Strange’s Strength as Front-Runner Is Facing Major Test

So what makes Curtis Strange? In his 12-year career, he has won prize money and he has won respect, but he has never won a major tournament. Until today, maybe.

The 33-year-old Virginian, who began playing golf at age 7, can win the U. S. Open, America’s national golf tournament being played at one of its most historic courses, if he can do the one thing for which he is best known--holding on to the lead.

It wasn’t easy for him Saturday. Strange bogeyed two of the last three holes in the third round but managed to save par on the 18th with a clutch bunker shot to finish with a 69 and lead Bob Gilder, Scott Simpson and Nick Faldo by one stroke going into the final round.

It’s not much of a lead, even for someone who has the sort of reputation that Strange enjoys among his peers.

“If there’s any guy I would bet on when he’s close to the lead, it’s Curtis,” said Mark O’Meara, only three shots behind after tying Simpson’s day-old low round of the tournament (66). “He’s awfully tough to beat.”

By Strange’s count, there have been six tournaments during the last two years in which he had a chance for victory, and five times he won. The only time he didn’t was when he lost by two shots to Paul Azinger at Las Vegas in 1987.

He won the Canadian Open, the Federal Express St. Jude, the World Series of Golf and more money than anyone else in 1987. This year, he beat Greg Norman in a playoff at Houston and won again at the Memorial.

But can he win the U.S. Open today?

Against a backdrop of booming thunder, flashes of lighting, gusty wind and cold rain that held up play for just over an hour at The Country Club, Strange moved into the lead and held on.

Afterwards, the people giving chase to the best golfer in the world never to have won any of the sports’ major tournaments, thought about what makes Curtis Strange unusual.

“He has a fire in him,” D.A. Weibring said. “It’s the same thing they said about Raymond Floyd. And Nicklaus, too. With Curtis, you can see it in his eyes.”

There is a possibility, perhaps even a good one, that you will be able to see it in his score today when Strange has his best chance to finally win one of golf’s biggest prizes.

“If I go out and play sloppy, I’m going to be vulnerable out there,” Strange said. “When you’re leading, you’re expected to win. That’s where the pressure comes from.”

It could also come from a few other directions. Maybe it will be Gilder, who shot 70 for a 54-hole total of 207 and then considered his chances.

“They’re as good as anybody else’s,” he said.

At one point, Gilder was even with Strange and went 8-under par for the Open when he birdied No. 14. But that lasted only a few seconds, until Strange, who was playing alongside Gilder, rolled in a 5-footer for a birdie to go to 9 under.

Strange didn’t know it at the time, but that par-5 hole was the last one he would birdie. At No. 16, a par 3, Strange bunkered his drive and bogeyed. He also bogeyed No. 17 when he three-putted from 20 feet.

That was the bad news for Strange. But the good news was that most of the guys chasing him were also having trouble.

Second-round leader Simpson double-bogeyed No. 5 to drop out of the lead and found he was unable to catch up because he missed birdie opportunities at 15, 16 and 17.

“I just couldn’t make them (the putts),” Simpson said. “I made all of them yesterday.”

Larry Mize, another challenger from the third round, finished with a 72 and is just two shots back with Weibring at 208, although he had dropped five strokes behind by double-bogeying 13.

Mize’s drive hit some trees on the left side of the fairway and then his second shot hit some trees on the right side. From there, he hit a bunker, went over the green, chipped on and one-putted for a routine 6. Mize took time out to console himself.

“I told myself that there are probably a lot of people who would like to be in my shoes,” Mize said. “I told myself, ‘It’s only Saturday.’ ”

Not anymore, it isn’t. While Faldo, Weibring and O’Meara moved into contention for today, Sandy Lyle and Paul Azinger shot themselves out of it.

Lyle slammed a couple of irons in disgust, scuffled to a 75 and stands eight shots back. Azinger went from three shots off the pace after 36 holes to nine shots back with a five-over par 76.

Faldo’s 68 trimmed his distance from the 36-hole lead from three strokes to one. Maybe because he is the reigning British Open champion, Faldo was not bothered when it was raining. Nor will he be at all edgy today, Faldo said.

“I don’t know about being nervous,” he said. “I just hope to play solid golf. I guess that’s all I can ask for. I just want to stay in the hunt, to stay close to the lead.”

If he is able to do that, the Open winner may be Nick this time. Certainly, Faldo is making his plans.

“The game plan is to hit the fairways, hit the greens, hole the putts,” he said.

Gilder needed the bogeys by Strange on 16 and 17 because he had fallen three shots back of the lead by double-bogeying the 15th.

“It was the only mistake I made,” Gilder said. “But right now, it’s just gone past me. I can’t go back and get it, so I have to forget it. You make double-bogey and you have to realize you still have 21 holes to go. You don’t need to make it up in three holes in one day.”

Strange saved his lead and par at 18 when he came out of a green-side bunker to within 5 feet of the hole and made the putt. Strange said it helped to know the territory.

“I’ve been in that bunker for three days now,” he said. “I know it inside and out.”

Weibring, who was playing despite an intestinal virus, thought his insides were coming out, but he finished with a 68, his third consecutive round of par or better.

“Your body is telling you to lie down and here you are trying to win a very important golf tournament,” Weibring said.

But winning this one may be of no greater importance to anyone than Strange. Even though he has won nearly $3.5 million in his career, 15 tournaments, 5 times in 10 months and twice in his last four tournaments, Strange is still chasing that first victory in a major.

“I think the majors thing has been kind of run into the ground,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of time left. I’m only 33 and I’m just in my prime.”

But surely it must be of great importance to be leading the Open with one round to play?

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Strange said. “We’ve still got today.”