Third-round notebook – Arnold Palmer Invitational
* Tiger Woods’ streak of four straight rounds in the 60s ended with a one-over 71.* Tiger Woods’ largest 54-hole comeback was at the 2000 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am when he was five back of Mark Brooks and Matt Gogel.
* In 2008, Tiger Woods was four strokes behind Martin Kaymer entering the final round of the Dubai Desert Classic and came back to win with birdies on five of his final seven holes.
* Sean O’Hair shot a one-over 71, but was able to increase his lead from three strokes in the second round over Jason Gore to five strokes over Tiger Woods.
* Sean O’Hair has held the third-round lead/co-lead three other times in his PGA TOUR career, including a T1 last year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational (finished - T3). He also led in 2007 at THE PLAYERS Championship (finished - 11th) and at the 2005 EDS Byron Nelson Championship (finished - 2nd). Last year, O’Hair was tied with four other players going into the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, including Tiger Woods who went on to win his fifth Bay Hill title.
* Sean O’Hair had only one bogey in each of the first two rounds, but tallied five in the third-round.
* Sean O’Hair is one of seven United States natives under the age of 30 with multiple PGA TOUR victories (J.B. Holmes, D.J. Trahan, Sean O’Hair, Anthony Kim, Nick Watney, Charles Howell III and Dustin Johnson). With a victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational he would be the first in this group with three victories.
* Jason Gore’s last top 5 finish came at the 2007 Buick Open (T2).
* The tournament record for largest 54-hole lead is six strokes, which is held by Mike Nicolette (1983) and Fred Couples (1992). Nicolette ended up winning a playoff with Greg Norman.
* The third-round leader has gone on to win 10 of 12 times this year on the PGA TOUR.
* Scoring breakdown for the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational:
Score Total Players
Under-par 4
Even-par 4
+1 to +4 41
+5 and higher 25
* On a day that saw only four players shoot under-par, Brandt Snedeker fired a three-under 67 to move from T48 to T6. The 67 matched his season-best. Snedeker has five missed cuts, a T42 at the Buick Invitational and a T44 at the Puerto Rico Open. Through his first nine events last year, Snedeker had only two missed cuts and four top-15 finishes, including a T14 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
* Brandt Snedeker turned in the only bogey-free round today.
* Hunter Mahan stood a good chance of breaking the PGA TOUR record for fewest putts in nine holes after chipping in on three of his first four holes. Mahan had three putts through five holes and was threatening the TOUR record of six putts in nine holes by Stan Utley. Mahan finished with 10 putts on the front nine. Below is a chart of Mahan’s first five holes:
Hole Chip-in Distance Result
#1 37ft. 3 in. birdie 3
#2 22 ft. 2 in. birdie 2
#3 2 putted from 10 ft. for par
#4 51 ft. 6 in. birdie 3
#5 1 putt from 2 ft. 8 in.
* All’s well that ends well for Jeff Klauk and his family. Klauk was in danger of missing his brother’s wedding in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday if he made the cut. Turns out Klauk made the cut and finished his third round at 12:30 p.m. leaving him plenty of time to make the 4:30 p.m. wedding. Prior to the tournament, all parties agreed that if he made the cut he should stay and compete.
* On Friday, Mark Calcavecchia made the 500th cut of his career. Jay Haas holds the TOUR record with 592.
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