AdvocateHomes.com
AdvocateCareers.com
AdvocateMotors.com
AdvocateStuff.com
top homes
top jobs
advertising
Print this ArticlePrint this Article Email this ArticleE-mail this Article
Unchartered waters at The Players
Goydos takes his first 54-hole lead
advertising
COMPILED FROM ADVOCATE WIRE REPORTS -
May 10, 2008 - 9:35 p.m.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Paul Goydos doesn’t have a Q-rating, an endorsement deal or a top-30 finish in the last 16 months. What he does have for the first time in his career is a 54-hole lead – in The Players Championship, no less.

Seemingly immune to the mounting pressure and a course getting tougher by the day, Goydos seized the lead Saturday with a 10-foot birdie on the island-green 17th and a great escape on the closing hole for a 2-under 70 and a one-shot lead over Kenny Perry.

As well as he played, his self-deprecating humor was even better.

Asked if he had ever had a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour, Goydos shook his head.

“But I’ve only been on tour for 16 years,” he said.

He was at 7-under 209, the highest score to lead at TPC Sawgrass since 1999.

Garcia was tied for the lead standing on the 17th tee, but he three-putted from just outside 10 feet, then hit into the rough on the 18th and closed with another bogey for a 73, leaving him three shots behind.

Through three rounds, Goydos has taken 78 putts and Garcia has 96 putts.

Sorenstam leading by three

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Rarely spectacular but remarkable for her consistency, Annika Sorenstam shot her third consecutive nearly mistake-free round, and her 2-under 69 signaled that she may be ready to give Lorena Ochoa a run for No. 1 again.

The eight-time player of the year, plagued by injuries in a winless 2007, gave Ochoa and Jeong Jang up-close evidence that the steady game that made her the top female player in the world for so long is coming back.

Sorenstam stretched her bogey-free string to 53 holes before hooking her drive into the water on No. 18. Even then, she drove again, hit a 6-iron within 8 feet and made the putt, the bogey leaving her with a three-shot lead over Jang (69) at 14 under. The Swedish star, a two-time winner this year, opened with rounds of 64 and 66.

Otto up by four

MILAN, Italy – South Africa’s Hennie Otto shot a 9-under 63 to take a four-stroke lead into the final round of the Italian Open.

Otto had a 22-under 194 total in the Castello di Tolcinasco course. Swedes Christian Nilsson (64) and Robert Karlsson (69) and Spain’s Alvaro Velasco (64) were tied for second. John Daly (68) was 14 strokes back.

Compiled from Advocate Wire Reports

advertising