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Furyk takes lead into wet, windy final day

 
Jim Furyk’s lead is whittled down to one heading into a final day with a bad forecast.
Jim Furyk’s lead is whittled down to one heading into a final day with a bad forecast.
Published Aug. 5, 2012

AKRON, Ohio — Jim Furyk spent more time looking at the forecast than the leaderboard Saturday in the Bridgestone Invitational.

He's not sure which one looks more favorable.

Furyk missed a couple of birdie chances early in the third round, then was more than happy to settle for pars on a Firestone course that was firm, fast, bouncy and increasingly difficult. He made 16 pars, along with one birdie on the front nine and one bogey on the back nine, for par 70 that felt like a hard day of work.

He has a one-shot lead in the World Golf Championships event over Louis Oosthuizen, who had 68 thanks to third birdies and no bogeys over the final 10 holes.

Furyk, who was at 11-under 199, is in the final group today with Oosthuizen and Keegan Bradley, four strokes back after his 67. Starting times have been moved up because of a forecast of thunderstorms throughout the day.

That's where it gets tricky.

"All I'm going off of is the weather forecast I got about six hours ago," Furyk said shortly after the round ended. He learned enough to see the possibility of rain and thunderstorms in the morning. There are predictions of gusts up to 25 mph. There might be delays, and the course could play a lot longer and a lot softer.

"It'll be a tough day," Furyk concluded.

Saturday was no picnic, mainly because Furyk and so many others were hitting it too far.

There was so much bounce in the greens — compared with how players were able to spin the ball back in the earlier rounds — that Furyk had 68 yards to the pin on the par-5 16th and realized he had no chance to keep it on the putting surface. Blame that on hitting a 6-iron 250 yards to lay up. "Didn't plan for that," he said.

PGA: J.J. Henry had an eagle for the third straight day and scored 14 points to take the third-round lead with 36 overall, three more than second-round leader Alexandre Rocha, in the Reno-Tahoe Open in Nevada. John Daly and Justin Leonard were among more than a dozen players within striking distance in the tour's first modified Stableford scoring system event since 2006.

CHAMPIONS: David Peoples matched his career best with 10-under 62 to take a three-stroke lead in the 3M Championship in Blaine, Minn. Peoples had a 14-under 130 total. Eduardo Romero was second after 65.

. FAST FACTS

PGA Championship

When/where: Thursday-Sunday, Kiawah Island, S.C.

Purse: $8 million

Defending champion: Keegan Bradley

TV: Thursday-Friday, 1-7 p.m., TNT; Saturday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., TNT, and 2-7 p.m., Ch. 10