A Free-for-All Finish Beckons

Instead of leaving the 87th PGA Championship field in his dust, and making today’s final round a relative walk in Asbury Park, Phil Mickelson shot two-over-par 72 at Baltusrol Golf Club on Saturday and let seemingly everyone holding a gate pass back into the tournament.

The list includes the improbable likes of Jason Bohn (three shots back), Pat Perez (two) and, almost more incredibly, Tiger Woods (six).

The same Woods who needed a final-hole birdie Friday just to make the cut, and started the day 12 shots behind the leader, divided the deficit by two with his four-under 66. He’s back at even-par 210 through 54 holes.

As a historical note, Arnold Palmer made up seven shots in the final round to win the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills.

As it stands, on a slippery slope, Mickelson handed over his three-shot, 36-hole lead and enters today tied at the top with Davis Love III at six-under 204.

You could call it the battle of the one-hit major wonders and, given the stakes, the most important round of Mickelson’s career.

“If it is, I don’t feel that way,” he said. “I think that it’s going to be a fun day.”

Here’s what can happen when the second-round leader shoots two-over on a day that the course record, seven-under 63, is tied by Thomas Bjorn:

* Love, the 1997 PGA champion, went from four shots back of Mickelson to becoming his final-round playing partner after shooting his third 68 in as many days.

* Bjorn, the man who shot 63, ended up at five-under 205 overall and is one shot off the pace.

Four players are two shots behind at four-under 206 including the where-did-he-come-from Perez, who fired a three-under 67 and is looking to pair the PGA title with his only other professional victory: the 2000 Buy.Com Ozarks Open.

Others at four under are Vijay Singh, who made 17 straight pars before closing with a birdie to finish one-under 69; Stuart Appleby, who also had a 69, and Steve Elkington, who shot a 68.

Twenty-one players are within six shots of Mickelson and Love.

“I suppose you could call it a bit of a shootout tomorrow,” Elkington said.

It didn’t have to be this way. Mickelson could have shot 65 and removed much of the drama.

He kicked the can early by bogeying three of his first five holes. Love, meanwhile, opened with consecutive birdies, and they were tied at six under when Mickelson made bogey on the par-four fifth hole.

It went back and forth after that. Mickelson was one up on the back when Love, playing a group ahead, birdied the 650-yard, par-five 17th.

Mickelson had a chance to reclaim the lead but missed make-able birdie putts on the closing par-fives.

That Mickelson and Love are joined at the tee box today seems fitting for players who have had somewhat parallel careers. Both have been enormously successful on tour but, somehow, more was expected.

Mickelson, 35, and Love, 41, have played in 123 majors and combined for two victories. Love broke through at the 1997 PGA, and Mickelson came of age at the 2004 Masters.

It has to be noted that only once before has Mickelson held at least a share of the 54-hole lead in a major -- the year he won at Augusta.

Love, like many putt pundits, figured he would have won more majors since his emotional victory at Winged Foot.

“If I could explain golf, you know, I’d be a genius,” he said. “But I don’t know why it hasn’t happened, but I’ve certainly worked hard to get it to happen.”

As for Bjorn, well, you’d think a guy from Denmark might wilt in this searing sauna -- picture a penguin in the Sahara -- yet his lights-out 63 tied the Lower Course record shared by Tom Weiskopf and Jack Nicklaus.

Don’t count Bjorn in just yet, though.

He has won eight times on the European Tour and once, famously, whipped Woods at the 2001 Dubai Desert Classic, but has known a darker side.

Two summers ago, he left two shots in a sand bunker on the 71st hole and all but handed Ben Curtis his improbable British Open win.

Last summer, at the European Cup, Bjorn walked off the course after six holes complaining of “demons.”

“If you want to be out here and you want to compete, you deal with your downs,” he said. “ ... You deal with it and you go on from there.”

After missing the cut at this year’s British Open, Bjorn decided to completely revamp his swing with the aid of Simon Holmes, his coach. So far so good.

“We’ll see if it lasts,” Bjorn said.

As for the four at four under, Singh, Appleby and Elkington are names you know.

The interloper is Perez, a 29-year-old from Arizona seeking his first professional win in a tour not beginning with “Nationwide.”

The highlight of his golf life so far may have been winning the 1993 Junior World championship at Torrey Pines in which some kid named Tiger Woods finished fourth.

Perez has rattled a few cages on tour this year with three top-10 finishes, but did he ever see this coming?

“No, but you always hope for it,” Perez said. “You always prepare to be there on Sunday.”

Meanwhile, lurking below, is Woods, who has climbed from tied for 113th place after round one, to tied for 62nd, to tied for 20th.

Woods had a chance to go real low, say a 64 low, but went par-par on the closing par fives.

Already at even par entering the last two holes, Woods went for the green in two on the 17th and watched his shot land beneath a spectator’s lawn chair.

Woods had a clear line to the pin over the bunker but left his chip short and settled for par.

Woods did reach the green in two on No. 18 but ran his eagle putt 15 feet past the cup and that resulted in a three-putt par.

“Bad putt,” Woods said. “The wrong time.”

Woods, though, had pulled to within eight shots of the lead before Mickelson teed off -- giving the field a little “uh-oh” to chew on.

“It’s out there,” Woods said of his chances today. “If I play like today and make some putts, I can shoot a low one ... we’ll see what happens.”

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Leaderboard

Third-round scores from the PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., Par 70, 7,392 yards.

*--* Player 1st 2nd 3rd Total Par Davis Love III 68 68 68 204 -6 Phil Mickelson 67 65 72 204 -6 Thomas Bjorn 71 71 63 205 -5 Pat Perez 68 71 67 206 -4 Steve Elkington 68 70 68 206 -4 Vijay Singh 70 67 69 206 -4 Stuart Appleby 67 70 69 206 -4 Ben Curtis 67 73 67 207 -3 Jason Bohn 71 68 68 207 -3 Retief Goosen 68 70 69 207 -3 Lee Westwood 68 68 71 207 -3 Greg Owen 68 69 70 207 -3

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*--* Player 1st 2nd 3rd Total Par Bo Van Pelt 70 70 68 208 -2 Jesper Parnevik 68 69 72 209 -1 Stewart Cink 71 72 66 209 -1 Dudley Hart 70 73 66 209 -1 Charles Howell III 70 71 68 209 -1 Kenny Perry 69 70 70 209 -1 Jerry Kelly 70 65 74 209 -1 Tiger Woods 75 69 66 210 E Steve Flesch 70 71 69 210 E Michael Campbell 73 68 69 210 E Geoff Ogilvy 69 69 72 210 E

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* TV: 8 a.m. PDT on TNT, 11 a.m. on Ch. 2.