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Lehman Owns Lead After Three Rounds

Tribune photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER

Lehman tees off during the third round of the Transitions Championship golf tournament.

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By MICK ELLIOTT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 21, 2009

PALM HARBOR - The best shot of 54-hole leader Tom Lehman's third-round 68 Saturday was one of the shortest and most deceiving.

Lehman missed the par-3 17th green by only a few feet, but the ball went to the bottom of deep rough. With little green to work with and the putting surface hard and fast, Lehman was looking at a likely bogey, but managed to pop the ball about 4 feet onto the fringe and have it trickle within a foot.

On television, NBC's Johnny Miller was so impressed with the shot that he proclaimed it lucky, suggesting Lehman might have "accidently chunked" the wedge.

"Is that what he said?" Lehman said upon being told of the comment. "I have to work with him. That's one of the best shots I hit all week! Gosh, that makes me mad.

"No, it was sitting down a little bit, and the rough in between myself and the green, there was a little patch of thick stuff, and then it was trampled down firm. And that's all I had to do was hit it 4 or 5 feet and it was going to trundle down to the green; and once it got to the green it was going to stop. I was trying to hit to 4 feet, and I hit a 4-foot chip shot and ran down to the green about 6 inches and tapped it in. That was a great shot."

A PROVEN TRACK RECORD

Not only is Retief Goosen battle-tested as a two-time U.S. Open winner (2001, '04), but he has a pretty good track record in the Transitions Championship to take into today's final round.

Goosen, who is one shot back of leader Lehman, won the tournament at Innisbrook in 2003.

There's comfort in that knowledge.

"Yeah, I would like to do it again," Goosen said. "Yeah, feeling comfortable on the golf course and knowing the course well and knowing the shots required definitely does give you a little bit more confidence than a golf course that you're not really comfortable on.

"I know, this golf course, I know it very well, and know the greens fairly good. So I think it is a bit of an advantage if you know the golf course really well."

Goosen has posted scores of 69, 68, 69 this week.

'NOTHING TO LOSE'

It's not hard to explain why Lehman owns the third-round lead. He is eighth in the field in driving accuracy, 10th in greens hit in regulation and fifth in putting. His challenge today is to continue. Lehman, who just turned 50, has not won on tour since 2000.

"It has been awhile," he said. "Yeah, it will be a challenge for me, absolutely. But you know, the better I played, or the closer I got to the lead today, and when I got into the lead, the more comfortable I felt and the slower things were moving and the slower I was swinging.

"I watched some of the swings on TV and they were the most relaxed-looking swings. It fits the way I feel right now. I mean, I just turned 50. That actually works in my favor, I think. You realize there's a lot more important things in life than a golf tournament; though this is very important. And hey, expectations, I feel like I shouldn't win. So I feel like I have everything to win today and nothing to lose."

SNEAKING UP ON THEM

Nick Watney has made noise very quietly.

In his fifth season on the PGA Tour, Watney picked up his second career victory earlier this season. He finished seventh in driving distance last season and 16th in greens hit in regulation - a pretty good one-two punch.

Still, only the most serious golf fans know anything about the California native. He was not a junior golf star. In college he was a walk-on at low-profile Fresno State. He then battled up from the Nationwide Tour.

"That's just been my path since I started," Watney said. "Started at muni kind of late. Definitely not a junior star. Went to college kind of unheralded or under the radar or however you want to say it. I just like to improve and, I mean, it's the way that I've taken. It's just the way that it's happened."

PRAISING COPPERHEAD

The greatest compliment to a golf course comes when players need to use every club in their bag. Stuart Appleby gives Innisbrook's Copperhead such praise.

"Not many courses do we jump from an iron to a wood to a big driver," he said. "Most of the time you might get a couple of holes to hit driver, and get your rhythm, but here it's very broken up off the tee. You've got a lot of holes that are elevated and certainly some that are uphill.

"So you've got to think, and I would have to say, it is a tough test. The rough is very, very thick, and hitting the fairways is pretty important. If not, your 100-yard-and-in game is going to have to be good."

Mick Elliott

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