A Few Bumps Don’t Derail Graham

Giving up three strokes to par in two holes is no way to win a golf tournament, but despite that experience Saturday, David Graham sits in the lead going into today’s final round of the Toshiba Senior Classic.

With a bogey on the easy 143-yard par-three fourth and a double bogey on the tough 455-yard par-four fifth, Graham dropped from the lead to two strokes behind Bob Murphy.

Some might feel it slipping away, but Graham wasn’t worried. He figured he wouldn’t be the only player to run into trouble on the 6,598-yard layout at Newport Beach Country Club.

“That’s the first time I’ve stubbed my toe in about four or five weeks,” said Graham, who has finished first, second and tied for fourth in four Senior PGA Tour events this year. “I know I’m playing well. I know I’m swinging well and I feel like I’m concentrating well. This golf course is tricky. It’s hard not to go around this course without stubbing a chip shot or three-putting a green or driving it into the trees.”

Graham weathered another bogey on the ninth hole and finished his front nine one-over par. But he finished strong with three birdies, including one on the 18th hole that gave him a two-under 69 and moved him out of a tie for the lead with Murphy.

J.C. Snead, who started the day tied with Graham and Murphy, struggled after a bogey-free Friday, falling five shots back with a 74. After a shaky shot on the 18th hole, Snead was heard to say, “Get my plane ticket ready.”

As Snead fell off the pace, others moved into contention. Bob Charles shot 68 and is two shots behind Graham. Lee Trevino (69) and Jay Sigel (68) are another shot back tied for fourth.

Murphy, who had been uncomfortable with his game before the tournament, continued his resurgent play, but didn’t have much to show for it.

“I played much, much better today, so I’m going into tomorrow with great expectations,” he said. “I really drove it well and had an opportunity for a lot of birdies. As opposed to Friday, putts didn’t go in.”

Murphy reaffirmed a common theme: The greens are tricky, making putting and chipping a delicate proposition. On the par-five 15th, for instance, Murphy landed his third shot five feet from the hole, but as he hit his putt for birdie, the ball bounced and had no chance to drop in.

“It bounced so high that I thought my putter went under the ball,” Murphy said. “It was really scary.

“It’s frustrating for me because my strength is my putting. I did everything today to put myself in position to let my putter talk and it didn’t happen.”

Graham was more fortunate on the hole, because he only had a one-foot putt to negotiate after chipping from in front of the green. The birdie moved him to seven-under, one stroke behind Murphy.

Then on the 17th hole, a 185-yard par-three over water, Murphy pulled his drive and bounced it off some spectator seating. His chip back made it only to the fringe and he made bogey from there.

On 18 Graham moved out of the tie with a birdie from four feet, which pushed his early struggles deeper into the background.

Graham had started well Saturday, with birdies on the second and third holes, jumping a stroke ahead of Murphy, but then stumbled. The difficulty started on the fourth hole, a not-so-intimidating 143-yard par-three over water. He missed the large green, chipped to eight feet and missed the putt. “I still haven’t parred the easiest hole on the golf course, which is that little, rinky-dink par-three No. 4,” Graham said.

Then he got into more trouble on No. 5, the course’s toughest hole, 455 yards into the wind. Friday, Graham had one of only three birdies on the par four, Saturday, he had one of three double bogeys, blading a chip shot over the green, flubbing another chip coming back and two putting.

Even then however, Graham said, he wasn’t worried.

“If you make a mistake like that on a golf course where you feel like it’s a birdie shootout, you might feel like you have done some damage,” he said. “But on this course if you are one-, two- or three-under par, you’ve hit the ball pretty good.”