JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (Reuters) - Long-hitter Gary Woodland ran off four birdies in a row from the sixth to seize a three-stroke lead with nine holes to play in the third round of The Barclays on Saturday at Liberty National.
The 29-year-old Woodland, who earlier this month won the Reno-Tahoe Open for his first PGA Tour title, was four under par for the round and 13-under for the tournament, the opening event in the FedExCup playoffs.
Little known Kevin Chappell also used a blistering hot spell to leap up the leaderboard, making seven birdies in an eight-hole stretch to reach 10 under par with two holes to play in his round.
Moving Day lived up to its name in Saturday's third round after Matt Kuchar claimed a two-shot lead in completing a second round 65 in an early morning return along with 39 other players after play was suspended on Friday due to failing light.
Bogeys at the third and seventh holes dropped Kuchar to nine under par, four shots off the pace.
Webb Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion who had been tied for second with Woodland at the halfway mark, bogeyed the sixth and eighth to fall into a tie for fourth on eight-under with fellow American Rickie Fowler.
Fowler had used an eagle at the par-five sixth to move into a temporary share of the lead at 10-under but double-bogeyed the ninth after an errant tee shot.
World number one Tiger Woods also moved in the wrong direction. The FedExCup points leader began the round at six under par and birdied the first to reach seven-under, but three bogeys in a five-hole stretch left him five-under through 12.
Tied for sixth at seven under par, six behind Woodland, were a group of seven including U.S. Open winner Justin Rose (through 12 holes) and fellow Englishman David Lynn (12), former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa (11), Australian Aaron Baddeley (15) and Spain's Sergio Garcia (11).
They were joined by Americans Jim Furyk (13) and 20-year-old Jordan Spieth (15).
Players teed off in threesomes off both nines for the third round at the scenic course waterside course with views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline.
JERSEY CITY, New Jersey, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Kevin Chappelleclipsed Keegan Bradley's day-old course record at Liberty National by posting a spectacular nine-under-par 62 in Saturday's third round of The Barclays to leap into contention.
Chappell, who started his round at the 10th hole, made nine birdies in a bogey-free round, catching fire from the 16th, his seventh hole of the day.
The little-known, 27-year-old American made eight birdies in an 11-hole stretch from there, including four in a row from the third hole and just missed a final birdie opportunity at his last hole to finish the day with an 11-under-par 202 total.
"Here, in the wind...if you would have told me someone was going to shoot 62 today, I would probably have laughed at you," Chappell told reporters after his spectacular round.
"I had a chip-in and then I just really holed all the putts that you kind of expect to hole that you don't always hole - a lot of 10- and 12-footers to make birdies. Just was able to keep doing it."
The Californian, who began the round at two under par, surged up the leaderboard and briefly held a share of first place with compatriot Gary Woodland while the round was ongoing.
"Once you get things moving positively, it becomes easy for that mind-set to change and to start swinging a little more confidently and hitting some more confident putts," he said.
Chappell, a 2010 winner on the Web.com tour, has yet to break through with a victory on the PGA Tour but this season has registered three top 10s including a runner-up finish at the Memorial to Matt Kuchar.
After nearly losing his tour card last season, Chappell, who played his college golf at UCLA, vowed to change his ways this season after a chaotic 2012.
"I went through two swing coaches, four caddies, and just never really had any structure, and that was kind of the goal for the year, to have some structure," said Chappell, who uses Mark Blackburn as his swing coach and James Sieckmann as a putting guru.
The intense Chappell, who has a wedding date set next month with fiance Elizabeth Petrie, believes it is all coming together.
"I feel like I'm in a good spot," he said.
"For me, perspective is a big thing. Went to the 9/11 Memorial on Wednesday with Elizabeth, and you know, it just really puts golf in its place.
"It seems to be whenever I get too caught up or too emotional about my game, life hits me hard. That was a great experience and a learning one for me, and it really kind of tightened my screws mentally."
The last time The Barclays was held at Liberty National, in 2009, unheralded Heath Slocum claimed the title. Slocum was also coached by Blackburn.
"Believe me, I've heard the history of this event and Heath and look forward to keeping Mark's batting average as high as we can," said Chappell.
EDMONTON -- Caroline Hedwall of Sweden, riding the momentum of her record-setting performance in the Solheim Cup last week, shot 6-under-par 64 on Saturday at Royal Mayfair Golf Club to take a one-stroke lead in the CN Canadian Open.
The 24-year-old Hedwall, who has won eight times as a professional but never on the LPGA Tour, carded four birdies in the first six holes and added three more in a span of four holes through No. 15.
