Day 3 From the Wells Fargo Championship
May
7
Written by:
5/7/2011 10:44 PM
Round three of the 2011 Wells Fargo Championship is complete and it was another great day of action at the Quail Hollow Club. Jonathan Byrd shot a 67 (-15) to take a one stroke lead going into Sunday’s final round. Second round leader Pat Perez shot a 70 (-14) and will be in the last grouping (1:45 tee time) with Byrd. Stewart Cink (68) and Lucas Glover (69) are -11 and will be in the next to last pairing (1:35) on Sunday.
In a contrast to what has happened in past events at this tournament, most of the scoring today was done on the back nine. Many of the leaders were right around par on their front nine, and the back nine was where the moves were made today. Byrd shot a 36 on the opening nine and 31 on the back, which was the best of the day. Headlining the fireworks on the back nine was a double-eagle on fifteen by JB Holmes. On the par-5 566 yard hole, Holmes hit a 344 yd drive and holed a 5-iron from 212 yards out.
NOTES FROM THE WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIP
Phil Mickelson shot a two-over 74 (-7) and is now eight shots back of the leader, who was his playing partner Saturday, Jonathan Byrd. Playing with Padraig Harrington on Sunday (11:55) should be a joy for both. Hopefully there will be no issues with spike marks, as Vijay Singh along with David Toms, will be playing right behind them (12:05).
The 90 minute fog delay did not seem to affect play that much today. I was a bit surprised that everyone was able to finish today, given that the last groups didn’t tee off until after 3 PM Saturday. It goes to show you that tour guys can play a round in less than four and a half hours.
After the completion of play Saturday, Jonathan Byrd was talking about how there was a Ryder Cup feel to the crowds today. Pat Perez came into the interview area immediately after Byrd and was asked the same question but a much different response was given. Perez did not agree with Byrd’s assessment of the galleries, saying that at one point, he thought they had about forty people following him and Bill Haas, the last pairing on Saturday. Perez attributed the large crowds to the presence of Mickelson as Byrd’s partner.
The gallery following Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson was very large and diverse today. There were a lot of younger women mixed in with some good ol’ boys that seemed to enjoy yelling, “BUBBA,” again today. My thinking is the guys cheering for Watson enjoyed the scenery following Fowler, so they stayed together all eighteen.
Stewart Cink discussed his use of Twitter after the round today. Last night, Cink tweeted clues that he was leaving two clubhouse passes for the weekend in a scavenger hunt format, tweeting clues. Cink has over 1.2 million followers on Twitter and says that he enjoys the interaction with everyone. Cink said he had the guy that won the tickets yell, ”thanks for the tickets,” Saturday and several more yell scavenger hunt at him. Cink has also seen a growth in his galleries as a result to his Twitter account. Is Cink going to be a trend setter for fellow PGA players? Cink’s gallery should be rather large on Sunday playing with Clemson alum Lucas Glover.