Sunday at The Travelers: Goydos leads by 1

It may be the tournament after a major. Ho hum, you might say. Normally, I would agree (as much as a golf fan can, I guess). But for some reason, the field for this weekends Travelers Championship is really good. Sunday should be full of exciting golf.

45 year old Paul Goydos enters the final round one shot up on Kenny Perry. After it looked like the tournament would be a shootout between Perry and John Merrick, Goydos hopped over everyone with a 63 on Saturday. Only one other player shot 63 on Saturday, ninth place holder Hunter Mahan. The most impressive thing about Goydos’ 63? It was his second one of the tournament (he shot 63 on Thursday).

Kenny Perry is only one shot back, but will have to play a lot better today if he wants to take home the prize. Perry’s round one 61 is carrying him at this point. He shot a 68 on Friday and a 66 yesterday. David Toms sits two shots back at -14.

The odd man out in the top five is Casey Wittenberg. Wittenberg is at -13, three shots back. While the four other top contenders have all finished in the top three in tournaments this season, Wittenbergs best finish came at the Honda Classic when he tied for 32nd. It will be interesting to see if Wittenberg can hang with guys who all know how to play close on Sunday, if not win. If your looking for someone to drop early tomorrow- try Wittenberg.

John Merrick, who led at one point during play on Saturday, round out the top five. He is tied with Wittenberg at -13. After holding a lead for some of the day Saturday and then drooping to the edge of the top five, will Merrick be able to regroup and make a mini charge on Sunday? If his Sunday at The Masters didn’t prove that this guy can hang in from behind, I don’t know what will.

Overall, The tournament has lived up to it’s billing. Only two of the so-called “big draws” come into Sunday’s final round out of contention. Vijay Singh is one. Singh is sitting tied for 55th at -4. After an opening round 66, Singh has put up two consecutive 70’s (Even par for this course).

The other is newly crowned U.S Open champion Lucas Glover. I think its admirable that Glover held on to this comitment. No one would have blamed him if he had said “Look, I just won the years most gruling tournement during one of the most haywire and tiring weekends of the season, I gotta slap a big old WD on ya.” But thats not Glover. From the begining of the week he said that he had made a comitment and he intended to honor it. Impressive stuff. But sometimes, the best of intentions don’t yeild desired results. Glover is tied for
17th at -9. He may have shot contention away Friday with a +1 71. A 65 yesterday (as well as Thursday) put him back within striking distance. But seven shots on a course like this, with a field like this may be too much to overcome.

Related posts:

1. Perry Wows at Travelers
2. The Host is a Greedy One
3. Tiger Woods’ Lead Shrinks: Catch Him..If You Can…
4. Tiger Hunt
5. Stricker Looks to Make Charge at John Deere