Snedeker holds three-stroke advantage through three rounds at the Safeway Open
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
The Safeway Open gained steam Saturday towards crowning a champion.
After gaining the lead on Friday with a 65, seven-under round, Brandt Snedeker hovered at par all day for the round before hitting three straight birdies on holes 16, 17, and 18 to end the the day with a 69.
“Yeah, I hit a great drive on 16 and had about 250 with a 4-iron. Great 4-iron right at it and rolled just on the green, hit a great putt that lipped out for eagle,” Snedeker said of his final three holes. “ And then hit 3-wood off the tee on 17, had about 85 yards to the hole, hit a lob wedge to about six feet, hit a great putt. Greens were a little bumpy, got it rolling really good. And 18 hit driver, 3-wood just short right of the green and another great putt that could have gone in for eagle. So pretty good way to finish stress free, way to finish nice. Hopefully I can build off that momentum for tomorrow.”
The biggest mover on the day was Bill Haas. After beginning his day at six-under for the tournament Haas made five birdies to put himself in prime position entering the tournament’s final day in the fourth position.
“I got a good break on 13. I pulled my second shot and it just hung up on the fringe and it could have easily rolled down off the side of the green and I end up making that putt off the fringe,” Haas said after a good round. “Maybe a bogey, but then ended up making birdie so felt like a two-shot swing there. Hit some nice quality shots coming down the stretch with the two par 5s coming up and they’re both downwind there once the wind switched there on the back nine, so took advantage of those coming in.”
Kevin Tway also had a solid day to catch up to the leaders with a four-under, 68 round to move within three strokes of the lead.
“Yeah, it was a tough day. Wind picked up a little bit. I kept the ball in play nicely, made a nice save on 14 when that was like my only real bad shot,” said Tway of his play on Saturday. “Yeah, hung in there and played well.”
For Fred Couples this Safeway Open will be his last non-major event on the PGA Tour. On the ninth hole the newly minted 59-year-old nailed a chip out the bunker, which gave him a eagle on that hole from the left bunker. Couples also birdied hole two, but a bogey on 15 only made it to where he ended the day with a 70 on the par 72 course.
“I played pretty well,” Couples said of his performance on the day. “Like you said, I holed that shot on 9. On the front (nine) there were a couple birdie opportunities, but when I made the turn, the wind started to pick up and I hit a couple of good shots on 10 and 11 and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
“But really disappointing two par 5s, kind of downwind,” Couples added. “I missed about a four-footer for birdie on 16 and then I actually laid up and made par. It’s a tricky course. I’m now seeing what everyone talks about when it dries out. I fought trying to get in close on the back nine to make birdies and just made pars.”
As for Phil Mickelson, who had a great first round on Thursday and a three-under-par round on Friday, he had a hard time maintaining par on the Saturday as well and as a result fell all the way down to the 15th position at seven-under. Part of Mickelson’s struggles were keeping the ball in the fairway on his tee shots. Mickelson‘s problems were made worse when he shanked his tee shot on the 17th hole.
Ryan Moore, who came into the day at ten-under, also lost three strokes due to the strong winds that caused the greens to become firmer.
Tomorrow’s tee times will go from 10:10 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. with players teeing off from hole Nos. 1 and 10.
