The Motorola Western Open set a one-day attendance record Saturday, but it was cause for questions, not celebration.
A crowd of 44,865 attended the third round, breaking the mark of 44,408 set in last year’s second round. But the figure was far short of the projections of 60,000 or more who would come out to see Tiger Woods. The Western had a record advance sale.
Tournament director Greg McLaughlin stressed that he was “surprised, not disappointed” that the numbers weren’t higher on a day when the weather was perfect and Woods was on the leaderboard. He dismissed notions that talk of massive crowds at Cog Hill kept people away, although he acknowledged that walkup sales are down from last year.
“Maybe we did scare them, but I don’t think so,” McLaughlin said. “I always hedged my bet. I thought people who wanted to come decided to buy their tickets earlier instead of waiting to buy them at the gate.”
McLaughlin toned down his forecast for Sunday even though Woods is going off in the last pairing.
“If we get 50,000, it will be a good day,” he said.
The Western needs only 19,309 to set a mark for overall gate. The total week’s attendance is 150,493; the all-time mark is 169,801, set last year.
Under par: Woods didn’t help Cog Hill’s efforts to lure the U.S. Open to Lemont. Woods said the golf course doesn’t measure up to U.S. Open standards.
“I think the greens are just too big and the slopes aren’t severe enough for a U.S. Open,” Woods said. “Look at all the traditional courses. They’ve got a lot of slope in them. Here, they can narrow the fairways down. But you still can put the ball anywhere near the green and get up and down with no problem because there isn’t the severity of the slopes.”
Silver anniversary: Little attention has been paid to it this week, but this is Tom Watson’s 25th Western Open.
His first PGA Tour victory came in the 1974 Western at Butler National. Watson also won the 1977 and 1984 Westerns. Since 1972 he has played in every Western except in 1982 and 1986.
He shot a 4-under-par 68 Saturday, after a pair of 72s. He’s at 4-under 212 for the tournament; not quite enough, Watson said after his round, to make a run at the trophy.
“A 68 is a good score, but not a great score today,” said Watson. “The golf course is there for the taking. I’m not in the chase. I needed to shoot 66, 67 to have a chance. I’m still struggling with my golf swing. I’m going to the range right now to see if something will work for me. Right now, I’m not too far off where I want to be.”
But Watson said all that before the leaders finished at 9 under par, just five shots ahead of him.
Love story: Davis Love III showed a soft touch during his third-round 69, which put him just two shots out of the lead. He also showed a soft touch during Wednesday’s pro-am.
Love’s caddie, an Evans Scholar at Indiana University, told him that his fraternity house had been ravaged by a fire. After the round, Love wrote him a check for $2,500 for a new big-screen TV.
Low Lowery: Steve Lowery led the 1995 Motorola Western Open after two rounds. A 72 on Sunday dropped him to sixth place as Billy Mayfair hung on for the victory. Saturday, however, Lowery moved forward instead of backward. He fired a 66–tying Loren Roberts for low round of the day–to get within one shot of the lead.
Lowery’s round included eagles on two of Dubsdread’s par 5s–the fifth, where he made a 35-foot putt, and the 15th, where he rolled in an 18-footer.
“The only other time I’ve ever done that was when I won the International (in 1994)),” said Lowery. “I eagled two holes on the back nine that day.”
Coming off a 63 last Sunday at Memphis, Lowery was expecting to play well this weekend. “I tried to play aggressive today to get back in the tournament,” he said. “Maybe the wind will blow a little bit tomorrow and I can put together a good round.”
Wet stuff: Cog Hill general superintendent Ken Lapp was awakened at 2 a.m., but it wasn’t because of fireworks. Security roused him to tell him that a pipe had broken on the 17th fairway. Lapp isolated the problem by shutting off a valve. “We’ll fix it (Saturday night),” said Lapp. “It was short of the driving area and there was no standing water, so it’s a minor problem.”
