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Streak stoppers? Gogel, Brooks take AT&T lead; Woods five back
Posted: Sunday February 06, 2000 09:10 PM
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Wearing tennis shoes instead of spikes, Tiger Woods spent 20 minutes on the practice green after the third round of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, the putts bumping along and missing the cup like they had done all day. Chances of his sixth straight PGA Tour victory might depend more on the clouds that gathered over the Monterey Peninsula late Sunday afternoon. Nasty weather that makes the old Bing Crosby Clambake the most unpredictable event on tour could be Woods' best hope to leap past five players and catch up to Matt Gogel and Mark Brooks, the 54-hole leaders. Another postcard day like Sunday, and Woods has his work cut out for him. "If it's ugly out there, then I'm in great shape," he said after a 4-under 68 that could have been a lot worse if not for a great escape from the edge of a cliff. "But if it's calm, then it's going to be a tough task to make that many birdies to catch them."
On another bizarre day at Pebble Beach -- a weather delay under gorgeous sunshine because of fog on another course -- Gogel made birdies from all the wrong places for a 5-under 67 that gave him a share of the lead at 12-under 204. It will be the second time in three weeks that Gogel, the career leader in Nike Tour victories but a rookie on the PGA Tour, will be in the final group. For Brooks, it's his best chance to win since the PGA Championship in 1996. Brooks had a 6-under 66 at Poppy Hills, the easiest of the three courses. Vijay Singh was another stroke back after an even-par 72 at Spyglass Hill, where his round was suspended for 11/2 hours because of fog. Woods, trying to become the first player since Ben Hogan in 1948 to win six consecutive PGA Tour events, was at 209, five strokes out of the lead. His largest final-round comeback on the PGA Tour is four strokes -- Las Vegas in 1996 and the Mercedes Championship in 1997, both won in playoffs. His greatest comeback ever was eight strokes against Ernie Els in the 1998 Johnnie Walker Classic in Thailand, also won in a playoff. During his five-tournament winning streak, he has been no worse than one stroke behind going into the final round, at the American Express Championship in Spain. Notah Begay has seen enough of Woods from their days at Stanford to know that five strokes is not too much to make up, especially if the weather helps out. "I know Matt might be hearing footsteps behind him," said Begay, who had a 72 at Spyglass and was two strokes back at 206. Jim Furyk had an 8-under 64 at Pebble and was tied with Woods at 209. Woods' round of 68 could have been a lot better. He missed five birdie putts inside 15 feet. It also could have been much, much worse. After a 34-minute delay because of the fog at Spyglass, Woods' 6-iron from 208 yards over the ocean on No. 8 came up short, and a five-member search team was lucky to find the ball in grass 10 inches deep in the hazard. "I saw it was a golf ball," he said. "I could see the 'R' in my name." A regular stance would have risked him tumbling down the 50-foot hill that leads to the rocky shore. He planted his feet firmly but awkwardly, slashed at the tall weeds and popped the ball out to 20 feet. He missed the putt and made bogey, but he stayed in the game. Nothing came easily to Gogel. He made a 35-footer on No. 12 for his first birdie, then got into trouble on the par-5 14th and had a 5-iron into the green on his third shot. He went left of the green, then proceeded to chip in for birdie. He also faced trouble on the par-5 sixth, when his drive found the left round and his approach failed to make it all the way up the hill. He blasted out of the rough from 137 yards away into 10 feet for another birdie. Because of bad weather earlier in the week, the final 18 holes -- weather permitting -- will be played Monday. It would be only the second 72-hole tournament at Pebble Beach in the past five years, although showers were possible. Gogel only hopes he has learned from experience. One stroke out of the lead in the Bob Hope Classic, he played it safe and was left in the desert dust, finishing in a tie for seventh. "It was like being in the Indy 500 watching cars go by you," he said. David Duval bogeyed the 18th at Pebble for a 75 and missed the cut by one stroke. Brooks, who has not finished in the top three since winning the PGA Championship, declined to meet with reporters after his round at Poppy. Woods wasn't in much of a mood, either, at least until he spent some time on the putting green. At 7-under 209, he is still very much in the mix. "I'd feel a lot easier if he was about 2-under," Gogel said. "But you expect him to be that close. You know he's going to put on a charge. I can't control what Tiger is going to do. I'm going to have enough worries on my own just handling myself in the final group."
Divots: The tournament is sponsored by AT&T. ... Instead of letting cable show the final round Monday, CBS Sports has decided to broadcast it live from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. EST. The coverage will be tape delayed on the West Coast (3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. PST) because of soap operas. It's the first time a network has offered live coverage of a regular PGA Tour event on Monday. ... No one felt the effects of slow play quite like Duval and Tom Pernice Jr., who played without amateurs Sunday. AT&T chairman Mike Armstrong had a sore shoulder, and General Electric CEO Jack Welch decided he should get back to work. "We need a deck of cards," Duval said while waiting about 10 minutes to tee off on the second hole. ... Among those in gallery Sunday was Jerry Higginbotham, the deposed caddie of Mark O'Meara and Sergio Garcia.
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