THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607140193
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: 78 lines
Scott Hoch can feel the pressure mounting. But who wouldn't, given the coveted prize he is pursuing at the Michelob Championship at Kingsmill?
``I could win a Grand Slam - the Grand Slam of beers,'' joked Hoch, whose career victories include the Miller High-Life Quad Cities Open, the Heineken Dutch Open and the Greater Milwaukee Open - the home of beer.
Hoch is brewing up a potential wire-to-wire victory, which would be the first in this tournament's history and the third this year on Tour. Ernie Els did it at the Buick Classic and Tim Herron went wire-to-wire at the Honda Classic.
Hoch shot 5-under-par 66 Saturday and is at 15-under 198 with a four-shot lead over Dicky Pride heading into the final round. The only player on Tour this year to lose a final-round lead of more than two strokes was Greg Norman, who fumbled a six-shot edge at the Masters.
Fred Funk and Tom Purtzer are at 203, David Edwards and Rex Caldwell lurk at 204 and nine players - including Virginia Beach's Carl Paulson and defending champion Ted Tryba - are at 205.
A victory today to complete four days atop the leaderboard would not be a precedent for Hoch. The first of his six Tour victories - the 1980 Quad Cities Open - was a wire-to-wire job.
``If you play a good round (today) you win, if you don't the first three days don't mean much,'' Hoch said.
Hoch has had his share of collapses - specifically a missed 2 1/2 footer that would have won The Masters in 1989 and a botched five-shot lead going into the final round of last year's Shell Houston Open. But his career has been marked by uncanny consistency.
Hoch, 13th on this year's money list, has only been out of the top 40 money winners on tour once in the last 15 years. That was in 1992 when he had shoulder surgery. Only Tom Kite, who has lived among the top 40 money winners 21 of the past 22 seasons, surpasses Hoch in that regard.
Hoch said consistency is nice, but it's better if it's consistently at the highest level.
``If there's one thing my career has lacked, it's (number of) wins,'' Hoch said. ``I've won plenty of money, but to not win a major yet and to not win as many tournaments as I'd have liked to have won, that's disappointing to me.''
Hoch has won six PGA Tour events and claims eight more international victories. He began the year 19th on Tour in career money winnings, and surpassed the $6 million mark this season.
Hoch could add $225,000 to that today if he can complete the wire job.
Most of the day Hoch hovered a shot or two above the pack. But then on the back nine he started to distance himself from the field with a 30-foot putt for birdie at 13, a 25-footer at 14 and a 12-footer at 15 to complete the trifecta.
Hoch said he feels some pressure from being out front all week, but it may keep his concentration sharp.
``Obviously it's easier to shoot scores when you're back in the pack,'' Hoch said . ``You've got nothing to lose, you go after the pins, it's easier to make swings. When you're leading, you have to think about where to attack and what holes to play to the middle of the green.
``But I'd rather be in my position than where the other guys are.''
Pride will tee off in the final twosome with Hoch at 11:45 a.m.
``I'll try not to worry about what other people are doing because I have no control over it,'' Pride said after posting a 67. ``I'll just go out and do what I can do and we'll add them up at the end of the week.''
Defending champion Tryba was one of the few big movers in the field Saturday. He posted a 65 - second-best round of the day behind John Wilson's 64 - to go to 8-under. Tryba's last seven rounds at Kingsmill's River Course are 69-67-68-68-70-70-65.
``I always seem to shoot a good round here,'' Tryba said. ``I was kind of hoping I'd get a good one out of it.''
Several players with local ties got good numbers out of Saturday's round as well. Paulson shot a 69 (205), former ODU players Jim McGovern (69 Saturday, 208 total) and Joe Daley (70 - 211) and Curtis Strange (68 - 210) all had decent days. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MIKE HEFFNER/The Virginian-Pilot
A victory at the Michelob Championship today would give Scott Hoch a
Grand Slam - of beer-sponsored tournaments. by CNB