Saturday, May 29, 2004
Darkness delayed the Senior PGA Championship, with Hale Irwin leading.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Hale Irwin led Canadian Dave Barr by a stroke Saturday when the third round of the Senior PGA Championship was suspended because of darkness.
Tom Watson, Gil Morgan, Jay Haas, John Harris and Wayne Levi were two strokes back when play was suspended.
The players were scheduled to resume the round this morning, with the final round to follow.
Irwin, seeking his fourth victory in the tournament, topped the leaderboard at 6 under with nine holes to play in the third round. He made nine straight pars in the third round after shooting a 2-under 69 earlier in the day.
"It's really hard to play in the dark. Let's go home and eat," said Irwin, who turns 59 on June 3.
Birdie streak
Barr birdied three of his last four holes Saturday night to move into second place.
Irwin was one of 72 players who finished their first rounds Thursday, then sat out Friday because of a flood delay triggered by more than an inch of overnight rain.
Bright sunshine and warm temperatures bathed the course Saturday.
Irwin started his second round on No. 10 and bogeyed the par-3 11th after hitting his tee shot in a bunker. He also bogeyed 13 and 16 before a birdie at the par-5 18th. He had four straight birdies on his back nine to surge to the lead.
"I look back at my round and there were a lot of good shots and a lot of 'whoops!' shots," said Irwin, who won three straight Senior PGAs between 1996-98.
Watson, like Irwin, didn't play Friday. Watson opened his second round with birdies on three of his first five holes to take the lead at 7 under. He hooked his drive on the par-4 sixth, which led to a double bogey.
Watson began tinkering with his swing on the practice range Thursday. The adjustments that worked in the first round began to fail Saturday, he said.
"My golf swing is a little bit loose right now," Watson said. "The timing is not quite there. I still believe what I'm doing is the right thing."
Tough holes
Watson bogeyed No. 12 after pushing a drive into the right rough, then dunked his approach to the island green at the par-4 13th into a creek and made a 6.
He birdied the 14th, but bogeyed the 16th for a 72.
"I made three or four bad swings and they all cost me," Watson said.
Watson's putting, not his swing, let him down early in his third round. He missed birdie putts of less than 10 feet at Nos. 1, 4 and 5. He birdied the par-5 seventh and was on the 10th hole when play was halted.
Haas, making his first senior start after turning 50 in December, was even-par through nine holes in his third round.
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