Saturday, June 26, 2004
It's Still Scott at Booz Allen (washingtonpost.com)Australian Takes a Commanding Six-Shot Lead; St. Albans' Browne Is Second
By Leonard Shapiro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 27, 2004; Page E01
The wind was up and birdie totals were down yesterday at TPC at Avenel after two straight days of record-breaking scoring in the Booz Allen Classic. But halfway leader Adam Scott remained the one constant, expanding his advantage to six shots going into today's final 18 holes after shooting a 67, his third straight score in the 60s in his attempt to win his second tournament of the season.
A day after Scott hit an astounding 18 greens in regulation (34 of 36 the first two days) and made nine birdies in a spectacular 62, the 23-year-old Australian was not quite that zoned in during the third round.
But one last three-foot birdie putt at the 18th after a 310-yard drive into the wind left him at 18-under 195 through 54 holes. His lead is the largest in this event since Greg Norman went into the final round with a seven-shot advantage in the 1984 Kemper Open at Congressional and won by five. Scott also tied the 54-hole record score at Avenel set by Hal Sutton in 1991.
Only three players in PGA Tour history have ever taken a six-shot lead into a final tournament round and lost. The last to do it was Norman, Scott's idol growing up. Scott employs former Norman caddy Tony Navarro, who was on Norman's bag when he blew up at the '96 Masters, shooting a 78 in the fourth round and finishing second to England's Nick Faldo.
Scott, with the second-largest 54-hole lead of the current season, will be paired in the final group today with Washington native Olin Browne.
Alone in second place, the St. Albans graduate posted a 71 for 12-under 201, his best 54 holes of what has been a mostly non-productive season. Browne, a 35-year-old veteran, knows that Scott will be extremely difficult to catch, and smiled when he said "maybe we could slip him something in his food tonight."
"Look, you never know what's going to happen in this game," Browne said. "Some days you make everything you look at and some days you can't throw it in the ocean. He's obviously playing beautifully, but my job isn't to worry about being six back. My job is to go out and play really good golf tomorrow and do the best I can . . . If he shoots two or three under, nobody is ever going to catch him."
Doctoring his Saturday night dinner still might not be enough to slow down Scott, the highest ranked player in the field at No. 15 in the world.
Scott, who had never seen this course until he arrived here on Tuesday, had a two-shot lead going into the final round of the Players Championship in March, shot 70 in the fourth round and posted a one-shot victory over Ireland's Padraig Harrington.
"At the Players, I really felt I played the best I've ever played," said Scott, whose swing instructor is Butch Harmon, Tiger Woods's former teacher.
"I was hitting the ball so well and I really felt I could do anything I wanted to with it. The putting felt very natural at the Players. I think I've still got a couple of things to work on here before tomorrow and just get comfortable out there and get off to a nice start. It's close. I'm definitely playing very well."
Scott, who set a 36-hole tournament scoring record of 14-under Friday, had his worst round of the week so far, but so did many of his closest pursuers as breezes swirled in the 15 to 20 miles-per-hour range, particularly later in the day as the leading groups made their way around the back nine. The wind also helped dry out greens, making shots at tucked pins extremely risky.
At one point, '99 champion Rich Beem had tied Scott for the lead at 15 under when he birdied the 11th hole, a group up ahead. But Beem suddenly was scattering shots all over the property on the way to four straight bogeys starting at the 472-yard 12th and finished with 72 and 10-under 203 for a share of fifth place.
"I'm still kind of in a funny haze starting from hole 12," Beem said. "There are no excuses for my game. I got in a bad rhythm and that's it."
Charles Howell III, who set the tournament course record of 61 on Thursday, missed a three-footer for par at 17 and a 20-footer at 18 for his only bogeys of the round and was in a tie for third place with a 72 and 11-under 202. He'll start seven shots behind and will play just in front of the two leaders with Arron Oberholser, in with a 68, his third round in the 60s this week.
