BERNARD DAILY: FARMERS: BROWN’s new papa boost--CHOI rises--ALBATROSSES!!!--SPIETH in Singapore mix
01/31/2016: 11:58 a.m. ET
By Ben Alberstadt (@BenAlberstadt; [email protected])
Happy Sunday.
FIO: THIRD-ROUND NOTES...via the PGA Tour: “With five birdies and three bogeys, good for a 2-under 70, Augusta, Ga. native Scott Brown takes a share of the 54-hole lead for the third time on the PGA TOUR. On the previous two occasions, he converted for victory at the 2013 Puerto Rico Open and finished T10 after the 2015 Puerto Rico Open…South Korea’s K.J. Choi came off the rails a bit in round three, but brought it back enough to find himself atop the leaderboard at 9-under 207 with Scott Brown. Choi took two bogeys and a double bogey at the par-4 seventh hole, which we negated with birdies at Nos. 6, 13, 14 and 18….Jonas Blixt (T5) posted the day’s low round of 6-under 66 to get to 7-under 209 through 54 holes. Blixt opened with a 5-over 77 on the South Course. Should he win, he would take the distinction of having the highest opening-round score of any player to go on and win the Farmers Insurance Open….South Course round 3 scoring average: 73.156”
Spieth moves into position in Singapore, but rain halts finish... Reuters: “World number one Jordan Spieth and South Korean Song Young-han will return on Monday to complete their battle for the Singapore Open title after stormy weather agonisingly stopped play at the climax of their final rounds.”
--“Song had a 10-foot putt on the 16th green to stay at 12-under-par, while Spieth was presiding over a five-foot birdie effort on the last to sign for an 11-under total when play was halted just before 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) because of inclement weather.”
--"Assuming I make that putt on 18 that is going to put some pressure on," Spieth told reporters after shooting four-under for his 17 holes. "I was due to leave tonight but next week was an off week anyway so we have changed the travel schedule. It is what it is. I will come back tomorrow and try and win this thing."’
SCOTT BROWN apparently plays well after the birth of his children...Sean Martin,PGATour.com: “His first daughter, Elly, was born in July 2012. He withdrew from the final round of The Greenbrier Classic and drove home to see her arrival, but got there 90 minutes too late. Brown finished in the top 10 in his next two starts, though.”
--“His second daughter, Emmerly, was born last week. Brown shares the 54-hole lead at the Farmers Insurance Open with K.J. Choi...“I just think that you’re OK with how the cookie crumbles,” Brown said. “There’s no pressure.”
K.J. CHOI positioned for 9th Tour win... Ben Everill, Yahoo: “South Korean veteran K.J. Choi moved within sight of his ninth PGA Tour victory when he earned a share of the lead with American Scott Brown after the third round at the Farmers Insurance Open on Saturday.”
--“Choi birdied the par-five 18th to shoot even-par 72 and join Brown (70) at nine-under-207, one shot ahead of Jimmy Walker and Gary Woodland at Torrey Pines in southern California. Twenty-three players are bunched within four shots on a packed leaderboard, with rain and strong winds forecast to lash the course in the final round on Sunday.”
--“Choi, winless on the PGA Tour since 2011, was delighted to give himself a chance of ending his drought. "This course is very important on the tee shot and second shot but more important is iron play," the 45-year-old told reporters. "Today my greens in regulation was a little bit low, but my chipping was good and the putting was good."
JASON GORE: ALBATROSSER... watch the shot.
(STICKING WITH) MINOR SETUP TWEAK key to Jonas Blixt’s brilliant play...Jim McCabe, Golfweek: “Then . . . misery. An opening 77 on the South Course Thursday, just one birdie, and Blixt was tied for 142nd place. Then, on Friday, further angst, a bogey on his fourth hole of the North Course so that Blixt was 6 over just 22 holes into a tournament where you figured that 1 or 2 under was needed to make the cut.”
--“What’s a happy, personable Swede to do? Remain committed to what his trusty Spaniard of a coach told him, that’s what. “An inch closer to the ball. That’s it,” Blixt said, when asked to explain how he played the first 22 holes in 6 over and the next 23 in 13 under. “We have been working pretty hard with it.”
--“A surprise winner in the fall of 2012, Blixt won again in 2013, a year when he finished 52nd in the FedEx Cup standings. The next April, Blixt made a spirited run at the Masters before settling for a share of second. He appeared to be on an upward trajectory, only to have it all slip downward in a hurry. He finished 102nd in FEC points in 2014 and was 123rd in 2015.”
HA-NA makes albatross, leads Pure Silk... Reuters: “South Korean Jang Ha-na made history with an albatross, as Swede Anna Nordqvist and English teenager Charley Hull earned a share of the third-round lead at the Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic on Saturday. Jang hit a three-wood at the 218-yard eighth hole, and her ball bounced in front of the green before rolling into the cup for the first albatross on a par-four in recorded LPGA history.”
--“Jang, 23, said she did not see the ball go into the hole, but realized something good had happened when her father standing near the green thrust his arms into the air. As Jang approached the hole, she dropped to her knees and kissed the ground at the Ocean Club course on Paradise Island. “Oh my God, it was so unbelievable,” she told Golf Channel.” ...Jang's five-under-par 68 left her five shots behind co-leaders Nordqvist (68) and Hull (69), who were at 12-under 207 on a crowded leaderboard, with five others bunched within two shots.”
WEEKEND READ: BuffaloGolfer.com talks to Vic Williams of Golf Tips Magazine
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