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Aug 24 (Reuters) - Young Briton Tommy Fleetwood overcame the occasional attack of the jitters to join Argentine Ricardo Gonzalezat the top of the leaderboard after the Johnnie Walker Championship third round in Scotland on Saturday.
Fleetwood, 22, chasing his first European Tour win, carded a five-under 67 to join Gonzalez (70) on 16-under-par 200 at Gleneagles, the venue for next year's Ryder Cup.
Swede Fredrik Andersson Hed (66) was in third spot on 201, two strokes ahead of Briton Stephen Gallacher (64) and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger (72).
"This is what you spend hours and hours practising for,"Englishman Fleetwood told reporters. "Getting up there in golf tournaments ... is what you dream about when you're a little kid.
"You want to play on the European Tour and the Johnnie Walker Championship is a massive event, one I always used to watch.
"I was a bit nervous out there at times and you get a little trembly over three- or four-footers downhill left-to-right but I coped really well," added Fleetwood.
(Writing by Tony Jimenez; editing by Stephen Wood)
JERSEY CITY, New Jersey, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Long-hitter Gary Woodland ran off four birdies in a row from the sixth to seize a three-stroke lead with nine holes to play in the third round of The Barclays on Saturday at Liberty National.
The 29-year-old Woodland, who earlier this month won the Reno-Tahoe Open for his first PGA Tour title, was four under par for the round and 13-under for the tournament, the opening event in the FedExCup playoffs.
Little known Kevin Chappell also used a blistering hot spell to leap up the leaderboard, making seven birdies in an eight-hole stretch to reach 10 under par with two holes to play in his round.
Moving Day lived up to its name in Saturday's third round afterMatt Kuchar claimed a two-shot lead in completing a second round 65 in an early morning return along with 39 other players after play was suspended on Friday due to failing light.
Bogeys at the third and seventh holes dropped Kuchar to nine under par, four shots off the pace.
Webb Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion who had been tied for second with Woodland at the halfway mark, bogeyed the sixth and eighth to fall into a tie for fourth on eight-under with fellow American Rickie Fowler.
Fowler had used an eagle at the par-five sixth to move into a temporary share of the lead at 10-under but double-bogeyed the ninth after an errant tee shot.
World number one Tiger Woods also moved in the wrong direction. The FedExCup points leader began the round at six under par and birdied the first to reach seven-under, but three bogeys in a five-hole stretch left him five-under through 12.
Tied for sixth at seven under par, six behind Woodland, were a group of seven including U.S. Open winner Justin Rose (through 12 holes) and fellow Englishman David Lynn (12), former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa (11), Australian Aaron Baddeley (15) and Spain's Sergio Garcia (11).
They were joined by Americans Jim Furyk (13) and 20-year-old Jordan Spieth (15).
Players teed off in threesomes off both nines for the third round at the scenic course waterside course with views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline.
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) -- Matt Kuchar expanded his lead to two shots at The Barclays without making a single par Saturday morning.
Kuchar played five holes Saturday morning to complete the second round at Liberty National. His first shot of the day was a 30-foot birdie putt. He followed that with a poor tee shot that led to bogey, two short birdie putts, and another poor drive on the 18th for a bogey.
It gave him a 6-under 65 and a two-shot lead over Webb Simpson and Gary Woodland going into the third round.
Tiger Woods made a 10-foot birdie on the 17th hole and saved par from a bunker on the 18th to end his up-and-down round at 69, leaving him five shots behind.
Kuchar was at 11-under 131.
The tournament was delayed by six hours on Thursday because of rain. The third round featured threesomes off both sides, and with a brilliant blue sky along the banks of Hudson River, the tournament was expected to be back on schedule by the end of Saturday.
The third round also figured to go a long way toward unscrambling a leaderboard packed with some of golf's best players. Sixteen players were separated by five shots at the halfway point of The Barclays, half of them major champions.
