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Sunday, January 27, 2013

Nabisco Championship third-round scores

Updated: March 26, 2005, 7:47 PM ET

Associated Press

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Third-round scores from the $1,800,000 Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Country Club:

Annika Sorenstam                70-69-66 -- 205  11-under
Rosie Jones                     69-70-71 -- 210  6-under
Cristie Kerr                    72-70-70 -- 212  4-under
Mi Hyun Kim                     69-71-72 -- 212
Beth Daniel                     74-72-69 -- 215  1-under
Kim Saiki                       74-71-70 -- 215
Laura Diaz                      75-69-71 -- 215
Laura Davies                    73-71-71 -- 215
Brandie Burton                  72-71-72 -- 215
a-Morgan Pressel                70-73-72 -- 215
Reilley Rankin                  73-68-74 -- 215
Hee-Won Han                     76-71-69 -- 216  Even
Lorie Kane                      71-76-69 -- 216
Young Kim                       76-70-70 -- 216
a-Julieta Granada               75-71-70 -- 216
Candie Kung                     72-73-71 -- 216
Natalie Gulbis                  73-71-72 -- 216
Juli Inkster                    70-74-72 -- 216
Wendy Doolan                    74-69-73 -- 216
Dorothy Delasin                 71-72-73 -- 216
Se Ri Pak                       77-70-70 -- 217  1-over
a-Michelle Wie                  70-74-73 -- 217
Grace Park                      73-68-76 -- 217
Paula Creamer                   74-72-72 -- 218  2-over
Sherri Steinhauer               71-72-75 -- 218
Carin Koch                      70-73-75 -- 218
Karen Stupples                  69-80-70 -- 219  3-over
Pat Hurst                       71-74-74 -- 219
Christina Kim                   76-71-73 -- 220  4-over
Tina Barrett                    73-77-71 -- 221  5-over
Michelle Estill                 71-79-71 -- 221
Dawn Coe-Jones                  74-73-74 -- 221
Liselotte Neumann               71-72-78 -- 221
Jeong Jang                      77-74-71 -- 222  6-over
Emilee Klein                    75-76-71 -- 222
Rachel Hetherington             77-73-72 -- 222
Giulia Sergas                   72-77-73 -- 222
Helen Alfredsson                76-72-74 -- 222
Jill McGill                     73-72-77 -- 222
Heather Bowie                   74-76-73 -- 223  7-over
Meg Mallon                      74-76-73 -- 223
Gloria Park                     78-71-74 -- 223
Stacy Prammanasudh              75-74-74 -- 223
Charlotta Sorenstam             75-74-74 -- 223
Katherine Hull                  75-73-75 -- 223
a-Jane Park                     78-75-71 -- 224  8-over
Catriona Matthew                77-76-71 -- 224
Shi  Hyun Ahn                   77-76-71 -- 224
Michele Redman                  76-77-71 -- 224
Lorena Ochoa                    76-75-73 -- 224
Leta Lindley                    74-77-73 -- 224
Bo Bae Song                     78-72-74 -- 224
Jennifer Rosales                71-79-74 -- 224
Trish Johnson                   75-73-76 -- 224
Wendy Ward                      72-74-78 -- 224
Karrie Webb                     74-71-79 -- 224
Aree Song                       77-76-72 -- 225  9-over
Donna Andrews                   71-81-73 -- 225
Ai Miyazato                     75-76-74 -- 225
Janice Moodie                   74-77-74 -- 225
Joo Mi Kim                      76-74-75 -- 225
Yuri Fudoh                      75-75-75 -- 225
Kelli Kuehne                    77-74-75 -- 226  10-over
Angela Stanford                 77-73-76 -- 226
Heather Daly-Donofrio           75-75-76 -- 226
Stephanie Arricau               72-75-79 -- 226
Betsy King                      77-75-75 -- 227  11-over
Sophie Gustafson                71-80-76 -- 227
Candy Hannemann                 74-76-77 -- 227
Tina Fischer                    76-73-78 -- 227
Catrin Nilsmark                 73-79-76 -- 228  12-over
Hilary Lunke                    76-73-80 -- 229  13-over
Jamie Hullett                   76-76-78 -- 230  14-over
Nancy Scranton                  77-73-80 -- 230
Laurel Kean                     76-77-81 -- 234  18-over

