Who needs Phil Mickelson?
The BMW Championship couldn’t have a much better set-up for its final round. The two hottest players in golf — one with a strong local connection and the other who simply owns the world — did battle Saturday on a soft course in which par seems to be a poor score.
It should be quite a day for golf on the opening Sunday of the NFL season.
Steve Stricker, the Wisconsin native and former University of Illinois golfer, thrilled the home fans with a 64 in the third round at Cog Hill. At 15 under par, he is tied for the lead with Australian Aaron Baddeley, who had a 65.
But lurking, with an emphasis on the lurk, just one shot back is Tiger Woods. He shot a 65 and wasn’t satisfied.
Stricker and Baddeley made birdies on the 18th hole to pull ahead of Woods. So Woods won’t go into the final round with the lead, where his record seems to be about 3,003-3 as the front-runner.
Woods, though, has 17 PGA Tour victories in which he has come from behind on the final day, including three this year.
A one-shot lead didn’t inspire much confidence in Stricker.
“Well, you have one shot,” Stricker said. “That’s not a lot, but at least you have a shot. I’m sure he’ll be the guy to beat [Sunday], even though he’s one behind. We all know of his firepower and what he’s capable of doing.”
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Stricker also has shown some firepower lately. He won the first FedEx Cup event, The Barclays, and could vault past Mickelson into first place in the points standings with another victory.
Stricker put himself in position with the shot of the tournament. At the par-4 eighth, he hit a soft wedge from 112 yards into the green. Given the slope of the green, he lost sight of the ball. But he had a good idea he’d hit a good shot when the crowd exploded as the ball rolled into the hole for an eagle.
“I still haven’t seen it,” Stricker said after the round. “I don’t know what it looked like. But it was a great reaction from the crowd after I hit the shot, and even better when I walked up there to get it out of the hole. It was as loud as I’ve heard for a shot of mine in probably forever. That was quite a thrill.”
Stricker needed the shot to keep up with Woods and Baddeley. Woods also thrilled the crowds by knocking a couple of approaches to kick-in birdie range. But he was disappointed he didn’t convert a few more longer birdie putts on a day when he was virtually flawless from tee to green.
“I told [caddie Steve Williams] that’s probably the highest score I could have shot today,” said Woods, who had 30 putts for the round. “I felt like today, if I could have made a few putts, it could have been a really deep round.”
With Woods and Stricker playing so well, Baddeley almost seemed like the forgotten player in the mix. Tied for the lead after the second round, he enjoyed a bogey-free day and will be in Sunday’s last pairing with Stricker.
The last time Baddeley was in the final group was in the U.S. Open at Oakmont. Baddeley shot a final-round 80. He would like a different ending Sunday.
“The biggest thing for me is just to continue to trust what I’m doing,” Baddeley said. “Oakmont, that was a great learning experience. I was a little disappointed, but I was very encouraged with that week and how I played.”
Baddeley knows Cog Hill fans will be focused on the other two contenders Sunday.
“You have Tiger roars and you have the hometown crowd roar and then you have someone else’s roar,” Baddeley said.
Stricker could have heard the Tiger roars up close, but Baddeley’s late birdies saved him from playing with the world’s No. 1 on Sunday. After playing with Woods Thursday and Friday, would he rather have been with him again Sunday?
“You know, probably not,” Stricker said with a laugh.
Stricker will be able to see what Woods is doing in front of him. But he also knows that with the way he’s playing, he has the game to win at Cog Hill for the first time since 1996.
“I can’t worry about him,” Stricker said. “I know he’s going to do phenomenal things. I just have to go out and do my things differently. I may make the same score on a hole, but I go about it a whole different way. You have to play your own game and hopefully make a few more putts than he does.”
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