Rory McIlroy hit a tough tee shot into the wind on the 18th and made an 8-foot birdie putt for a 65 that put him in the large group at 6-under 136 that included Woods, Sergio Garcia and U.S. Open champion Justin Rose.
Masters champion Adam Scott (66) and former PGA champion Keegan Bradley, who had a tournament course record of 63, were in the group at 7-under 135.
It was a tough end for so many others, however.
The Barclays is the first of four tournaments in the FedEx Cup playoffs, and only the top 100 players in the standings advance to the second stage next week outside Boston. Morgan Hoffmann figured to be one of them. He was looking for a strong finish to get among the final groups. Instead, he finished with a pair of double bogeys to miss the cut by one shot and end his season.
Thirteen players ranked outside the top 100 failed to make the cut, so they are done for the year. That opened the door for others who narrowly made the cut and now have the weekend to try to advance. That group includes Erik Compton, who finished birdie-birdie to make the cut on the number. He came into the playoffs at No. 117.
J.J. Henry also bogeyed his final hole to miss the cut by one shot. He was at No. 97, making it unlikely he would get through to next week.
Kuchar won The Barclays three years ago when it was played at Ridgewood Country Club. He already has won twice this season.
Each week during the official PGA Tour season, CBSSports.com's Kyle Porter will give his best shot at pegging the winner and seeing what other golfers will have a good week. The picks are based on a combination of homework, guesswork and just plain instinct.
Want to make your picks? Tweet your Winner, Top 10 finisher and sleeper to @EyeOnGolf
I have a good feeling about Dufner this week (plus I'm playing with free money after nailing the Snedeker win last week!). He finished seventh here last year while his buddy Keegan Bradley took home the title. Dufner has only played three times since May which I think is good for him -- he doesn't strike me as somebody who wants to grind in the heat all summer. He finished T4 at Merion and T26 at Muirfield. I expect better than this week at Firestone.
I guess the only stat you need is that he's played this tournament 13 times and 11 of those times he's finished inside the top 10. You could point out that his two non-top 10s were recent (2010 and 2011) but he finished T8 last year and probably has a better chance to win this thing than he does of finishing lower than 10th. All in on Tiger this week.
Laird hasn't been great this year but he does have a win and a top five finish at the Players Championship. He's also only missed one cut since the Masters in April. He's only played this tournament three times but has been successful in all three posting T29, T11, and T16 finishes in his outings at Firestone. Love him at 100-1 given that he's coming off a British Open where he was right in the mix until an 81 in the third round.
Day is best in the big boy tournaments and this week 48 of the top 50 in the world will be teeing it up. His last three finishes here were T29, T4, and T22 but the T4 came the year he played really well at the Masters and US Open. Guess where he's played really well so far this year? Yeah, Masters and US Open. I expect him to be in one of the last five groups on Sunday.
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- Inbee Park wasn't just chasing history at St. Andrews. She was sprinting toward it.
All it took were three loose tee shots, a pair of three-putts and one double bogey on the back nine Thursday in the Women's British Open to remind her that winning an unprecedented four straight majors in the same year is not going to be easy.
Park ran off six birdies in 10 holes to race to the top of the leaderboard, only to stumble coming back in for a 3-under 69 that left her two shots out of the lead.
"Felt like a roller coaster today," Park said.
Stacy Lewis, the former No. 1 who would love to be a spoiler at St. Andrews, hit her stride on the back nine with a 31 that gave her a 67 and a share of the lead midway through the opening round with Na Yeon Choi, Nicole Castrale and Mi-Jeong Jeon.
"Once the round started, and especially playing so good the first few holes, that really gave me a lot of confidence," Park said. "I didn't feel much pressure during the round. I'm just glad that it is already started and I got the first round under my belt."
The conditions were perfect for scoring on the Old Course, with light rain falling from a lead gray sky and barely any wind. Some of the biggest names in women's golf, including Park, Lewis and Creamer, teed off in front of the Royal & Ancient clubhouse with no more than a few dozen fans in tow.
