Leader board grows tighter
Bradshaw’s four-shot lead cut in half
David Bradshaw was searching for a swing he never really found. Dan McCarthy found his clubs that he temporarily lost. And SpencerMellon found his way back in the tournament after getting momentarily lost.
When the third round concluded Tuesday at the $200,000 Frank B. Fuhrer Invitational, Bradshaw was still at the top of the leader board, not afraid to stare hard at the possibility of winning the title for a record-tyingfourth time.
But the four-shot lead with which he began the day had dwindled to just two after 54 holes, setting up a dash to the finish for the $40,000 first prize atPittsburgh Field Club.
“I like leading,” Bradshaw said after a 72 left him at 6-under 204, two shots ahead of McCarthy and defending championT.J. Howe.
“I’ve done it so many times before. I have no problem being the front-runner. You can kind of play smart, which is my game anyway. I’m not a risk-taker.”
Bradshaw, a Harpers Ferry, W.Va., native and ninetime winner of the West Virginia Open, looked as though hemight be ready to squander his entire lead after he threeputted from 4 feet at the short par-4 13th, then followed with another bogey at the 232-yard 14th.
But he finished with four consecutive pars, including two up-and-down saves at the final two holes, to maintain his advantage heading into Wednesday for the final round.
“That was a whoopsie,” Bradshaw said of what happened at the unlucky 13th. “It happens, especially here. There’s a lot of whoopsies herearound every corner.”
McCarthy,a full-time member of the Web.com Tour who is34th on the money list, had a couple of moments when a whoopsie could have derailed his round of 67 — the lowest score of a day when only five ofthe 40 players broke par.
The first came at No. 9, a 418-yard par 4, when he flew his wedge over the sloping greenthat tilts toward the fairway— the ultimate no-no. But McCarthy hit a perfectly executed chunk flop shot that rolledto 2 feet to save par.
Then,at the par-4 17th, after hitting his tee shot in the right fairwaybunker,McCarthyhit whathe called a “choke punch cut” with an 8-iron that nearly went in the hole, stopping 4 inches away for a kick-in birdie.
It was one of five birdies McCarthy made in the round after finally getting his clubs and clothes that missed a connecting flight from Dallas. McCarthy and Howe, the only player in the field with three sub-parrounds, are at 206.
“I actually thought I hit it better [Monday],” McCarthy said, referring to when he played the first two rounds withborrowed clubs.
“I wasn’t flushing it. But I got my putter back and my wedges back. That was the difference. You get so used to those.”
The only other player under par after three rounds is Mellon, an Oakmont Country Club member who plays on PGA Tour Latino America. But it didn’t appear as though he would wind up there, either, when he made the turn in3-over 38, thanks to a double bogey at the uphill par-4 third hole.
But Mellon used his length for two-putt birdies on Nos. 11 and 15, both par 5s, and added a 12-foot birdie at the 469-yard 12th to shoot 70 and finish at 3under207.
“I really didn’t do anything different,” Mellon said. “I stayed patient. I was getting a little frustrated at first because I was watching T.J. dropping putts left and right and I was making bogeys. But Ihung in there.”