She made her only bogey at No. 8 and finished 54 holes at 10-under 200.
Hedwall, who became the first player in Solheim Cup history to record a 5-0 record as Europe routed the United States at Colorado Golf Club, finished one stroke ahead of Suzann Pettersen of Norway, who shot 65, and defending champion Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who posed a 67.
Ko, 16, the top-ranked amateur in the world who became the youngest winner in LPGA history last year by winning the Canadian Open at Vancouver Golf Club, held the lead Saturday until making bogeys on the 12th and 13th holes.
I.K. Kim of South Korea recorded a 65 and was tied for fourth, two strokes back, with Brittany Lincicome, who shot 66.
Inbee Park of South Korea, No. 1 player in the Rolex Women's World Rankings who was tied for the 36-hole lead with Cristie Kerrand seeking her seventh victory of the season, struggled to a 74 and slid to a tie for 15th.
Kerr posted a 75 that included a triple-bogey 7 on the 17th hole and a double-bogey 6 on the 18th, dropping her into a tie for 20th.
RENO, Nev. -- Josh Teater took the first-round lead Thursday in the Reno-Tahoe Open, scoring five points with an eagle on the par-5 eighth hole and finishing with a two-point birdie on the ninth in the modified Stableford event.
Winless on the PGA Tour, Teater had the eagle, six birdies and two bogeys for 15 points in gusty, swirling wind on the edge of the Sierra Nevada at Montreux Golf & Country Club. Players receive eight points for double eagle, five for eagle, two for birdie, zero for par, minus-one for bogey and minus-three for double bogey or worse.
Teater drove the ball an average of 305 yards and hit one 367.
On the 636-yard eighth hole, the Kentucky native followed a 341-yard drive with a 298-yard hybrid approach to set up a 16-foot eagle putt. He closed with a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-4 ninth.
"It was kind of a funny day out there," Teater said after the round in gusts in excess of 30 mph that made club selection difficult at the high-altitude course where he finished seventh last year and tied for 10th the year before.
"It was swirling," he said. "You get between the trees and going up the mountain and it's always hard to judge."
Woodland, who also averaged more than 300 yards a drive, had seven birdies in his bogey-free round. Driscoll had eight birdies but two bogeys.
The 34-year-old Teater turned pro in 2001 and won the 2009 Utah Championship on the Web.com Tour. He has three top- 10 finishes on the PGA Tour this year, including a tie for second behind Tiger Woods at Torrey Pines.
"When you see the way the points shake out -- an eagle is worth five points, which is 2 times a birdie," Teater said. "You can make a lot of moves in one round."
Woodland birdied his first five holes and his last two, dropping a 4-foot putt on the par-3 17th, then driving 370 yards downhill and hitting a 5-iron 266 yards before two-putting from 8 feet for a birdie on the 616-yard, par-5 18th.
"I think length is a huge advantage here," Woodland said. "With the altitude. ... I was hitting middle irons into the par 5s."
Woodland also had a two-putt birdie on the par-5 eighth after his drive went 380 yards, then holed a 9-footeer for birdie on No. 9.
"Going to have to make a lot of birdies out here, but the golf course suits that," he said.
Starting on No. 10, Driscoll birdied four of his first six holes but drove the ball into the sage brush en route to a bogey on No. 18. He missed a 4-foot par putt on the par-4 seventh, but followed that with an 11-foot birdie putt after blasting out of the greenside bunker on the No. 8.
"Overall, top to bottom, probably one of the better rounds I've had for sure," Driscoll said. "Even the bogeys I made I didn't feel I hit that bad of shots."
Woodland and Chalmers both had early morning tee times before the strongest wind gusts, but even then the breezy conditions made it difficult.
"I grew up in western Australia in the third-windiest city in the world, so the wind doesn't bother me," Chalmers said.
"It's figuring out the yardages based on the altitude and the down-hills we have. On the last hole today I had 175 actual yards, but I was hitting pitching wedge, which normally goes 130 yards.
"So, once you figure out all those numbers, it's quite mind boggling to think this is actually going to go far enough. You need a master's in calculus sometimes to figure out the angles."
Strong winds at St. Andrews on Friday have favorite Inbee Park eight shots off the lead. (Getty Images)ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- Before she can think of four in a row, Inbee Park first has to make up an eight-shot deficit at the Women's British Open.
Playing in the strongest wind this week, she had a pair of three-putt bogeys in a round of 1-over 73 that left her closer to the cut line than the lead.