Park already has won three majors this year. No golfer, male or female, has ever won four in one year. The 25-year-old South Korean said she was more nervous than usual before getting to the first tee, perhaps because of all the chatter about a Grand Slam.
It sure didn't show.
Park opened with a wedge into about 7 feet for birdie, and then she really poured it on with an amazing display of her putting stroke. She rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 3 with perfect pace. She hit a hybrid the perfect distance on No. 4, giving her a flat line between ridges for an 18-foot birdie putt. She made a 35-foot birdie putt on No. 6, another birdie just inside 20 feet on No. 8 and a sixth birdie on No. 10 after a wedge that stopped 5 feet from the hole.
Just like that, there was a feeling of inevitability about this Women's British Open, much like it was for Tiger Woods when he won the British Open for the first time at St. Andrews by eight shots to complete the career Grand Slam in 2000.
Dressed in a black rain suit, her emotions never changed, even when she started to unravel.
It started with a tee shot into thick grass to the right of the 12th fairway and a shot she hacked out to the front of the green, below a 3-foot ridge some 75 feet away. Park left the putt some 15 feet short, and made that to save par.
But she couldn't save herself from another poor drive on the 13th, and her second shot came dangerously close to a large gorse bush. She chipped to 15 feet and made bogey, her first of the day. A delicate pitch-and-run helped her avoid another bogey on the 15th after a tee shot to the right.
Her biggest mistake came from the only bunker she found, just short of the 16th green. The ball was a few feet from the lip, and Park was tempted to take it up over the high face of the vetted wall. Instead, she turned sideways and blasted out to the middle of the double green, the ball about halfway between the holes cut for No. 2 and No. 16. From some 90 feet away, she didn't hit it nearly hard enough, and her par putt from 15 feet caught the lip.
She also three-putted the 17th from 40 feet when her first attempt came up 10 feet short. Considered one of the best putters on the LPGA Tour -- and looking for a short time as though she couldn't miss -- Park had consecutive three-putt bogeys and lost four shots in a five-hole span.
"I thought that I fixed my problems coming into this week. I was hitting it so good on the practice round and I didn't really miss any balls," Park said. "I thought I was really prepared, but those couple of bad shots really shocked me. I couldn't really concentrate on the greens when I hit those shots. I've learned my lesson. Good thing I've got my time to fix that today and tomorrow."
She still was only two shots behind, opening with a round that could have been much better. Even so, Park had no complaints.
"A little disappointing, but I'm glad that I've done that in the first round instead of the final round," she said. "I'm looking to improve the next three days."
Only four months ago, Park and Lewis were battling for No. 1 in the world until the South Korean left everyone in her wake by adding to her major championship collection. The Kraft Nabisco Championship put her in position to take No. 1 away from Lewis, and the playoff win at the LPGA Championship and four-shot win at the US Women's Open brought her to the brink of something grand.
Lewis, however, has some history of her own at St. Andrews. In her final event as an amateur, Lewis was part of the Curtis Cup team that beat Britain & Ireland at the home of golf. Lewis won all five of her matches. She turned pro and played in the final group of the US Women's Open at Interlachen, which Park rallied to win for her first major.
Lewis and Karrie Webb were on the 11th tee when they saw Park make birdie to reach 5 under through eight holes.
"We both looked at each other and shook our heads," Lewis said. "We knew she was going to be there, but it's like she keeps doing it over and over and over again. The front nine is usually where you score. For me, it was the opposite. And I feel lucky to get away with one today."
Webb Simpson, playing his first competitive round at Firestone Country Club, shot a 6-under 64 on Thursday to take a one-stroke lead in the Bridgestone Invitational.
It all came down to trust.
"Well, I knew it all through my caddie [Paul Tesori], who's been here so many years," Simpson said. "I just kind of had to listen to him."
Tesori has caddied for years on tour, for Vijay Singh andJerry Kelly, in addition to being a pro himself.
