Golf roundup
DiMarco ‘claws’ his way to top in Disney Classic LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) – Chris DiMarco might not be playing golf for a living if not for Skip Kendall, who taught him the “claw” putting grip and rescued his career.
DiMarco has gone on to win three times on the PGA Tour.
Kendall is 0-for-260.
They will be in the final pairing Sunday at the Disney World Golf Classic after DiMarco shot a 3-under 69 in the third round to maintain his two-stroke lead.
It seems like an appropriate time for DiMarco to repay the favor.
Forget it.
“My job tomorrow is to not give it to him,” said DiMarco, who was at 20-under 196 Saturday. “If he goes out and beats me, I’d probably feel just as happy as if I won. If I play good and somebody beats me, that’s fine. And if it’s Skip, it’s even better.”
Kendall put himself in position to become the 16th first-time winner on the PGA Tour this year by making birdies on eight of his first 13 holes and finishing with a 66.
“The goal today was to close the gap, which I did,” Kendall said. “I didn’t expect Chris to shoot 3 under, especially as well as he was playing. But I’m glad he did.”
The final round is far from a duel.
Despite his only bogey on the final hole, Scott Hoch had a 69 and also was only two strokes back at 198, along with Bob Burns (67).
And don’t count out Tiger Woods. Despite a pedestrian 67 on another easy day for scoring on the Magnolia course, Woods gave himself 17 birdie chances and was among 19 players within six strokes of the lead.
That might be a lot of ground to make up at most tournaments, but not at Disney. Two years ago, Woods appeared to be in a final-round duel with Steve Flesch when Duffy Waldorf closed with a 62 to make up six strokes and beat them both.
“I’m really close,” Woods said, referring more to his game than his position.
Kendall might be the sentimental favorite. None of the 15 first-time winners has a history quite like his.
A Wisconsin native, Kendall moved to Florida in 1989 and waited tables at an Olive Garden to pay the bills while he played on the mini-tours. The restaurant has since been shut down, but Kendall has made a nice career out of golf. All that’s missing is a victory.
“It’s so hard to gauge who’s going to win every week,” Kendall said. “Hopefully, I’ll be one of them tomorrow.”
Standing in his way is DiMarco, of all players.
They were at a mini-tour event in the Orlando area in 1995 when DiMarco was thinking about giving up golf because of the most important club in the bag.
That’s when he ran into Kendall, who learned the “claw” several years ago but has never tried it himself in competition. The grip requires players to rotate the lower hand so that the fingers are on top of the grip, instead of beneath it.
It worked for DiMarco.
He has won three times in the last three years, and is among the top 20 players in the world ranking. Now, rarely a week goes by that someone doesn’t try it – Kevin Sutherland before he won the Match Play Championship, and even Mark Calcavecchia.
“It was something I was taught a long time ago,” Kendall said. “He’s not the first one that I taught how to do it. He happened to be the first guy on tour. It has kind of carried on in a way that I don’t think anybody ever expected.”
Kendall joked that he will demand DiMarco use a conventional grip on Sunday.
That’s only fair, right?
“I might putt the 3- or 4-inch putts conventionally,” DiMarco said. “But that’s about it.”
DiMarco might need every putt he can make Sunday.
After two days of hitting the ball well and making every putt, DiMarco was tentative Saturday on a day when the course average was 69.6.
By the time he made the turn, his two-stroke lead was gone. A couple of holes later, he was two strokes behind Kendall and trying to limit the damage.
Kendall, however, made bogey from the bunker on the par-3 15th, then three-putted for another bogey from 30 feet on No. 17. DiMarco picked up two birdies to restore his two-stroke advantage going into the final round.
The lead doesn’t look as large on a course yielding birdies at every turn.
“Somebody can go low,” DiMarco said. “I’ll be more aggressive tomorrow. There’s a lot of birdies out there, and you just have to stay patient.”
DIVOTS: Woods was getting ready to hit his approach to the par-5 14th when he backed off upon hearing someone tee off. The tee shot of Craig Barlow landed 10 yards behind him and rolled not too far from his feet. After the round, Barlow’s caddie apologized to Woods, who said it was no problem. “I had been hitting it next to Luke (Donald) all day, then all of a sudden one flies 40 yards farther,” Barlow said. … Charles Howell III is thinking about skipping next week’s Buick Challenge because he’s exhausted. He is playing his fourth straight tournament at Disney, and won for the first time on the PGA Tour a few weeks ago. Howell had a 68 and was at 13-under 203. … Bob Tway opened with double bogeys on his first two holes, and was 8 under over the final 16 holes for a 68.
