CARMEL, Ind. — 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 yesterday 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 just 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 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 last 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. He made enough birdies to offset a few silly mistakes — mostly short putts that he missed — and he held it together until the end. Singh was in trouble on the par-5 15th until he chipped in for birdie from 50 feet.
He followed that by missing a 4-foot par putt, only to answer with an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th. He was poised to take the outright lead until his approach to the 18th spun down a ridge, and he gunned the 45-foot putt some 5 feet by the cup and missed it coming back.