Pebble Beach Golf Tournament : Strange Leads as Wet, Wild Scramble Looms in $360,000 Shootout

Waiting to be claimed today is golf’s richest prize, a $360,000 pot of gold at the end of the season. The player who finds it is probably going to need an umbrella.

So if Curtis Strange is going to hold on to his 1-shot lead, perhaps a little rain must fall on the biggest payday of his life.

Rains, which made a brief appearance at Pebble Beach Saturday, dominates the forecast for today’s final round of the $2-million Nabisco championships, in which Strange may not only be bucking wet weather, but also the odds.

“It’s going to be a pretty serious shootout,” said Ken Green, only a shot back.

Thinking about all the money? The cash does register, Green said.

“It doesn’t happen too often that you have a chance to win a half a million dollars,” he said.

The percentages must be considered. Just three players have won tournaments this year after leading wire-to-wire, and Strange has led after all three rounds here in the 44th and last official PGA event of the year.

However, being ahead by a single stroke is really no edge at all, according to Strange.

“If I’m 1 ahead, it’s kind of like being even,” he said. “All it means is that I have a chance to make one mistake and get away with it.”

With $360,000 on the line for him and another $175,000 if he then becomes the year’s leading money-winner, Strange managed to stay ahead of the field even though he scored no better than a 70 Saturday.

Strange, who had 4 bogeys in a 6-hole stretch from No. 7 through No. 12, is just one shot ahead of Green and Mark Calcavecchia. Strange’s 54-hole score of 205 was 11 under par on the Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Calcavecchia’s 65, which included a 31 on the front nine, brought him back into serious contention. Green finished fast with 3 birdies on the last 5 holes and shot a 69.

Just like the first two days, there was another round of 64, this one by Payne Stewart, who is only 2 shots behind Strange in a group with Bruce Lietzke and Tom Kite.

Stewart told his caddy he was going to go for it and play aggressively since he had only two more rounds of golf this year.

“I mean, what have I got to lose?” he said. “Last place pays $32,000.”

Stewart’s daughter, Chelsea, is 3 years old today, so he said winning would be a pretty fine birthday present.

“I don’t think I’ll give it all to her, though,” he said.

If Stewart was thinking about money, Calcavecchia was not. The long-hitting Floridian, who birdied No. 18 after his drive carried more than 300 yards, said he was not concentrating on the money.

“I’m not even thinking about it,” he said. “If I get in position to win, I’m going to think about winning. I’m not going to think about money. I can spend it. But the win stays with you.”

Nearly half the field stayed with Strange. There were 14 players who shot in the 60s Saturday and 13 players within 5 shots of the lead beginning today’s final 18 holes.

Only 3 shots back are Joey Sindelar and Peter Jacobsen. At 209 and 4 shots back are Lanny Wadkins, Fred Couples and Jodie Mudd.

“We’re really shooting some numbers out there,” Kite said. “When you have that, there are no guarantees.”

Three under par after six holes, Strange ran into trouble on the par-3 No. 7, the hole with the elevated tee and the postage-stamp green on a cliff above Carmel Bay.

Strange 3-putted from 30 feet for a bogey and although he came right back with a birdie on No. 8, he drove into the rough and then found a bunker at No. 9, which he bogeyed.

He drove into the rough again, found another bunker and bogeyed No. 11. Strange lost his lead when he three-putted No. 12 from 35 feet for another bogey.

“I just hit the ball in places where I couldn’t get it up and down,” Strange said.

At that point, Lietzke and Kite shared the lead by a stroke, but they soon gave it back just as a light rain began. Lietzke bogeyed No. 16 and Kite bogeyed No. 17, by which time Strange had gone back ahead with back-to-back birdies at No. 15 and No. 16.

Calcavecchia may have saved his fine round at the 202-yard par-3 No. 12. It is the same hole Calcavecchia double-bogeyed Friday when his 3-iron off the tee hit a cart path and left him 140 yards from the hole.

“I probably set a record for the longest second shot on a par-3 hole,” he said.

But after par-saving putts on No. 10 and No. 11, Calcavecchia used a 4-iron this time on No. 12 and hit it to within 30 feet. From there, he rolled in the putt for a birdie.

Green eagled No. 2 for the third consecutive day, but threw away both shots with back-to-back bogeys on No. 8 and No. 9.

“I was watching the scoreboard and I thought I might not even be in the top 10 the way I was sliding,” he said. “But I got the break I needed--no one went crazy when I was sliding. Now I have a chance.”

Green picked up 3 shots on the last 5 holes with a trio of birdies, making 6-foot putts each time and also learning something.

“I ought to try to hit it to 6 feet every time,” he said.

That may be more difficult for everyone if the weather is as wet as it is expected to be. Handicapping mudders, Calcavecchia and Kite are more comfortable playing golf while wet than Strange.

Kite, who shot the course-record 62 in the 1983 Crosby on a rainy day, said if a player is going well, the weather really doesn’t matter.

“You could be playing in a blizzard,” he said.

“As for tomorrow, I don’t think any of us would say we’d like to play in the rain, though,” Kite said. “But whatever’s thrown at us, somebody will handle and somebody will win.”