World Match Play
VIRGINIA WATER, England – Ernie Els will face Sergio Garcia in the World Match play final after both advanced.
Els beat Vijay Singh 3 and 2 and Sergio Garcia beat Michael Campbell 2 and 1 with the help of an eagle on the 17th hole.
Sunday will be the fifth World Match Play final for Els, who won three in a row from 1994-96.
The two finalists are good friends, and Garcia recently bought Els’ house in Orlando, Fla., when Els moved into a different place on the same street.
“It should be good fun. He’s a great player and a good friend of mine,” Garcia said. “But both of us will be trying as hard as we can.”
Els said the two had a good relationship.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a father figure to him. Maybe an elder brother,” Els said.
Pars were enough for Els to win the first three holes as Singh bogeyed them all.
Els went four ahead at the short 5th, but Singh won three of the next 10 holes to get back to one down. Then he drove into trees at the tough 16th hole and double-bogeyed at the 17th.
Singh’s wild second shot at the 19th struck a woman spectator on the head – she was not injured – and he fell five behind after five holes of the afternoon. He got three of them back, two when Els bogeyed on the 29th and 30th holes, but Els wrapped up the match on the 34th green.
“I was always trying to catch up after losing the first three holes,” Singh said. “I thought I had a chance when he gave me the 29th and 30th, but he holed from 15 feet at the next and that was it.”
Campbell won the first two holes and the 6th against Garcia, but the Spaniard battled back to be level at the break.
At the 26th, Garcia’s drive finished in a spectator’s coat, but the man dropped it out and there was no penalty.
Campbell beat Nick Faldo in a record-setting match and Ian Woosnam on Friday, and fatigue caught up with him against Garcia in the afternoon.
Bad drives on the 30th hole and at the next cost him both holes. Campbell surrendered to Garcia’s eagle chip at the 35th while he faced an 18-foot eagle chance.
“It felt good to make the chip and not let him putt,” Garcia said. “In 36-hole matches, unless you go five or six down, you can always come back.”
SBC Championship
SAN ANTONIO – Dana Quigley knew he was onto something special when he made a 15-foot birdie putt on the first hole in the SBC Championship.
“I’m a streaky putter,” said Quigley, a six-time Senior PGA Tour winner playing in his 200th consecutive tournament. “When I get my putter going, I never try not to birdie a hole.”
Quigley, who has played in every event that he has been eligible for since August 1997, shot a bogey-free 7-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead over Argentina’s Vicente Fernandez. Quigley had a 10-under 132 total on the Oak Hills course.
Fernandez shot a 67, holing a 6-foot putt on the par-3 18th for his third birdie in four holes. He bogeyed No. 18 on Friday.
“The finish today made up for yesterday,” Fernandez said. “I felt in better control of the ball today. I hit more shots the way I wanted to.”
Australia’s Rodger Davis was two strokes back after his second straight 67.
Quigley had four birdies on the front nine, reached 9 under with birdies on Nos. 10 and 11, and finished with an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 18.
Davis was 5 under for the day and 9 under overall after 17 holes. But on the 198-yard 18th, his ball ricocheted twice off the bleachers behind the green. He got a lucky bounce, however, and ended up in the middle of a bunker.
After pitching to about 15 feet, Davis left his par putt just inches short to slip back to 8 under.
“There were two big green marks on the ball when I had to clean it,” Davis said. “It might have finished up down the highway if it didn’t hit the bleachers.”
Tom Watson and Gil Morgan were three shots back at 7-under 135 after 66s, and Fuzzy Zoeller (67) followed at 136. First-round leader George Archer, who had an opening 64, shot a 73 to drop into a tie with Tom Kite (67) and Bruce Fleisher (68) at 5-under 137.
Hale Irwin was 12 strokes behind after his second straight 72.
The 57-year-old Irwin won the Turtle Bay Championship two weeks ago in Hawaii for his fourth victory of the year and record 36th senior title. He has wrapped up his third money title with $2,829,041, just $32,904 off his 1998 tour record and $802,004 more than second-place Bob Gilder.
The tournament is the final full-field event of the year, with the top 31 on the money list securing 2003 exemptions and spots next week in the Senior Tour Championship in Oklahoma City.