Back in the pack, 20-year-old Kevin Na, the youngest player on the PGA Tour, had his best round of his rookie season, a 64 that vaulted him to 10-under 203, tied with Beem and 2003 champion Rory Sabbatini, who made a 12-footer to save par at No. 18. Veteran Tom Lehman was at 12-under through his first 11 holes, but three bogeys down the stretch left him tied for seventh at 71-204 Browne was hanging in there with Scott for most of the day, trailing him by only three shots through the first 15 holes of the round. But a gust of wind came up on Browne's second shot into the 467-yard 16th hole and knocked it 20 yards short of his target and into a bunker. Browne could not get up and down from there and made his first bogey of the tournament to fall four behind.
The most significant swing of the day between the playing partners came at the 444-yard 18th hole. Browne said he was between clubs on his approach to the green and again knocked his second shot in the bunker. He had a difficult sand shot, got it out to 20 feet and missed the putt for par.
Scott, meantime, smacked a dead-solid drive down the middle of the fairway and hit his second shot 9-iron to within three feet of the hole. He made that birdie putt, and that two-shot swing pushed Scott's lead from four to six. It also left Browne raving about Scott's all-around game.
"I'm going to watch him hit every shot [Sunday]," Browne said. "The guy's swing is awesome; I think I might be able to learn something. He's pure and he's playing well and he's playing with confidence. Every shot starts right down the line, whether it ends up where he's aiming. The guy is a beautiful golfer and he was predicted for this quality of play. He's owning up to that."
Scott was particularly pleased with the way he got through his final four holes of the day in even par, when the wind really became a major factor.
"We haven't played them in the wind yet and the pins are in some tough spots," he said. "If you went at the pins like you had been the last couple of days, you could get in trouble. I managed to scramble through there with no damage, which was the difference between me and a couple of the other guys."
Scott has already developed a reputation as a closer. With a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour and the European Tour, he's won six of his seven tournaments, including the last five.
"If I just go out and play quality golf, I think it's pretty hard to catch up out there, especially if the wind is blowing," Scott said. "Even if someone does come at me, I think I'm playing well enough that I can hopefully hold them off."
By Leonard Shapiro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 27, 2004; Page E01
The wind was up and birdie totals were down yesterday at TPC at Avenel after two straight days of record-breaking scoring in the Booz Allen Classic. But halfway leader Adam Scott remained the one constant, expanding his advantage to six shots going into today's final 18 holes after shooting a 67, his third straight score in the 60s in his attempt to win his second tournament of the season.
A day after Scott hit an astounding 18 greens in regulation (34 of 36 the first two days) and made nine birdies in a spectacular 62, the 23-year-old Australian was not quite that zoned in during the third round.
But one last three-foot birdie putt at the 18th after a 310-yard drive into the wind left him at 18-under 195 through 54 holes. His lead is the largest in this event since Greg Norman went into the final round with a seven-shot advantage in the 1984 Kemper Open at Congressional and won by five. Scott also tied the 54-hole record score at Avenel set by Hal Sutton in 1991.
Only three players in PGA Tour history have ever taken a six-shot lead into a final tournament round and lost. The last to do it was Norman, Scott's idol growing up. Scott employs former Norman caddy Tony Navarro, who was on Norman's bag when he blew up at the '96 Masters, shooting a 78 in the fourth round and finishing second to England's Nick Faldo.
Scott, with the second-largest 54-hole lead of the current season, will be paired in the final group today with Washington native Olin Browne.
Alone in second place, the St. Albans graduate posted a 71 for 12-under 201, his best 54 holes of what has been a mostly non-productive season. Browne, a 35-year-old veteran, knows that Scott will be extremely difficult to catch, and smiled when he said "maybe we could slip him something in his food tonight."
"Look, you never know what's going to happen in this game," Browne said. "Some days you make everything you look at and some days you can't throw it in the ocean. He's obviously playing beautifully, but my job isn't to worry about being six back. My job is to go out and play really good golf tomorrow and do the best I can . . . If he shoots two or three under, nobody is ever going to catch him."
Doctoring his Saturday night dinner still might not be enough to slow down Scott, the highest ranked player in the field at No. 15 in the world.
Scott, who had never seen this course until he arrived here on Tuesday, had a two-shot lead going into the final round of the Players Championship in March, shot 70 in the fourth round and posted a one-shot victory over Ireland's Padraig Harrington.
"At the Players, I really felt I played the best I've ever played," said Scott, whose swing instructor is Butch Harmon, Tiger Woods's former teacher.
