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Closer Look New twist: Players taking dead aim at PGA
Updated: Saturday August 18, 2001 8:11 PM
By Yi-Wyn Yen, Sports Illustrated DULUTH, Ga. -- Over the years, each major championship has found a way to make itself distinct. The Masters has slick greens, the U.S. Open high rough, the British Open fierce winds, while the PGA has an identity crisis. The fourth major of the year may have found its new niche: shooting lights out. The I'm-going-for-it performance by players in the third round translated into a barrage of birdies, multiple aces and balls skipping over water. With mushy greens and dry fairways, leaders tore apart the defenseless Atlanta Athletic Club like junk mail. The final four holes are difficult pressure holes, but third-round leader David Toms (14-under 196) breezed through in 3-under with the second ace of the day, on the par-3 15th, and a birdie on the 490-yard 18th, the longest closing par-4 in major championship history. No player, however, made more birdies than Phil Mickelson (eight) for his third 66 to get to 12-under 198. "Today was the day to go really low," he said. "I feel very confident and in a position to make a run for it." In 38 majors, Mickelson has contended in 12, finishing runner-up once and third three times. Leader Toms admits he has nothing to lose if he doesn't win, and with Tiger Woods out of contention, this is the major Mickelson must take. No doubt, the PGA plays to his aggressive style of play. Mickelson has kept to his typical major championship approach -- aim and fire -- all week. He nearly holed out twice in the third round. His first came on the par-4 11th, and again on the 14th when his second shot landed on the front lip and bounced onto the green and hit the pin. He continued to attack pins until he pushed his luck on the 17th, where he took a bogey. Mickelson hasn't been the only player to shoot at flagsticks all day. Katayama stuck his ball on the 16th to 8 feet and showed no fear when he made a gutsy par after his ball skipped the lake on the 18th and landed on the fringe. Davis Love shot 65 to tie for the low round of the day and move 19 spots to sixth place after changing his game plan. "I completely changed after the first day," Love said. "I was hitting 3-wood off the first hole and laying up on others. My caddie said, 'We're going to hit driver on almost every hole now because with these scores you have to play aggressive.'"
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