Durant Doing His Best to Ensure Victory

After four rounds and 72 holes of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Joe Durant is so far ahead, you need a range finder to locate him. There he is up ahead, this former insurance salesman who obviously took out a birdie policy on himself, five shots better than the nearest guys after a six-under-par 66 Saturday at Bermuda Dunes.

Durant says he doesn’t really know how low he has to go today, but he is thinking about Tom Kite’s record of 35 under in the 1993 Hope.

“Hopefully, I’ll get somewhere near it,” Durant said.

Maybe he should relax. There’s virtually no way Durant can miss closing out the second PGA Tour victory of his relatively undistinguished six-year pro career, as long as he remains upright and comes somewhere close to what he has done every round.

That is what Mark Calcavecchia thinks, anyway.

“You know what, as well as Joe is playing, a five-shot lead, as long as he keeps it out of the water, I got to believe this tournament is over,” said Calcavecchia, who had a 65 at Bermuda Dunes. “He’s not all of a sudden not going to be making birdies.”

So it’s over.

Or maybe not.

Sure, Durant is five shots ahead of Calcavecchia and Kevin Sutherland and six up on Paul Stankowski, but do not forget that there are still at least 18 holes chock-full of birdies out there for the taking today at the Palmer Course at PGA West.

“I don’t think any lead is big enough out here,” Stankowski said after his 69 at La Quinta.

“Anybody on tour can shoot nothing at any given time.”

Especially in this tournament. If there was ever a professional golf event where a player actually has a chance to shoot a negative score on any given hole, it has to be the Hope.

With its smallish courses, little or no rough and perfect fairways running up to perfect greens, the Hope is nothing but room service for pros using space-age-design clubs and balls. But that’s happening everywhere, it seems.

The way things are going this year on tour, they’re keeping track of the records in pencil. It seems there’s some kind of record performance every week, and the Hope is no different.

For instance, Durant’s total of 29 under after 72 holes is a PGA Tour record, breaking Calcavecchia’s previous mark of 28 under, a record that lasted exactly three weeks.

“I don’t care about that,” Calcavecchia said. “Next year, someone will probably shoot 32, 33 under in four rounds here.”

Calcavecchia bogeyed the 17th at Bermuda Dunes when he missed the green, but he finished with a birdie. He said he hurt his right knee somehow Friday and thinks he may have cartilage damage. In any event, Calcavecchia limped during his round Saturday.

“Oh, yeah, I had the limp working,” he said. “I was limping a little less when I made birdies, naturally.”

Stankowski’s round was limping when he made three bogeys on the front, but he managed to turn it around by playing his last nine holes in four under, including an eagle on the 516-yard fifth hole.

Durant says he feels no pressure to do anything except play the best golf he can. This is an admirable philosophy, one that Calcavecchia did his best to poke a few holes in, unintentionally or not. Durant would win as long as he avoided the water today Calcavecchia pointed out . . . three times.

As for the leader himself, he comes across as a pleasant type, a personality trait no doubt enhanced by a 72-hole total of 259 that featured a 61 in the second round.

Durant recognizes that he will be able to keep a close eye on Calcavecchia, as well as Sutherland, since they are playing in the same threesome today.

“If I start worrying about what [Calcavecchia] is doing or anybody else, I’m going to be in trouble,” Durant said. “If he runs off nine or 10 birdies in a row, well, it’s been done. I can’t worry about that.”

Calcavecchia said he thinks he is going to have to shoot a 61 or 62 to win. If that’s true, don’t put the pencils away.