"I was hitting the ball so well and I really felt I could do anything I wanted to with it. The putting felt very natural at the Players. I think I've still got a couple of things to work on here before tomorrow and just get comfortable out there and get off to a nice start. It's close. I'm definitely playing very well."
Scott, who set a 36-hole tournament scoring record of 14-under Friday, had his worst round of the week so far, but so did many of his closest pursuers as breezes swirled in the 15 to 20 miles-per-hour range, particularly later in the day as the leading groups made their way around the back nine. The wind also helped dry out greens, making shots at tucked pins extremely risky.
At one point, '99 champion Rich Beem had tied Scott for the lead at 15 under when he birdied the 11th hole, a group up ahead. But Beem suddenly was scattering shots all over the property on the way to four straight bogeys starting at the 472-yard 12th and finished with 72 and 10-under 203 for a share of fifth place.
"I'm still kind of in a funny haze starting from hole 12," Beem said. "There are no excuses for my game. I got in a bad rhythm and that's it."
Charles Howell III, who set the tournament course record of 61 on Thursday, missed a three-footer for par at 17 and a 20-footer at 18 for his only bogeys of the round and was in a tie for third place with a 72 and 11-under 202. He'll start seven shots behind and will play just in front of the two leaders with Arron Oberholser, in with a 68, his third round in the 60s this week.
Back in the pack, 20-year-old Kevin Na, the youngest player on the PGA Tour, had his best round of his rookie season, a 64 that vaulted him to 10-under 203, tied with Beem and 2003 champion Rory Sabbatini, who made a 12-footer to save par at No. 18. Veteran Tom Lehman was at 12-under through his first 11 holes, but three bogeys down the stretch left him tied for seventh at 71-204 Browne was hanging in there with Scott for most of the day, trailing him by only three shots through the first 15 holes of the round. But a gust of wind came up on Browne's second shot into the 467-yard 16th hole and knocked it 20 yards short of his target and into a bunker. Browne could not get up and down from there and made his first bogey of the tournament to fall four behind.
The most significant swing of the day between the playing partners came at the 444-yard 18th hole. Browne said he was between clubs on his approach to the green and again knocked his second shot in the bunker. He had a difficult sand shot, got it out to 20 feet and missed the putt for par.
Scott, meantime, smacked a dead-solid drive down the middle of the fairway and hit his second shot 9-iron to within three feet of the hole. He made that birdie putt, and that two-shot swing pushed Scott's lead from four to six. It also left Browne raving about Scott's all-around game.
"I'm going to watch him hit every shot [Sunday]," Browne said. "The guy's swing is awesome; I think I might be able to learn something. He's pure and he's playing well and he's playing with confidence. Every shot starts right down the line, whether it ends up where he's aiming. The guy is a beautiful golfer and he was predicted for this quality of play. He's owning up to that."
Scott was particularly pleased with the way he got through his final four holes of the day in even par, when the wind really became a major factor.
"We haven't played them in the wind yet and the pins are in some tough spots," he said. "If you went at the pins like you had been the last couple of days, you could get in trouble. I managed to scramble through there with no damage, which was the difference between me and a couple of the other guys."
Scott has already developed a reputation as a closer. With a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour and the European Tour, he's won six of his seven tournaments, including the last five.
"If I just go out and play quality golf, I think it's pretty hard to catch up out there, especially if the wind is blowing," Scott said. "Even if someone does come at me, I think I'm playing well enough that I can hopefully hold them off."
reviewjournal.com -- Sports: FANTASY SPORTS: Don't bail out, owners; lots of t...FANTASY SPORTS: Don't bail out, owners; lots of time to catch up
It has become one of the rites of summer, like picnics by the lake and Fourth of July fireworks. Fantasy baseball owners of poorly faring teams tend to hang it up and essentially quit as July dawns.
Eric Karabell, ESPN.com fantasy games editor, has a suggestion: Wait.
Many owners overreact to a bad position in the standings, he said. There are still three full months -- more games are yet to be played than have already been played -- so there is plenty of time to turn things around.
The key now, Karabell said, is for a team owner to maximize points in categories in which he is already doing well.
