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PONTE VEDRA, Florida: Paul Goydos, with only one top-25 finish since
winning last January in Hawaii, fired a 2-under par 70 to seize a
one-stroke lead entering the final round of the US PGA Players
Championship.
Goydos, the only player with three sub-par
rounds through 54 holes, stood on seven-under 209 entering the final
round, leaving the 43-year-old US journeyman one stroke ahead of
compatriot Kenny Perry and three in front of Sergio Garcia.
“We’re still jockeying for position,”
Goydos said. “The golf course is, whew, it’s hard.”
Garcia had four bogeys in his final six holes
after sharing the lead to stumble home with a 73. The Spaniard was
stung by a 3-putt blunder from 10 feet at the island 17th hole and a
15-foot par miss at the 18th.
Goydos, ranked 169th, will claim a top prize of
1.7 million dollars at the nine million-dollar event that would
eclipse the total winnings from his best PGA season if he can turn
his first-ever 54-hole PGA lead into victory Sunday.
Asked if he had ever led entering a final round,
Goydos deadpanned, “No, but I’ve only been on tour for 16
years.”
Goydos would be the oldest Players winner and
fifth-oldest winner in US PGA history if he completes his unlikely
march. He started strong with a 17-foot birdie putt at the third
hole and added an 18-foot birdie at the fourth.
The 18th hole played the toughest on the course
Saturday, when the average score produced on the TPC Sawgrass course
was a 74. But Goydos had a birdie putt, lipping out from 12 feet
after finding rough and trees right off the tee.
Germany’s Bernhard Langer, the 50-year-old
money leader on the Champions Tour for the senior set, fired a 75
but shared fourth with Americans Jeff Quinney and Phil Mickelson on
214.
Should either rally to win, they would match the
record last-round victory rally in Players Championship history,
achieved by US veteran Justin Leonard in 1998.
-- AFP
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