Sorenstam riding high into final round

Updated: March 27, 2005, 2:25 PM ET

Associated Press

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Annika Sorenstam was on the back nine of her Saturday runaway when a marshal's loud command for the quiet crowd to get even quieter forced her to back off her ball just as she was set to hit.

Annika Sorenstam's booming drives left her competitors in the dust.

Sorenstam's caddie admonished the marshal, but Sorenstam wasn't bothered.

"That's OK," she told the marshal. "I'm happy."

Bad marshaling aside, Sorenstam had a lot to be happy about in the third round of the Nabisco Championship. She didn't make a bogey, finished with a 6-under 66 and built a five-stroke lead over Rosie Jones going into the final round.

In doing so, the most dominant player in women's golf all but wrapped up the first major championship of the year while setting herself up for another entry into the LPGA record books.

"Just a great day for me out there," Sorenstam said.

Sorenstam, of course, has been having a lot of great days lately. But Saturday's third round was among the best as she seemingly put a lock on both her record tying fifth straight win and the first of a possible four major titles this year.

Sorenstam finished five shots ahead of Jones, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Only two other players are closer than 10 shots behind, and Sorenstam is an intimidating presence on top of the leaderboard.

About all she has left is an 18-hole stroll on Sunday and the ceremonial winner's jump into the pond surrounding the 18th green.

"She's the last person you want to have a five-shot lead," Jones said.

Sorenstam birdied four holes on the front nine and two on the back to shoot the lowest score of the week on the Mission Hills Country Club course. She did it without getting into any serious difficulty on a day when light breezes and warm temperatures offered ideal scoring conditions.

There's 18 holes left to play Sunday, but that figures to be a mere formality. Sorenstam doesn't give up leads easily, and no one in the field has shown they have the game to challenge her.

Jones, in her final year on tour, birdied the final hole to shoot 71 and inch a shot closer, but the only other players within even a sniff of the lead were Mi-Hyun Kim and Cristie Kerr at seven shots back.

About the only excitement left on the final day may be how artistically Sorenstam takes the traditional winner's jump into the pond surrounding the 18th green. She's likely to do well at that too, since she's had practice by winning here twice in the last four years.

Sorenstam has gotten better every day, with an opening 70 followed by a second-round 69 before Saturday's 66. She's hitting the ball long, not making mistakes and may be playing the best golf of her extraordinary career.

"This is probably as good golf as I've played on a consistent level for a long time," she said.

Assuming Sorenstam wins Sunday she will tie the record set by Nancy Lopez in 1978 of winning five consecutive events she played in. Lopez was dominant in her time, too, but Sorenstam is accomplishing things that Lopez never dreamed about.

A win Sunday would not only give Sorenstam a start toward doing something no other female golfer has ever done -- win all four majors in one year -- but would be the 59th of her career, a number Sorenstam is quite familiar with.

"Tomorrow I want to have a day like I did today," she said.

Sorenstam didn't take long to separate herself from the pack on a day when the temperature got into the 80s and the course played fast. She started the day tied at 5 under with Jones, but promptly birdied the second and third holes and was on her way.

Playing in the final threesome with Jones and Mi-Hyun Kim, Sorenstam regularly drove the ball 60 yards past her competitors. While they were hitting fairway woods to the longer par-4s, she was hitting short irons.

The 387-yard 15th hole was a classic example. Jones had to hit a fairway wood as did Kim, and they both hit them about as well as they could, finishing 15 to 18 feet from the hole. Sorenstam, meanwhile, had a pitching wedge from the right side of the fairway and knocked it to 3 feet for her final birdie of the day.