"It's a very basic point, but you have to maximize the points you can gain," Karabell said. "That means, if you're stuck in steals and can't go anywhere, then trade a guy like Carl Crawford (of Tampa Bay). He should be able to bring a dominant hitter or a real good strikeout pitcher.
"You have to look at the standings and make a determination. Can you reasonably expect to move up in a category? If you say yes, then you have to try to figure out how to make sure you go as high as you can."
Many struggling fantasy owners don't examine the standings carefully enough. Karabell said owners must consider not only how far behind they are in a given category but also the likelihood of the teams around them improving or declining in that category.
If you trail a team in a category in which that team's players are on the decline, injured or don't project well for the second half, there is a potential opening, Karabell said.
"Look at the standings and see what it's going to take to move up each spot," he said. "If you are behind a guy by five saves, say, and all he has is Danny Graves (of the Reds) and you don't believe Graves is going to do much more, then you have an opportunity. But if the guy has Mariano Rivera (of the Yankees), it's probably a different story because Rivera isn't showing any signs of being any less dominant than he has been.
"It's pretty simple, really. And if you really are out of it, if you're in a keeper league, then you have to try to (trade) guys who can help someone who is in the race for players you can protect next year."
Karabell names Milwaukee first baseman Lyle Overbay as a player owners eyeing next year should consider carefully. He said he expects Tampa Bay to call up shortstop prospect B.J. Upton soon and said he thinks Upton will make an immediate impact, as well as to make Crawford more dangerous.
Pitching-wise, Karabell expects Minnesota's Johan Santana, Seattle's Joel Pineiro and Philadelphia's Brett Myers to have big second halves.
"I think there are going to be a lot of good, young pitching arms available, guys who can help a lot of teams," Karabell said. "But nobody is going to drop them in your lap. You're going to have to pay attention.
"The point is, there are a lot of ways to still find some players and get yourself back in it if you work at it."
It has become one of the rites of summer, like picnics by the lake and Fourth of July fireworks. Fantasy baseball owners of poorly faring teams tend to hang it up and essentially quit as July dawns.
Eric Karabell, ESPN.com fantasy games editor, has a suggestion: Wait.
Many owners overreact to a bad position in the standings, he said. There are still three full months -- more games are yet to be played than have already been played -- so there is plenty of time to turn things around.
The key now, Karabell said, is for a team owner to maximize points in categories in which he is already doing well.
"It's a very basic point, but you have to maximize the points you can gain," Karabell said. "That means, if you're stuck in steals and can't go anywhere, then trade a guy like Carl Crawford (of Tampa Bay). He should be able to bring a dominant hitter or a real good strikeout pitcher.
"You have to look at the standings and make a determination. Can you reasonably expect to move up in a category? If you say yes, then you have to try to figure out how to make sure you go as high as you can."
Many struggling fantasy owners don't examine the standings carefully enough. Karabell said owners must consider not only how far behind they are in a given category but also the likelihood of the teams around them improving or declining in that category.
If you trail a team in a category in which that team's players are on the decline, injured or don't project well for the second half, there is a potential opening, Karabell said.
"Look at the standings and see what it's going to take to move up each spot," he said. "If you are behind a guy by five saves, say, and all he has is Danny Graves (of the Reds) and you don't believe Graves is going to do much more, then you have an opportunity. But if the guy has Mariano Rivera (of the Yankees), it's probably a different story because Rivera isn't showing any signs of being any less dominant than he has been.
"It's pretty simple, really. And if you really are out of it, if you're in a keeper league, then you have to try to (trade) guys who can help someone who is in the race for players you can protect next year."
Karabell names Milwaukee first baseman Lyle Overbay as a player owners eyeing next year should consider carefully. He said he expects Tampa Bay to call up shortstop prospect B.J. Upton soon and said he thinks Upton will make an immediate impact, as well as to make Crawford more dangerous.
Pitching-wise, Karabell expects Minnesota's Johan Santana, Seattle's Joel Pineiro and Philadelphia's Brett Myers to have big second halves.
"I think there are going to be a lot of good, young pitching arms available, guys who can help a lot of teams," Karabell said. "But nobody is going to drop them in your lap. You're going to have to pay attention.
"The point is, there are a lot of ways to still find some players and get yourself back in it if you work at it."
