The could-have-beens, a condition common to golfers and fishermen alike, were all over Rickie Fowler on Saturday.
As good as his closing kick was in the soggy Tour Championship — a back-nine 31, capped by a 15-foot birdie on the par-3 18th — it could have been significantly more spectacular. His 37-foot birdie putt on No. 13 defied gravity, teetering but not falling over the canyon rim of the cup. He followed that with a 35-foot chip on No. 14 that singed the hole, but would not drop.
Even without that, Fowler finished with a day’s best 67. At 4 under for the tournament, he trailed leader Jordan Spieth by four shots.
“The back nine was really good,” Fowler said, unfazed by the close calls. “Front nine wasn’t all that great. It was nice to hang around here.”
“Really just needed to put myself where I had a chance for (Sunday). So, we have done that.”
The game's afoot: It's no mystery as to how such a classic pairing happens — it's all written there on the scorecards — but Sunday features Holmes and Watson together again. That's J.B. Holmes and Bubba Watson, launching at 1:15 on the final round.
What Bubba wants: Shooting a 2-under 68 in the slop left Watson fairly ebullient. Not that it's going to happen, given his general distaste for East Lake, but Watson dared to speculate on a winning Tour Championship scenario: "If I shoot 8 under or 9 under — Henrik (Stenson) shot a low score that first day (63) — that puts some pressure on the other guys when they see a guy who's finished playing like that." Watson starts Sunday seven back of Spieth.
Most hated hole: Setting up the par-4 5th hole at 535 yards in conditions that already made East Lake play miserably long met with some howls of disapproval. "I couldn't even reach No. 5 in two, and I hit two good shots," Spieth said. "Talking with Henrik walking to No. 6 tee, I said that was not the right setup, that was a very dumb hole today. … I mean there was no chance." The fifth hole was Saturday's toughest, yielding no birdies and 14 bogeys or worse.
Etc.: Drill down to the second half of the leaderboard, where the weekend motivation is even more difficult to come by, and there give special commendation to Robert Streb. First off the tee Saturday, Streb was the only player starting in that back half to break par (69) Saturday. … Spieth now has played 81 consecutive holes without a three-putt. … At 22, Spieth hasn't been around for a whole lot of this FedEx Cup stuff, but what he lacks in historic perspective he makes up for in refreshing candor. "I'm not going to sit here and say $10 million doesn't mean anything to me because it does. It's a fantastic bonus that I don't even know where it came from — six or seven years back — but all of a sudden they just want to give us more money. So, it's fine with me."
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