Brilliant bogey-free Ogilvy

2008-03-24 10:48

Miami, Florida - Final-round play at the World Golf Championships CA Championship resumed here Sunday with Australian Geoff Ogilvy leading by four strokes with 16 holes to play and Tiger Woods five back.

The 2hr 50min storm interruption left little chance that the event would be completed Sunday. A total of 61 players finished their third round Sunday morning after lightning delayed play Saturday, setting up a race to sunset.

Woods opened the final round of the eight million-dollar event with a pair of birdies but a bogey at the third just before play was halted left him where he began the round, five strokes off the pace of the 2006 US Open champion.

"If I play like I have through three rounds I'll be in good shape," Ogilvy said. "It's a big tournament. These are higher in the pecking order. They sit just below the majors. We think a lot about them. We all want to win them."

World number one, Tiger Woods, will need to match the best final-round comeback of his career, a five-stroke rally in 2000 at Pebble Beach, in his final Masters tune-up to extend his win streak to eight events overall and six US PGA events.

Ogilvy began with a birdie and a par on the second to stand 17-under par when play was halted with South Africa's Retief Goosen, Aussie Adam Scott and England's Graeme Storm four back after birdies on one of the first two holes.

Ogilvy stretched his lead to four strokes after 54 holes Sunday morning, completing a four-under 68 third round that left three-time defending champion Woods five adrift.

Ogilvy, yet to make a bogey this week, stood on 16-under par 200 after 54 holes with Fiji's Vijay Singh, Storm, Scott, Goosen and American Jim Furyk all on 204.

"I'm not sure I've ever played 54 holes in a tournament without a bogey, definitely not the first 54 holes," Ogilvy said.

Woods made par on all seven holes Sunday morning to complete a par-72 round, the worst third-round total of any player among the top 30 at the 79-man event. Woods had a bogey at the second, a birdie at the seventh and 16 pars.

Ogilvy was only one stroke clear of Woods when the third round began but made Sunday morning birdies at the 14th and 16, both par 4s, and par on five other holes to continue a bogey-free run.

Singh and Storm each fired nine-under 63s to put themselves in the title hunt while Goosen and Furyk each shot 64 in the third round, all four charging to the top while Woods was unsettled with his putter.

Singh finished his round Sunday with a par at 17 and a birdie on 18 while Storm birdied the 16th and 18th and managed to par the 17th after rising early.

Woods, a 13-time major winner chasing Jack Nicklaus' record 18 major titles, has 64 career wins to match Ben Hogan for third on the all-time list behind Sam Snead's 82 and 73 by Nicklaus.

Woods seeks a fourth consecutive victory in the World Golf series, in which he has won 14 titles in 25 starts.

- AFP