Anybody’s Game at Firestone, says O’Hair
When Sean O’Hair walked off the 18th green at Firestone Country Club in the Bridgestone Invitational World Golf Championship event, he was in a tie for first place with Ryan Palmer at nine under par. He’d just shot a 64 and was feeling good about his game. Unfortunately, for O’Hair and Palmer, they can’t focus on going one-two in the final round on Sunday, and O’Hair knows it.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re in the lead or one shot back, two shots back. It doesn’t matter,” O’Hair said. “There’s 18 holes of golf left, and in my opinion, there’s no leaders. It’s just a shootout.”
Indeed. There are more than 20 players within five shots of the lead, including Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, and Saturday’s leader, Retief Goosen. All have something to prove this weekend; all are on their game at the moment – at least some of the time.
Goosen had a mini-collapse Saturday, a day in which conditions looked good for scoring. He started with a double-bogey – not the way a leader likes to start on moving day – and repeated that on the ninth hole. He seemed to settle down on the back nine, but ended with a bogey on 18, four under par for the tournament, five shots back of the leader and one shot out of what would be his eight top-ten finish this year – but no wins so far. He may have reached that point in his career where has to face the fact that he doesn’t have the stomach any more for winning. There are a lot of hungry players out there.
Mickelson who started the day in second place also had a less than auspicious opening hole – bogey five. He then followed with what has become a typical round for him, birdies followed by bogeys, then birdies, bogeys, etc. This was a day when he needed consistency – to find the fairways, which he didn’t, and smoke some drives to set up some easy approaches, which he also didn’t. With Tiger Woods finishing way out of the reckoning, a top-four finish by Mickelson would see him shooting up to number one position in the world rankings for the first time. How Lefty fares on Sunday will tell us a lot about Mickelson’s ability close the deal because we know knocking Woods off is a priority with him.
McIlroy has been erratic the last few weeks, including a 63 followed by an 80 at the British Open, so he’d like to stick a spectacular round in at Firestone to make a statement that he’s got what it takes. However, steady hasn’t happened for the young Irishman lately. Saturday he missed half the greens, and no matter how well you’re putting, if you miss the greens, you’re putting for too many pars. He’ll be looking for some steady iron play on Sunday if he’s going to win here.
Ernie Els is another player who in recent weeks has blown opportunities through inconsistent play when it seemed to be most important. Some would say he’s lost his nerve in crucial tournament moments, like in the US Open when he had a great opportunity to add to his legacy, but couldn’t find the fairways with any consistency. He didn’t have that problem on Saturday, hitting 11 of the 14 fairways and putting just great to finish his round at six under par, seven under for the tournament, two shots off the lead.
If he drives as well on Sunday, look for Else to take the $1.8 million first prize.
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