Stat profiles for 1500 golfers
Not only is Jim Furyk looking to break his 32 month winless drought, you also have a defending champion contenting, K.J. Choi, Carl Pettersson and Bubba Watson in second and looking for Masters spots and the story of Geoff Ogilvy getting to the third round via Phoenix
K.J. Choi has a lot to play for on Sunday. With his third round 67, he moved up the leaderboard into a T2nd along with defending champion Retief Goosen, past champion Carl Pettersson and Bubba Watson. They are all three shots back of tournament leader Jim Furyk.
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Now Choi isn't the only one in that spot, Watson and Pettersson have the same problem, only difference is they realistically need a win. Watson is 99th in the rankings so a solo 2nd would only climb him to around 58th position while Pettersson is 236th in the rankings and a solo 2nd only climbs him to around 120th.
As for tournament leader Jim Furyk he will be looking to get the monkey off his back of the longest winless drought of his career, he has gone 32 months since his 2007 Canadian Open. Furyk is definitely dominating this week as over the course of 54 holes he has only made one bogey (9th hole Friday), is tied for second in greens hit (40 of 54), T9th in fairways hit (28 of 39) and T16th in putts per round (27.7). Only problem with Furyk is that he tends to be very inconsistent. Proof of that was at last year's Transitions, he opened up the first round with a 65 to lead by one but then in the second round he didn't make a single birdie, had five bogeys and a double for a 78. So honestly we don't know what to expect from Furyk on Sunday
Now the story of the year could be that of Geoff Ogilvy. On Friday he played early and shot a 71 to go along with his first round 73. Now he started Friday T111th and it looked doubtful for him making the cut so he made a first class reservation on Continental to fly home to Phoenix via Houston.
When he checked in for his flight, he noticed on the web that he was 77th, still a ways from the top-70 to make the cut. He slowly climbed the leaderboard and about the time of boarding was 72nd and figured with more people on the course he better get off the flight and go back to Innisbrook. Only problem, he was physically able to get off the flight which was overbooked, but because of close connections of over 50 people Continental wasn't able to get his clubs off the plane. So Ogilvy decided if his clubs were going to make the trip, he was going to go. Unfortunately his first class seat was gone but Continental did take pity on him and get him a seat in coach.
By the time he got to Houston, he realized that he did make the cut. He called and hired a private jet to fly him back from Phoenix to Tampa, then had his wife bring some supplies that he needed for the weekend. He landed in Phoenix at around 11pm, got his supplies from wife and boarded his private plane for a all night venture back to Tampa. By the time he arrived back in Tampa, he was back in his room just before six, got a couple of hours of sleep and then shot a third round 65 to climb him up the leaderboard into a T9th, eight shots back. Now he is going to have to pick up a good check since his jaunt to Phoenix and back cost him in the neighborhood of $25,000.
One last story and this one doesn't have a happy ending. Garrett Willis shot an opening round of 65 and was the first round leader. But because of rounds of 77-74 he missed the third round cut and won't be playing on Sunday. He will pick up a small check and go down in the annuals of PGA Tour history as one of 31 players to lead after the first round but not play on Sunday.
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