Glover, YE Yang ** -3 E Els, H Stenson, R McIlroy, V Singh, A Quiros, S Kjeldsen2046: Poulter lips out for par on six and slides to one over. Quiros birdies 17 to get to three under. YE Yang birdies nine to get to four under. Westwood birdies seven to get to four under. Woods scrambles for par on five. Singh misses his short birdie chance.
Leaderboard: -7 T Woods -4 L Glover, YE Yang, L Westwood ** -3 H Stenson, R McIlroy, P Harrington, V Singh, A Quiros2040: Harrington nails one to about five feet for birdie on six but pushes it right. Fisher, coming off a bogey on five, makes par to steady his ship. Woods carves one into the left gallery on five and swears. A lot. Singh fires to a foot. 2032: Singh just misses with his birdie putt on the short 4th. Woods takes an age over his couple of feet for par and misses. A three-putt bogey. Stenson races his eight-footer for birdie a way past on 11. Quiros rolls one in slowly for birdie on 16 to get to two under.
Leaderboard: -7 T Woods -4 L Glover ** -3 H Stenson, R McIlroy, P Harrington, V Singh, L Westwood, Y Yang2025: YE Yang flirts audaciously with the water on seven but it pays off as he makes birdie to get to three under. I missed Fisher’s bogey on three. Apologies. He’s back to two under.
Leaderboard: -8 T Woods -4 L Glover ** -3 H Stenson, R McIlroy, P Harrington, V Singh, L Westwood, Y Yang2020: Woods starts to do that arm-out putt celebration on the long 5th but the ball swerves right in the last half inch. Singh grimaces as his misses by a whisker the other side. They stay eight and three under respectively. McIlroy holes a good one on 10 to climb to three under.2015: Westwood, another of those who goes in for white disco trousers, misreads his 12ft birdie putt on five. Stephen Ames drops back to one under on 11. Singh fires to eight feet on three. Woods is just outside him in three. Harrington leaves his birdie chance short on four but makes the nervy par putt to stay three under. Poulter misses a makeable birdie putt on five.2010: Harrington’s par putt has a look before dropping on three. Els drags his five-foot par putt left on five to slip to one under. Glover just misses his birdie chance to get to five under.2010: Singh hacks out from the fringe and makes his six-footer for par on the 2nd. Woods holes his birdie putt and edges to eight under. Players’ champion Henrik Stenson makes another birdie to get to three under. Ian Poulter races his bogey putt past on four but makes the one coming back for a double to slip to level. Rory McIlroy holes a long one on nine to get to two under.
Leaderboard: -8 T Woods -4 L Glover ** -3 H Stenson, R Fisher, P Harrington, V Singh, L Westwood2000: Singh gets a flyer from the rough and his ball nestles in the thick collar behind the 2nd. Woods goes to school from the fairway and fires to five feet. 1955: Ernie Els picks up a shot after a brilliant approach on the 4th to edge to two under. Soren Kjeldsen drops a shot on the 4th and Lucas Glover fires one stone dead and makes birdie to get to four under on 2nd.
Leaderboard: -7 T Woods -4 L Glover ** -3 R Fisher, P Harrington, V Singh, L Westwood -2 I Poulter, S Ames, E Els, YE Yang, T Clark, H Stenson, B Jones, S Kjeldsen1954: Vijay Singh lags his birdie putt on the 1st to stay three under. Tiger Woods has a four-footer for par and makes it to stay four clear.1950: Pars for Harrington and Fisher on two. Early mover Steve Flesch ends level par after a 69.1945: US Ryder Cup captain Corey “Crazy” Pavin birdies the 6th to get to one under. Soren Kjeldsen shaves the cup with another birdie chance on three. Padraig Harrington finds the green from a fairway trap on the 2nd. Tiger Woods comes up just short with his approach from the left rough on the 1st. Vijay Singh fires to 10ft.
Leaderboard: -7 T Woods ** -3 S Kjeldsen, R Fisher, P Harrington, L Glover, V Singh, L Westwood -2 I Poulter, S Ames, T Clark, H Stenson, B Jones1940: Looking very smart in royal blue shirt and dark pants (trousers), Tiger Woods cracks one down the 1st with his driver. It just catches the left rough. Vijay Singh, white shirt, dark strides, unwinds that huge follow-through and finds the fairway. Up ahead, Lee Westwood inches to three under with a birdie on the 2nd. It’s overcast, but dry with a little breeze.1935: Padraig Harrington makes a knee-trembler for par on the 1st to stay three under. Ross Fisher also safely takes four.
