SILVIS, Ill. — Steve Stricker is making it look easy.
He insists that it’s not, even after posting stunningly low scores.
Stricker already has broken a couple of PGA Tour records at the John Deere Classic and has more in sight after opening a six-stroke lead with a 9-under-par 62 on Saturday.
That followed rounds of 60 and 66 at the TPC Deere Run course, which has stood no chance against the assault Stricker and his fellow players have launched.
“It’s never easy going out there,” Stricker said. “It wasn’t easy to start the round today. Coming to the course I felt like I’d never been in this position. I was nervous. I didn’t feel like doing anything. I just wanted to get out there and start playing.”
And play he did.
Stricker’s masterful round left the tournament’s defending champion at 25-under 188, the best 54-hole score in PGA Tour history. He also has the best three-round score in relation to par. With a 65 today, he’d break the 72-hole record of 254.
Stricker broke the 54-hole record of 189 shared by Calcavecchia, John Cook and Tommy Armour III, with Mark Calcavecchia and Cook both 24 under. Armour also holds the 72-hole record, in the 2003 Texas Open at The Resort at LaCantera, a par-70 course.
He has 27 birdies for the tournament, giving him a shot at the Tour record of 32 for a 72-hole event, a mark shared by Calcavecchia and Paul Gow.
So dominant was Stricker on Saturday that Jeff Maggert shot a 63 and lost ground. Paul Goydos, golf’s latest Mr. 59 after a magical round on Thursday, played well enough to keep pace in most tournaments, just not this one.
It would be hard for anyone to keep up with Stricker the way he’s playing.
The 43-year-old from Madison, Wis., hit accurate approaches to give himself short putts for birdies in most cases and he deftly extricated himself the only two times he got in trouble.
So just what’s going on here?
“If I knew, I would bottle this,” Stricker said. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
Maggert, who started the day five shots behind Stricker, was at 19-under 194 and tied with Goydos, who trailed Stricker by just one stroke going into the round. Playing in the last group with Stricker, Goydos saw his deficit grow steadily as his partner drilled birdie putts on seven of the last 11 holes.
Former PGA Champion Shaun Micheel also shot a 63 — and found himself 10 strokes off the lead. Rocco Mediate made a hole-in-one and an eagle en route to a 64 but trailed by 14. Matt Jones wriggled into fourth place with a 66 that left him nine strokes back.
“Stricker’s nine in front of me, so you’d have to have something miraculous happen to him,” Jones said. “That’s not going to happen the way he’s playing, so my goal now is to play for second.”
Still, Stricker remained wary. He had a six-stroke lead on the final day of the Northern Trust Open at Riviera earlier this year and ended up winning by two.
“This course yields low scores, so you’ve got to be cautious that somebody can come from behind and post a low one and catch you,” he said.
US Women’s Open
OAKMONT, Pa. — Paula Creamer will take a three-shot lead over Wendy Ward into the final day of play at the U.S. Women’s Open.
Creamer, considered the best LPGA golfer without a major title, is 1 under for the tournament through 13 holes of the weather-delayed third round. That round will be completed Sunday morning. Four shots back is Suzann Pettersen, who has four holes still to play plus the final round.
Five back are 15-year-old Alexis Thompson, who has completed the third round, Amy Yang and Brittany Lang.
Creamer, who recently returned from a four-month layoff following left thumb surgery, played all but two holes of her second-round 70 during the morning.
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