Mike Report Day Three of The PGA Championship

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:54:30

"Saturday was a hard day on the course, another tough day to battle Oak Hill and all it has to offer. Right out of the gate, I had to make a nice save on one after I drove the ball into the rough. I laid up then hit my approach to about 15 feet and made it for a par. That was almost the tone for the early part of the round. I sort of held it together and made the best of the chances when I could.

On the fourth hole, a long par 5, I hit two big shots and got my ball to the front edge of the green. Even though I wasn't actually on the putting surface, I putted it up and then tapped in for a birdie. On the fifth hole, I had another good save. I hit a good drive and just slightly pulled my approach shot into a horrible lie. I chipped it out but it ran about 30 feet away and then rolled that in. That was a big momentum-saver at the time.

My first bogey was on the seventh hole where again I hit it in the rough. I actually thought I hit a good tee shot there but just kind of hung it out to the left. That led to another bogey. On the par-5 13th hole I made a bogey. That's been a frustrating hole for me this week. I hit a nice three-wood off the tee but caught a bad lie - on the downslope of the first cut and half in an old divot. From there I had to lay up and it scooted left on me into the rough. I ended up missing about a 15 footer from above the hole for a bogey.

I got a little run going on the back side, making a birdie on the 14th, and another on the 15th. I had another good chance on the 16th, but again, drove it in the rough on 17 and made a bogey.

At the end of the day I'm not too unhappy with the round. I'm in a good position right now, just three back of the leaders. That's really all you want to do here is put yourself in a position come Sunday and I've done that. There's still a lot of people here with a chance to win, including the two leaders. Obviously Shaun Micheel and Chad Campbell are playing really well. You don't shoot 65 out here like Chad did on Saturday without making some great shots and Shaun is playing well too. And there are some others on the leaderboard who are capable of a good round.

Of course the one thing I have going for me is my experience. I've been in the heat of a major on Sunday a few times and won one this year at Augusta. I'll draw on that tomorrow and that will be an edge. But I also think I'm going to have to go out and reel those guys in. I'm not expecting Campbell or Micheel to come back to me.

I know that I'll have to hit a lot more fairways on Sunday if I want a chance. I only six fairways according to the stats sheet and the ones I missed, I only did by a yard or two. If I can make it a yard or two the other way, then I'll give myself a chance.

One thing that has really buoyed me here in Rochester this week has been the tremendous support of the Canadian fans. We're only about an hour or so from the border and it seems like every golf fan in Ontario has made the trip over. It's been a lot of fun to battle for them and give them some excitement. Hopefully I can give them something to cheer about on Sunday, because it's been a lot of fun.

As always, thanks for your support.
Mike Weir
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