THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607140189
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD AND JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: 92 lines
The Michelob Miracle continued Saturday when Ken Giedd drove onto the Kingsmill course and found it almost exactly the way he left it late Friday night.
``Just a mild breeze,'' was Giedd's tongue-in-cheek description of Hurricane Bertha, which blew through Kingsmill Friday night with minimal damage. ``The River Course has been through a lot of storms. Some of the thunderstorms we've had in the past left us with a lot more to collect than this one. The grounds weren't as wet, but I can remember sending out dump trucks to pick up trees and haul them away.''
The first Michelob Miracle took place when Friday's rains held off long enough for completion of the second round.
``It's incredible we did what we did (Friday),'' PGA Tour official Mark Russell said. ``It could've rained hard at any time. We were just blessed that we happened to be located in this little hole.''
Giedd assigned 35 people, 10 more than usual, to his cleanup crew Saturday. There were more leaves and branches in the fairways than usual, but nothing like what they found at the Woods Course where a 50-foot beech tree blew over into the maintenance shed.
Friday's rains became too heavy for Giedd's crew to mow the last four fairways on each side, but they double-mowed the greens and Giedd proclaimed them ``something exceptional.''
The three inches of rain Friday night washed out parts of bunkers, but they were easily rebuilt.
``It's just not a big deal,'' he said during one point in a 20-minute interview. ``I think the fact that a `hurricane' came through makes it . . . well, let's just say that this course has a lot of maturity to it.
``To some extent, the course goes on automatic when you get to situations like this. Our crews handled it all with relative ease. There wasn't a lot of moaning and groaning - at least not more than there usually is.''
PAULSON UPDATE: Virginia Beach's Carl Paulson, who is 8-under after three tours of Kingsmill, has played the par-5s - nine of them so far - at 8-under par with an eagle and six birdies.
Paulson finished Saturday with a round of 2-under 69, but only after righting himself following a shaky start.
Paulson three-putted the first hole from 12 feet and had to make an 8-footer at the second to save bogey after finding a greenside bunker and blading his sand shot over the green.
``I turned it back around and made a decent round of it,'' Paulson said.
A birdie at - what else? - the par-5 third got him going in the other direction and he lipped out a 20-foot putt for birdie at the 18th that could have had him teeing off in the second-to-last group today.
Paulson tees off at 11:05 in the fifth-to-last group with Frank Lickliter. It is his best position heading into a final round since he finished tied for seventh at the Disney/Oldsmobile Classic last fall.
``I'll just try to play like I have the last few days and if something crazy happens I'll take what I can get,'' Paulson said. ``I'm just going to try to hit the shots and stay in the present. I can't get caught up in the riff-raff or start thinking about how much money I could make.''
THAT ODU EFFORT: Starting on the back nine, Jim McGovern didn't hit a green on any of his first six holes. Once he did hit a green at the par-4 16th, he was so far on the wrong side that he had to putt through the fringe to get to the hole.
Somehow, someway, he shot a 2-under 69 to reach 5-under after three rounds.
``I'm happy as hell,'' McGovern said. ``I made a lot of good 6-, 8- and 10-footers ... for par.''
Putting has been McGovern's nemesis this season. He ranks No. 180 on the PGA Tour in putting, a big reason he's No. 196 on the money list with $27,111.
But the former Old Dominion University player said he's ``been working hard at it and the last three weeks it's gotten better.''
McGovern took just 25 putts in Saturday's round after hitting only 10 of 18 greens in regulation and 6 of 14 fairways with his drives.
``It wasn't so much what I was doing as what I wasn't,'' McGovern said. ``I was clearing my mind and just trying to think about putting a good stroke on the ball.''
DEFENDING WELL: Ted Tryba threw up a great defense of his 1995 title Saturday, particularly for five holes in the middle of his round.
Tryba, who started on the back nine, birdied holes No. 17, 18, 1, 2 and 3 on his way to a 6-under-par 65 and stands at 8-under heading into the final round.
During that stretch, none of Tryba's birdie putts equalled his 6-foot-4 frame in length.
``I finally caught a streak,'' Tryba said. ``The first two days everything seemed to lip out or come up just short.''
Scott Hoch continues his wire-to-wire victory bid. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
MIKE HEFFNER/The Virginian-Pilot
Keith Clearwater's run at leader Scott Hoch was blunted some when he
missed this try to save par at the eighth hole.
BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot
A pair of spectators beat the heat in the James River while looking
up at the action at the 17th green. by CNB