Those rugged conditions Friday afternoon were no problem for Na Yeon Choi. She had a 5-under 67 -- nearly nine shots lower than the field average for the afternoon -- and had a one-shot lead over Miki Saiki of Japan. Saiki set the Old Course record for the Women's British Open at 6-under 66 in the morning, which featured bursts of showers but very little wind until late in the round.
Conditions were so demanding that when Choi was asked to give details of her six birdies, she couldn't recall much further back than the 17th hole.
"Five hours out there, this kind of weather, it's hard to remember," she said.
It's a round Park would like to forget, one that will make her quest even more difficult to become the first golfer to win four professional majors in one year.
The wind carried her approach across the Swilcan Burn and through the green on the opening hole, and from about 50 feet away she hit a poor chip that only got halfway there and led to a bogey. The 25-year-old South Korean was never under par for her round.
Still even par for the round after a 6-foot birdie on No. 12, she hit her best drive of the day on the toughest driving hole into the wind at No. 13, only for the ball to take one last turn and settle in a divot. Park came up just short of the green, rolled a putt about 10 feet by the cup and missed it for bogey. On the 17th, her shot skirted up the left side of the Road Hole Bunker and onto the green, some 50 feet away. Her first putt was a yard off line and settled 8 feet below the cup, leading to another three-putt bogey.
But it was tough for everyone in the afternoon -- except for Choi, who had a score that looked as if she were on the New Course -- and Park isn't ruling herself out.
Neither is anyone else.
"The tough, gritty players can win this," Stacy Lewis said after a hard-fought 72 left her five shots behind. "Anybody under par is not out of this."
Choi was at 10-under 134.
Morgan Pressel took another step toward locking up a spot on the Solheim Cup team with a 70 in the morning, leaving her two shots out of the lead. She now can think squarely about the Women's British Open, and perhaps adding a second major to the Kraft Nabisco Championship she won in 2007 as an 18-year-old.
Nicole Castrale, also making a last-ditch effort to make the Solheim Cup team, shot 34 on the tough back nine for a 70 and was in the group at 7-under 137 that included Jee Young Leeand Suzann Pettersen.
Choi is a former U.S. Women's Open champion, so she has proved she can handle difficult conditions. What helped was having her entire team with her this week -- notably her Irish coach, Robin Symes, and his friend, who is working as a caddie. Her game management coaches, Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott, also are at St. Andrews.
She had to handle the blustery wind by herself.
"I had a daily goal, so I just tried to stick with the goal," Choi said. "It could be like par is 74 or 75 today. But I didn't care -- par 3, par 4, par 5, doesn't matter to me. I just try to play one shot at a time, and I think that's why I had great results."
Even as the second round was finishing, it was clear this was a special round.
From the late side of the draw, the only other player to break 70 was Hee Young Park, who had a 69. There already were four rounds in the 80s.
Birdies were mainly available on the outward nine, and it was all about hanging on from the 12th through the 17th holes. Choi hit a 3-hybrid off the tee on the 16th and a 3-wood into the green, and she hit driver and 3-wood to finish just short of the 17th green in two. From about 45 yards, she putted the ball to 3 feet for a tough par.
Park spoke about having nerves before she teed off Thursday. She conceded after the second round she felt the pressure of this historic chance when she first arrived at St. Andrews. She didn't see it as a burden, but an opportunity, saying that no matter what happens this week, it would teach her to handle any situation the rest of her career.
"When you experience something big like this, some kind of big pressure like this, you're just really not afraid of any kind of pressure," Park said. "How can it get bigger than this? Anything is going to be less than this."
After making birdie on the 18th, she did an interview with ESPN and then Golf Channel. After that, she stopped for a group of Korean TV reporters who barked out instructions on where she should stand and to the two employees holding microphones. As she spoke to 10 reporters after that, someone asked if she imagined having so much media gathered around her to ask so many questions.
"Well, this is pretty much the only week I'm going to get that much, so I should enjoy this moment," Park said. "I'm trying to enjoy every moment that I'm here."
More than the eight shots separating her from the lead were the two dozen players ahead of her, starting with Choi, a close friend and fellow major champion.
Tiger leads by seven, in shape for eighth title at WGC-Bridgestone
CBSSports.com wire reports
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An eagle at the second hole gets Tiger Woods rolling toward one of the best rounds of his career. (USATSI)
AKRON, Ohio -- Tiger Woods had a shot at making history with a magical 59.
He swore he wasn't disappointed to come up short.
"Disappointed? Absolutely not," he said.
Then he cracked, "A 61's pretty good. I'm not bummed."
Like a pitcher having to settle for a shutout instead of a perfect game, Woods could console himself by tying his career best and building a seven-shot lead Friday through 36 holes at the Bridgestone Invitational.
