The Players Championship had a few surprises on Saturday during the third round, as Sergio Garcia snapped at Tiger Woods on the course, rain caused play to get delayed and then suspended, while a Swedish rookie sits atop the leaderboard heading into the final round Sunday.
The rookie is number one at the tournament after finishing with a birdie on the 17th hole when play was suspended, giving him a score of 12 under par to put him two strokes ahead of both Woods and Garcia, who were tied for second with Henrik Stenson. A total of 10 players did not finish the round due to the rain and will have to get on the course early on Sunday, including both Woods and Garcia, who will be paired together again in the morning for the rest of the third round after finishing tied for the day.
Garcia added some drama for Woods for the second straight tournament after his drop shot controversy, saying that Woods caused the crowd to make noise when he pulled one of his clubs early. Woods said that he thought Garcia was mistaken, while Garcia said that Woods should be more mindful of his surroundings and of the crowd. The footage showed that Woods may have pulled the club early, but not during his swing at least, but either way it caused a stir in Garcia and brought out some old tension between the two that stems back to 2000 when the Spanish golfer showed up Tiger after beating him in match play.
Lingmerth had a great day to put himself first on the leaderboard and Stenson was at 12 under at one point before hitting two bogeys late in his round. Lee Westwood had a rough day and hit a tree at one point while ending the day at six under with three holes left in his round. Lingmerth had some great shots on the day, including an eagle putt as well as a birdie shot on the island hole on the 17th to put himself in the lead alone at 12 under.
Woods and Garcia will be together again on Sunday morning to finish the final four holes of the round and their drama could have a bad effect on Garcia, as Woods has outplayed him the majority of times they have been grouped together, with Woods shooting a lower score 12 times out of the 19 times they have played together at PGA Tour events. Lingmerth sits in first at 12 under par, while Henrik Stenson is through 16 at 10 under par with Woods and Garcia, who were 14 holes through when play was suspended. Jeff Maggert and Casey Wittenberg were tied at nine under with Ryan Palmer, while David Lynn and Hunter Mahan were tied for eighth at eight under par.
