Love Is Best of Bunch by One

It was a perfect day for golf at Torrey Pines . . . if you happened to be wearing a fur-lined parka. The third round of the Buick Invitational was so cold and breezy that the real leaders were the ones who stayed warm.

Davis Love III birdied the closing hole Saturday to finish with a 70, break a six-way tie and take a one-shot lead into today’s last round. Now, as far as margins go, it isn’t much, but at least it’s something. It’s also the only padding Love has over his closest pursuers, Phil Mickelson, Greg Kraft, Mike Weir, Brent Geiberger and Frank Lickliter.

The last time so many were bunched together with one trip around to go, it was the starting gate at Churchill Downs.

Love said there can be only one mind-set today.

“Everybody is going out there thinking the same thing,” he said. “You’ve got to go out there and shoot a good score.

“Anything can happen. Whoever shoots the low round of the day will probably win.”

Notice he said probably. It’s wise to hedge that bet because there are 22 players within four shots of Love and one of them is Tiger Woods.

Despite having to settle for par on the par-five 18th, Woods pulled himself back into contention with a five-under 67. Although Woods is only two shots behind Love, there are those five players between him and Love and that’s a lot of potential birdie-makers to hurdle all at once.

Woods finally coaxed some of his putts to fall, a circumstance he could not explain. Not that he was complaining. As for what it will take to win, Woods offered a formula explanation.

“There are so many guys bunched together, we are all going to have to play well,” he said. “The front nine is what’s going to separate the players, if there is a separation.”

Love separated himself from the field, if only slightly, with his birdie at the 18th when he two-putted from 50 feet to get to 14 under at 202.

Mickelson wasn’t as fortunate. He seemed to struggle with his driver all day and all he could get out of his round was a 71. Typical of Mickelson’s day was his back-to-back eagle-double bogey at No. 6 and No. 7. He sank a 40-foot uphill putt at No. 6, then hooked his tee shot into a tree at No. 7 and the ball stayed nestled in the branches, so he had to take a drop and settled for a double bogey.

Mickelson played the back nine in two over. He didn’t birdie either of the par-five holes and made bogeys at both of the par-three holes.

“I felt I gave back four or five shots,” he said.

Last year, Mickelson had a two-shot lead after three rounds, shot a 70 and wound up winning by four when Woods caught him, then couldn’t pass him.

“You never know who is going to go low,” Mickelson said. “Somebody out of those 15-20 players is going to shoot four, five or six under par. So it’s basically a one-round tournament for those guys.”

Kraft didn’t birdie the last hole, either. He eagled it. Kraft hasn’t won in 10 years on the tour, but his 66 moved him into the right spot for a shot at doing just that.

Lickliter hasn’t won either, but he made a statement by playing the last three holes in four under. He eagled the 425-yard par-four 17th when he holed a sand wedge from 108 yards, the ball landing about four feet past the hole, then spinning back and dropping in.

“This is what it’s all about, getting yourself in position for Sunday,” Lickliter said.

It is a position where Woods feels comfortable, which is what happens when you have won 17 times in the last two years. Woods is in the midst of an unusual streak for him--winless in his last six PGA Tour events--and he says he isn’t trying to do anything out of character to change that.

“You have to be patient,” said Woods, who had five birdies and no bogeys Saturday. “You can’t force winning. You have to go out and play hard. I tried as hard as I possibly could. It just hasn’t really worked out yet. Eventually things will just start to happen.

“I expect myself to win week in and week out. Is it realistic? No, but you always have to have that expectation from a player’s standpoint.”

There is another realization at work here, the fact that Woods is in the hunt. Love said the players in contention always are aware of the others who have a shot, whether it’s Woods or someone else.

“Obviously, when Tiger works his way up the leader board, people are going to take notice of it,” Love said.

He looked warm in a turtleneck and sweater, but it could be a long, cold day out there for the players trying to beat everybody else to the trophy. Love said he believes he is as confident as anyone, which is what happens when you come from seven shots down on the last day to win, as he did last week at Pebble Beach.

The trick, he said, is not falling behind by too much too soon.

“You can start pressing,” Love said. “You start squeezing a little bit and things don’t happen. That’ll be a big thing.”