Sorenstam had to make a few 4-5 footers on the back nine for pars, the final one on the 17th hole after her putt from the fringe went past. But that was about as bad as it got on a day when she split fairways and hit all but two greens.

"Annika executed everything just perfectly," Jones said. "She just played really well."

Divots

Michelle Wie wanted to do something like she did as a 13-year-old and shoot a 66 in her third round to get in contention. She shot a 73 instead and was 12 shots back at 1 over. ... Morgan Pressel was both the low teenager and the low amateur, with an even-par round that left her at 1 under. ... Jones had the chance to have honors for the first time of the day on the 12th hole after a birdie on 11, but had to stop on the way to the tee and allowed Sorenstam to hit first.

Goosen relegated to Fifth Beatle status

Updated: November 8, 2005, 5:00 PM ET

By Jason Sobel | ESPN.com

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Other than Tiger Woods, only one man has won multiple U.S. Open championships in this decade.

And yet, Retief Goosen can't crack golf's supposed Big Four.

Goosen is 5 under through the first two rounds at Sawgrass.

Perhaps it's because he exudes neither the ebullience of Woods nor the notoriety of Vijay Singh, the insouciance of Ernie Els or the popularity of Phil Mickelson.

In fact, you could pass the world's fifth-ranked player on the street and never say a word. And you know what? Neither would he.

An unusually stoic and stolid South African, Goosen merely goes about his business with as little fanfare as possible.

And business is booming.

On Saturday, he shot a 2-under 70 to move to 5 under overall and remain in contention at The Players Championship. This season, he has already earned more than $1 million, thanks to top-10 finishes in each of his last three starts. And for his career, he owns 22 international victories, including tour wins in four straight seasons entering 2005, a mark only Woods can match.

"It's your problem if you overlook me," Goosen says with a laugh. "I'm quite happy to go home and relax and not [speak with] the media. Yeah, I think, like I say, I just need to maybe come up a little notch to be more recognized."

Goosen has risen plenty of notches throughout his career. His first win on U.S. soil came in the 2001 U.S. Open at Southern Hills, where he outlasted Mark Brooks in an 18-hole Monday playoff. Last June, he was the sole player to tame wild Shinnecock Hills, earning his second Open victory in four years. And he pulled off the previously unimaginable in November, coming from behind to defeat Woods in the Tour Championship.

"You always hear about the Big Four," Woods said earlier this year. "What about Goose? It's funny. It's funny to me."

Tiger just may be onto something. Why are they called the Big Four? Why not the Fab Five?

"I'm not really all that bothered about it," Goosen says, "I go out there to play my game and hopefully at the end of the week I win a tournament and that will take care of itself."

Instead, Goosen has been relegated to Fifth Beatle status, an outsider in the quartet of superstars.

Is there a better analogy?

Woods is the John Lennon of the group, the impervious frontman whose image is known worldwide.

Mickelson is Paul McCartney, an enduring star to his devoted, adoring fans.

Els is George Harrison, coolly looking the part, while remaining solid as a rock.

Singh is Ringo Starr, slightly aloof but deserving of more credit than he ever receives.

And yet Goosen remains somewhat anonymous, a classical musician in a world of rock stars.

Certainly it's not for lack of talent on Goosen's part; in fact, he was the fourth-ranked player in the world just two months ago. When Mickelson passed him to claim that spot in the World Ranking, well, it was as if Goosen had never been there in the first place.

So for now Goosen resides in golf's purgatory. He's not quite considered part of the top level of players, yet doesn't belong in the second tier with non-major winners such as Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott and Stewart Cink.

Not that Goosen seems to care all that much.

"I need to win a few more tournaments and a few big ones, I think, to really put my name up there," he says.

Or maybe we just need to realize what he's already accomplished. And put his name up there with the Big Four right now.

Jason Sobel is ESPN.com's golf editor. He can be reached at Jason.Sobel@espn3.com