Leaderboard: -7 T Woods ** -3 R Fisher, P Harrington, L Glover, B Jones, V Singh, S Kjeldsen -2 I Poulter, L Westwood, S Ames, T Clark*1920: Padraig Harrington and Ross Fisher drive off down the 1st. Eyes down, look in, team. This is about to get serious. Meanwhile, Steve Flesch birdies 16 to bounce back after the double on 15. He’s now level, while Tim Clark edges to two under. Stephen Ames is also two under after eight. The diminutive Soren Kjeldsen is two under through two and is three under overall.1910: Steve Flesch double bogeys the 15th and slides back to one over after leading the early charge at Hazeltine. Alvaro Quiros at two under for the day through 10, one under overall, is now the best-placed player on the course.1855: Graeme McDowell birdies the 8th to get back to level par for the tournament.1850: Richard Sterne and Henrik Stenson both join the group on one under. Steve Flesch lips out from 12ft for bogey on 14 and drops back to one under.
1845: Graeme McDowell fluffs a chip on the 7th and drops a shot to go back to one over. Rory McIlroy goes the other way with a birdie on two to get to level. Phil Mickelson cards 76 to end eight over.1835:From Jeremy_Fitch on 606:"Going to have to disagree with you there 20ledge [see 1754], I think Harrington thrives with the extra competition that Tiger provides. Will be interesting to see if Westwood can pick up where he left off yesterday and mount a real challenge, he’s shown time and time again that he can “get in to position” but then fallen at the final hurdle."1830: Just over an hour until Tiger Woods tees off at 1940BST. things are beginning to happen behind, though, as Stephen Ames and Hunter Mahan join Steve Flesch as the big movers at one under. Ames is two under for the day through four and Mahan birdied the 3rd. And just as I write this, Flesch picks up another shot on the 13th and is five under for the day, two under overall.
1820: Steve Flesch is back on the march with a birdie on 12 to get back to four under for the round, one under overall. Luke Donald ends with a 73 for five over.From Nalaroc on 606:"Fisher or Harrington need to shoot a 67 or 68 to give themselves a chance on Sunday as Tiger will more than likely get to at least 10 under."1810: Retief Goosen is mounting a move and gets to three under for the day after 16, one over for the tournament. Scot Alastair Forsyth and England’s Chris Wood have both slumped back to six over.
1804: Lefty Steve Flesch, the main early mover, is disgusted with himself as he bogeys 11 to slip back to level par. He was four under for the day, now three.
1758: Luke Donald holes a long one for birdie on the 17th to edge back to five over. Oliver Wilson, though, goes the other way with a bogey on five to slip back to two over.1754: Phil Mickelson gets his first birdie of the day on the 14th to get back to eight over overall.From 20ledge-KB on 606:“Harrington, although made the odd mistake yesterday, can still challange. Padraig is better at chasing a lead, and I think not being grouped with the media frenzie that is tiger Woods will help a lot”.
1745: Two birdies in his first six holes takes Open champion Stewart Cink to level par. He was five over after five on the first day.
1735: Graeme McDowell slots a birdie on the 2nd and is now back to level par for the tournament. Oliver Wilson birdies the 3rd to get to one over. Phil Mickelson just teed up with the ball virtually directly behind the tee marker on 13. Not a bit off-putting, Phil It’s hot in Minnesota, apparently, and it is raining, definitely.
1723: Steve Flesch is our big mover and he is now four under for his round and one under overall with another birdie on the 8th. Should give encouragement to Tiger’s main chasers. Could of course give encouragement to Tiger , too. And he doesn’t need much of that.1715: OK, let’s have a quick round-up of the movers and shakers so far on Saturday. The highest-placed player on the course is Steve Flesch, who is three under after seven to reach level par. Fellow American Dustin Johnson has also reached level with a birdie on the 1st. Open champion Stewart Cink is back to one over after an early birdie, while Alvaro Quiros picks up a shot on the 2nd to get back to level. Retief Goosen is three under for the round, one over for the event, after 13 holes. Luke Donald is two over through 13 for six over overall but poor old Phil Mickelson is last of those who made the cut at eight over for the tournament after 11, four over for the day.1710: Here’s the times of the last few groups to go out (all BST):
1904: Soren Kjeldsen, Ernie Els
1913: Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood
1922: Ross Fisher, Padraig Harrington
1931: Brendan Jones, Lucas Glover
1940: Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh1700: Afternoon all and welcome to day three of the USPGA at Hazeltine. Tiger Woods romped into a four-shot lead on Friday as a host of Europeans challenged but then fell away, including Padraig Harrington, Ross Fisher, Graeme McDowell and Alvaro Quiros. So, what’s in store for Saturday Ominously, Woods has won all eight majors in which he has been leading at halfway so the signs aren’t good for the chasers. I’ll be with you throughout the rest of the day, and the headline news will be bang up to date, though some happenings down the leaderboard may get overlooked.
Leaderboard: -7 T Woods ** -3* R Fisher, P Harrington, L Glover, B Jones, V Singh -2 I Poulter, L Westwood*