29 year old Aaron Baddeley hasn't begun to feel al the aches a back pains that 51 year old Freddie Couples or 48 year old Vijay Singh have to deal with on a daily basis, that will come with time.
Right now he leads them and a bunch of others with their own story lines by a shot as they begin the final round under clear blue skies at historic Riviera.
Baddeley is at -10 203, one shot clear of Couples 70 -9 204 and Kevin Na 67 -9 204, who was born in Korea but grew up in Southern California. Na who has the reputation of being the slowest player on tour, especially when he is in contention wants to win this one badly for his father who is dying from leukemia back in South Korea and is following his son on his computer.
One shot behind was Vijay Singh 67 -8 205, who turns 48 on Tuesday hasn't won since 2008 at the Deutsche Bank Championship on his way to the FedEx Cup title. As I've been saying he has been playing much more like the Vijay of old this year and he attributes that to finally feeling healthier and a return to form with his putter.
Baddeley who has been on with us on Fairways several times came to my attention when he won the Australian Open as an 18 year old amateur then turned pro and won it again as a 19 year old !! Along with Mike Weir he went to the "Stack and Tilt" method taught by Mike Bennett and Andy Plummer, then decided to go back to his Australian coach, Dale Lynch and he says he is playing beautifully this week
Freddie's round of 70 was a bit scruffy, he hit a poor wedge, knocked a putt over the back of the green and turned a potential birdie into bogey on the 10th hole, but played the rest of the way in at -1 to stay right in contention. He started play on the PGA the year Baddeley was born and Na watched Freddie play at Riviera when he was 10 years old !!
The weather is beautiful and the greens are soft after all the rain so I expect someone to come out of the pack with a 64, or 65 to make it an exciting final day especially with the easy par 5 first hole which gives all the players a chance at eagle to start their rounds.
I can tell you Robert Alllenby who won here in 2001 has started 3,3 eagle, birdie'.
1 4 Aaron Baddeley -10 -- -- color info 67 69 67 203
T2 2 9 Vijay Singh -9 1 -1 color info 68 70 67 205
T2 13 Kevin Na -9 -- -- color info 71 66 67 204
T2 27 Fred Couples -9 -- -- color info 68 66 70 204
T5 9 25 Stuart Appleby -7 3 -3 color info 69 72 68 209
T5 2 67 Stewart Cink -7 2 -2 color info 70 67 71 208
T5 2 17 Spencer Levin -7 2 -2 color info 67 69 72 208
T5 2 79 Robert Allenby -7 1 -2 color info 67 70 71 208
T5 84 Ryan Moore -7 1 -1 color info 69 68 70 207
T5 52 John Senden -7 1 -1 color info 67 69 71 207
T11 3 56 K.J. Choi -6 4 -2 color info 70 69 70 209
T11 4 29 J.B. Holmes -6 3 -1 color info 67 69 72 208
T11 3 22 Martin Laird -6 3 -2 color info 67 73 69 209
T11 4 30 Justin Rose -6 2 -1 color info 69 69 70 208
T11 4 15 Jimmy Walker -6 1 -1 color info 68 71 69 208
CHAMPIONS tour
Bernhard Langer was upset coming into this week in Naples at what he described as his sloppy play so far in 2011 so he went to the range and stepped up his already legendary work rate.. Bad news for the rest of the field..
So the guy who has been this tour's player of the year the last 3 years has shot 64 66 and has a 4 shot lead going into play today and in fact is already -3 through 6 holes this morning !!
Great news so far for our 2 Canucks.. Rod Spittle is at -3 on today's round -10 total and is currently T9 and Jim Rutledge who started the day T43 has reeled off 6 birdies and is up to a T26 AT -7 playing 18.
Scoreboard with final round under way
1 1 Bernhard Langer SC P -3 6 -17 64 66 -- 130
T2 Mark Calcavecchia SC P -4 6 -14 67 67 -- 134
T2 Mark O'Meara SC P -3 7 -13 65 69 -- 134
T2 Fred Funk SC P -3 7 -13 68 66 -- 134
T2 Russ Cochran SC P -2 7 -12 64 70 -- 134
T6 T22 David Peoples SC P -7 13 -11 71 69 -- 140
T6 T6 Nick Price SC P -2 7 -11 68 67 -- 135
T6 8 Mark Wiebe SC P -3 7 -11 71 65 -- 136
T9 T11 Ted Schulz SC P -4 9 -10 70 68 -- 138
T9 T9 Olin Browne SC P -3 9 -10 67 70 -- 137
T9 T11 Hal Sutton SC P -4 9 -10 70 68 -- 138
T9 Rod Spittle SC P -3 7 -10 70 67 -- 137
More to follow..
Bryan Angus
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