Robert Allenby made a hole-in-one during a torrid stretch that took him from the middle of the pack to the top of the leaderboard Saturday at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Mass.
And that wasn’t even his most memorable hole on a windy, wacky day at the TPC of Boston.
Allenby played a four-hole stretch in 5-under par – the highlight a 4-iron from 215 yards for an ace on No. 16 – and shot 5-under 66. He was tied with Justin Rose, who made three of his birdies on the par 3s for a 69.
Two shots behind was Tiger Woods, who hit into the trees, through the trees and even hit the trunk of a tree twice on one swing while scratching out a 1-over 72 that still left him in the hunt for his fifth straight PGA Tour victory.
Indeed, wind that swirled through the trees and had a peak gust of 31 mph brought all sorts of oddities to a gray afternoon.
Allenby judged the gusts perfectly on the 16th, a hard draw that held into the wind, landed softly and rolled into the cup.
“Prettiest shot I’ve ever seen,” said Paul Azinger, playing alongside him.
Not so pretty was a 7-iron on the sixth hole that got caught in a gust. It dropped into the middle of the pond, bounced off a rock and out of the water, then rolled back into the hazard. Allenby had just enough turf to pitch out to a few feet for an unlikely par.
Which was the better hole?
“If (No.) 16 doesn’t go in, I still make birdie,” Allenby said. “But if it goes in the water on No. 6, I’m looking at double bogey. Who knows what I might done the next few holes. I might have thrown my head in the water.”
Aaron Baddeley also scrambled his way around in wind that averaged about 15 mph, and shot 71 to join Woods and defending champion Olin Browne (69) at 4-under 138.
LPGA: Maria Hjorth could see this coming.
She was having good rounds. Her confidence was building. Now, she’s on the verge of her first tour victory in seven years.
“As soon as you go out there and trust yourself, that’s when the results are going to come,” Hjorth said after taking sole possession of the lead at the State Farm Classic in Springfield, Ill.
While Hjorth closed in on the win, Cristie Kerr had one bad hole and Annika Sorenstam remained on the fringe of contention.
Hjorth shot a 2-under 70 and was 14-under after the third round, one stroke ahead of Seon-Hwa Lee (69) and Il Mi Chung (70).
Tied for the lead with Hjorth when the day began, Kerr triple bogeyed the par-3 seventh hole and shot a 72 to fall to fourth at 12-under with veteran Nancy Scranton, who fired a career-low 63.
Sorenstam (69), who was six back when the day began, seemed close to falling out of contention before two late birdies put her at 9-under.
Champions Tour: Tom Kite shot a 7-under 65 to take a one-stroke lead over Jay Haas and first-round leader D.A. Weibring after two rounds of the First Tee Open in Pebble Beach, Calif.
Kite, who has two tour wins this season and five straight top-10 finishes, had eight birdies and one bogey during an often overcast day. He has a two-day total of 10-under 134, a tournament record.
European Tour: Defending champion David Howell shot a 6-under 66 despite a bogey on the last hole and led the BMW International Open in Munich, Germany, by two strokes after three rounds.
Howell, a member of this year’s European Ryder Cup team, was at 14-under 202. He was followed at 204 by Padraig Harrington (64) and Colin Montgomerie (66), his Ryder Cup teammates, and second-round leader Martin Erlandsson (69).