Pursuing his eighth victory at Firestone Country Club, Woods opened birdie-eagle -- stuffing an approach to 3 feet at the first hole and holing a 20-footer for 3 at the par-5 second. He had two more birdies on the front nine, and had four in a row to start the back nine in a light rain.
Needing to go only 2 under over his last five holes, he missed birdie putts inside 10 feet at 15 and 17. He saved par on the last with a 25-footer after an errant drive and a shot that hit into the trees and ended up in a bare spot short and right of the green.
"How about just pleased?" he said, when asked to rate the round. "I'm very happy I was able to post that. I just kept thinking, whatever lead I had, 'Let's just keep increasing it.' It's at seven now, I believe. So that's not too bad after two days."
The 61 -- matching his career best at the 1999 Byron Nelson, 2005 Buick Open and on the same Firestone course back in 2000 -- left him at 13-under 127.
Defending champion Keegan Bradley and Chris Wood, playing the tournament for the first time, were tied for second. They each shot 68.
Bradley finished well before Woods, but was asked if it was disheartening to take the lead and then have Woods retake it after the opening two holes.
"Tiger, those first couple holes out there are definitely birdie holes, so I'd expect him to do that," Bradley said. "You know, I hope he doesn't go too low."
Sorry, Keegan.
Woods, a four-time winner this year, needed only 22 putts, eight fewer than he had Thursday in an opening 66. He hit 10 of 14 fairways and was on in regulation on 16 of 18 greens.
The next best score on a threatening day with a slate-gray sky and precipitation was a 66.
It seemed every fan on the course took notice as Woods started stacking up birdies. The magic number 59 -- shot five times on the PGA Tour -- dominated conversations.
"Oh, they were excited," Woods said. "You could hear it more than feel it. You definitely could hear it. They were into it."
Asked if that kind of electricity helps out a player, he joked, "It's nice to be playing in front of people who are excited like that, especially people who aren't yelling just because your ball gets in the air. You know, we are pros."
How good were things going for him? He yanked a drive into the trees at 13, but it ricocheted into the middle of the fairway. From there he hit an iron to 15 feet and drilled the putt.
At the 14th, Woods hit his drive on the other side of the cart path beneath a canopy of huge trees to the right. He was forced to hit a low, hard, slicing shot to the green that ran to the back fringe. From there, he chipped 10 feet past but rolled in the par putt.
The gallery seemed to swell with each hole, the crowds growing in hopes of seeing history.
He stepped off his shot into the 216-yard, par-3 15th because he was bothered by a bug, then hit an iron 10 feet short of the pin. After playing partner Hideki Matsuyama of Japan putted out, Woods missed his birdie putt on the right side.
The 667-yard 16th, dubbed "The Monster" by Arnold Palmer, resulted in another par. Woods hit a long drive that dribbled into the first cut of rough on the left side of the fairway, then laid up to about 100 yards. His wedge carried too far, however, spinning back to 30 feet. With a light sprinkle turning into a steady drizzle, he two-putted, leaving the birdie attempt short and right of the hole by 2 feet.
A huge throng, several deep around the lengthy hole, responded with polite applause as he tapped in.
He still had a chance for a 59. He hit a long drive along the left side at 17, but misread a 7-footer for birdie that missed on the low side of the break.
"I had opportunities to make putts there at 15 and 17," he said.
With the rain now falling hard, and Woods needing to hole his second shot on the par-4 18th for a 59, he drove far to the right on the slight dogleg to the left. He muscled a shot out of a difficult lie to a bare spot near a huge scoreboard right and short of the green. From there, he chipped to the back fringe -- and made the 25-footer coming back for par.
He pumped his fist as the crowd roared.
Matsuyama, a 21-year-old who was sixth at the British Open, got a close-up view.
"It was great looking at great play at the top of the world," he said.
The last player to shoot 59 in a PGA Tour event was Stuart Appleby in the final round of the Greenbrier Classic in 2010. Al Geiberger was the first in 1977, and Chip Beck, David Duvaland Paul Goydos also accomplished the feat.
Bill Haas shot a 68 and was tied for fourth at 5 under with Henrik Stenson, who had a 70. Jim Furyk, Luke Donald, Jason Duffner and Bubba Watson were 4 under.
There have been 27 rounds of 60 in tour events, including Phil Mickelson this year in the Phoenix Open.
In a remarkable career spent in the spotlight, a 59 would have been just another check mark on Woods' to-do list. Instead, he didn't think it was even anything special.
"[One of my] top 10 rounds?" he said, repeating the question. "I don't know about that."
