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Notebook Should The Players' date be changed?
Posted: Saturday March 18, 2000 08:22 PM
By Michael DiRocco
"We've been looking at May for 10 years, but we always get to that point and keep it in March," PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said. "We'll look at the options again. There are some advantages to being May, there's some negatives. May has some advantages from a flow standpoint with the schedule. On the other hand, we've gotten to the point where we're real comfortable getting the golf course ready here. And then you just go right on through television issues and basketball (the NCAA Tournament), and there's just a whole range of issues. We review them every three years and we'll go through that exercise again. "I wouldn't want to speculate as to where we might wind up." Vijay Singh doesn't want the tournament to move because it gives the players a good tuneup before the Masters. "It's a good time, before the Masters, to have a big tournament like that," Singh said. "The conditions of the golf course in this time of the year is probably the best we're going to find it. It's going to play harder. We don't play any tournaments, any majors, since the last PGA Championship (in August), which is a long break until the Masters. "It sharpens you up, have a week off, and then go play the Masters."
Moving upOlin Browne has not played particularly well at the Bay Hill Invitational -- his best finish was a tie for 29th two years ago -- but the two-time winner on Tour is setting himself up for a top-10 finish. Brown, whose previous best round at the tournament before this year was a 71, moved up into a tie for seventh heading into Sunday's final round thanks to a 5-under 67 on Friday and a 4-under 68 Saturday. Browne, who began the day at 3-under, is at 7-under and nine strokes behind Woods.
Etc.Canadian lefty Mike Weir, who began Saturday's third round just one shot back of Tiger Woods, finds himself six shots back after a disastrous finish on No. 18. Weir double-bogeyed the par-4 -- he struggled in a sudden downpour -- and ended up shooting an even-par 72. That left him six shots behind Woods. . . . The last time Woods held or shared the lead after any round in a tournament and did not win that tournament was the 1999 GTE Bryon Nelson Classic. Woods led after 18 holes, was tied for the lead after 36, and eventually finished tied for seventh. . . . Woods and Love are 12-under on the par-5s this week. . . . Woody Austin shot a 1-under 71 Saturday, his 12th consecutive round at par or better. Austin missed the cut in his first six tournaments this year. . . . Dennis Paulson and John Daly teed off first Saturday morning and finished their round in just three hours, 10 minutes. . . . Love was the only area player to shoot below par Saturday. Len Mattiace shot a 72 while Singh, Rocco Mediate and Frank Lickliter each shot 73. Mediate, at 5-under for the tournament, is tied for 24th. Mattiace and Singh are both 2-under for the tournament and Lickliter is plus-1. . . . Love's 63 is the second-lowest single-round score in tournament history. From 1979-1989, the course played as a par-71, and Andy Bean shot a 9-under-par 62 in 1981 and Greg Norman did the same in 1984. The course was converted to par 72 in 1990, and since then Fred Couples (1992) and Stuart Appleby (1997) had the best rounds of 63.
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