Baird leads Frys.com Open
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2011 Frys.com Open | Day Three | 09 Oct 2011
Despite a final hole bogey in round three of the Frys.com Open in San Martin in California, Briny Baird leads the Frys.com Open by two shots as the event leads into the final day.
Baird leads over 36 hole leader Paul Casey and a resurgent Ernie Els who has yet to record a top ten in twenty PGA Tour starts in 2011 but seems to have things back on track here.
Round two of the event was completed early on Saturday morning and at that point it was Englishman Paul Casey who had the lead by one over Ernie Els and recently turned professional Bud Cauley.
The golf course today however was there for the taking. The average score amongst the leading 12 players on the leaderboard at the completion of day three was nearly 6 under.
39 year old Baird, a twelve year veteran on the PGA Tour, has surprisingly yet to win an event and although he has struggled for much of this season there had been some encouraging signs in recent weeks. He is currently in 148th position on the money list and so tomorrow could well be one of the most important rounds of his life.
Casey has not played all that well in 2011 but did win an event on the Korean Tour last week and as a result arrived her jetlagged after a 16 hour flight but with his game in good shape. Casey did little wrong in round three but on day where low scoring was the name of the game he lost ground.
Nathan Green in 13th position and Cameron Percy in 22nd are the leading Australians in the field although Green will be disappointed that he let a five birdie round turn into just a one under 71. He desperately needs a good finish in these last three events of the PGA Tour schedule in order to give himself a chance of some form of playing rights in 2012.
So too does Percy who, like Green, is currently outside the top 170 on the money list. Percy has played on both the PGA and Nationwide Tours this season.
Tiger Woods continued his improvement after a slow start to the event with a third round of 68 to be in 38th position.
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