"It's hard for us players to listen to our caddies, but he basically showed me where to go yesterday and told me where to hit it, where the lines were, what clubs to hit," said Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion. "I didn't feel like it was my first time because he has so much experience here."
Seven-time Bridgestone winner Tiger Woods did not have to rely so much on the man on his bag, Joe LaCava, while shooting a 66. Woods has 11 top-10 finishes in his 13 starts at the course, so he clearly knows where to go.
Still, he needed his counsel from time to time.
"I hit a lot of good shots. I had a really good feel for the distance today, and Joey and I really read the wind right today," Woods said after his best opening round at the course since another 66 spurred him to a one-shot victory in 2005. "We changed a lot of shots out there, and we both had a really good handle on what we were doing feel-wise with the wind."
Henrik Stenson was alone in second with a 65. Defending champion Keegan Bradley, Ryan Moore and Chris Wood, another first-time entrant, matched Woods at 66.
Simpson had six birdies in an eight-hole span.
There was only one glitch.
"I wish I didn't bogey the last hole," he said after missing the green on the par 4 and failing to get up and down. "It's one area I've got to get better at. When I'm between clubs, hitting more club and swinging easy is where I've been struggling.
"You know, there's always something to work on."
Simpson hasn't won this season. He called his year "encouraging and frustrating."
"I feel like I've let a couple of tournaments go that maybe I should have closed out," he said.
Stenson started out birdie, eagle -- hitting his second shot 243 yards on the par-5 hole to inside 4 feet. He slowed down from there, parring every hole except for birdies at the 11th and 12th holes.
He had more problems with his outfit than the course. He was breaking in a new pair of shoes and felt a blister coming on at the turn, so had to switch to an older pair that didn't necessarily fit with his ensemble.
"They might not match the outfit perfectly, but it felt like I had socks on compared to the other ones," he said, grinning.
Woods would have a nice career if only World Golf Championship events, such as the Bridgestone, counted. He won three in a row (1999-2001) at Firestone, then had three top-five finishes before reeling off victories in his next four appearances (2005-2009), and missing the 2008 tournament while recovering from knee surgery.
In 41 WGC starts, he has 32 top-10 finishes.
There's something about Firestone that brings out the best in him.
"Luckily, over the years I've taken advantage of it," he said. "I have played well and I've scored well, and I've won my share of tournaments here."
Bradley won the Bridgestone a year ago when he shot a closing 64, and Jim Furyk, who had led all week, double-bogeyed the closing hole.
Bradley put together a workmanlike, efficient 66 that didn't include a bogey.
The 2011 PGA Championship winner doesn't want to stress out on defending his title.
"No, it's business as usual," he said. "I just want to not put too much pressure on myself to do anything crazy. I know this golf course fits me, so to let the course come to me is big here."
Fowler was speaking for a lot of players when he said that there are a lot of similarities between Firestone and Oak Hill, the site of the PGA Championship next week.
"If the course stays dry and it starts to firm up through the weekend, it's very comparable as far as you've got to drive the ball well and position yourself off the tee," said Fowler, who practiced at Oak Hill on Monday. "It's a great warm-up here, but obviously this is one of our bigger weeks of the year, too. Two great weeks, back-to-back, and two great golf courses."
While the world's top-ranked player, Woods, was in prime position, that wasn't necessarily the case for Nos. 2 and 3.
Phil Mickelson, coming off his dramatic victory at the British Open two weeks ago, struggled with his concentration and came in with a 72.
"Tonight I'll get a little bit more rest and try not to do too much and see if I can come out tomorrow a little bit more focused," he said.
He missed two par putts inside 3 feet on consecutive holes early in his round.
Rory McIlroy shot a 70. The defending PGA champion is winless this year.
"I just threw a few shots away around the greens," he said. "You know, you start to save shots there and all of a sudden you're 3-, 4- or 5-under par."
