Third-round notebook – Travelers Championship
* At 14-under-par, David Toms is two-strokes off the lead and is looking for his first win and his seventh top-10 finish of the 2009 season after having just one top-10 finish in all of 2008. A top-10 this week would put Toms in a tie with Tiger Woods with the season’s most top-10 finishes. Toms has two runner-up finishes this year coming at the Sony Open in Hawaii and the St. Jude Classic presented by FedEx. * Paul Goydos, David Toms and Kenny Perry have played in the Travelers Championship a combined 41 times.
* 80 players made the cut at 3-under-par, the lowest cut of the 2009 season and the lowest since the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open (6-under-par). Since more than 78 players made the cut, a second cut was made to reduce the field to 70 players and ties following the third round, leaving 72 (three players tied at 70) players to return on Sunday for the fourth round. Players eliminated will receive their appropriate share of the official prize money in accordance with their respective positions.
* Paul Goydos’ third-round 63 is his lowest career round at the Travelers Championship. For his career, Goydos has twice shot 62, most recently at the 2008 Frys.com Open.
* Goydos needed just nine putts on the back-nine with birdies on holes 11, 13-16. Goydos had 23 putts in the third-round.
* Including his win at the 2008 Memorial, Kenny Perry has won five times since June 1, 2008, the most of any player during that time span. In that time, he’s made 26 consecutive cuts and has 11 top-10 finishes. The last time Perry missed a cut was the 2008 Sony Open in Hawaii. He withdrew from the 2008 PGA Championship.
* Despite Kenny Perry’s success in 2009, this is the second time this year that he has opened a Tournament with three consecutive rounds in the 60s. The other was the Sony Open in Hawaii where he shot 74 on the final day and finished T59.
* Casey Wittenberg fired a 5-under 65 in the third-round and stands T4 entering the final-round. Wittenberg’s previous best standing after 54 holes was fifth at the 2008 Viking Classic.
* Kenny Perry is competing in his 21st Travelers Championship with a best finish being a T4 in 2003. He has not missed a cut since 1999.
* Hunter Mahan, who has finished second, first and second in the last three years at the Travelers Championship, has not missed a cut since the 2008 PGA Championship. Mahan has made the cut in all 15 events in which he has teed it up in 2009, finishing in the top 25 in 13 of them. He has scored in the 60s in 12 of his last 13 rounds at TPC River Highlands.
* Hunter Mahan nearly shot 62 for the sixth time in his young career until a bogey on the 9thhole, his last hole after starting on No. 10, gave him a third-round 63.
* John Merrick is at 13-under and tied with Casey Wittenberg for fourth. Merrick and fellow Long Beach, CA, residents Paul Goydos and John Mallinger share the same swing coach, Jamie Mulligan.
* John Merrick has enjoyed a solid 2009 season with a runner-up finish at the Bob Hope Classic presented by Arnold Palmer and a T6 at the Masters. Merrick has held or shared the third-round lead once in his PGA Tour career at the 2008 Zurich Classic of New Orleans where he finished T7.
* The par-4 15th hole measures to approximately 296 yards, depending on the location of the tees. Through 54 holes, 47 of the 323 players who have attempted to drive the green have been successful. Last year, the hole played to a 3.633 scoring average.
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