Aussie, with a house near the Bay Hill Club, leads its tournament.
By BOB HARIG
Published March 21, 2004
ORLAND0 - If he did not own an Orlando home, there is a good chance Stuart Appleby would have scratched the Bay Hill Invitational from his schedule long ago.
Sure, he finished second in 1997, but that was when he was on a roll, coming off his first career PGA Tour victory.
Since then, he's had an otherwise sorry history at the Bay Hill Club, missing the cut in five of eight tournaments, breaking 70 just twice, and making you wonder why he'd want to come back.
Convenience, obviously. Plus, it's a nice, quick ride from Isleworth to Bay Hill in his pride and joy, a yellow Lamborghini.
Something changed this weekend on the course, however, and Appleby is suddenly in position to become the first to win twice in 2004 on the PGA Tour.
Appleby, 32, an Australian who has a home in the same Isleworth neighborhood as Tiger Woods, shot 6-under-par 66 for the third round to open a four-shot lead over Chad Campbell heading into today's final round. He has three straight rounds in the 60s, after just two in 22 previous rounds.
"There's no reason," said Appleby, who won the season-opening Mercedes Championships, his fifth PGA Tour win, and is ranked ninth in the world. "This course is built for my game. It requires fades, draws, highs, lows. It requires technical thinking."
And maybe a few lengthy putts. Appleby needed just 26 Saturday, and several were longer than 20 feet, including one at the 17th for par.
"It was kind of his day," Campbell said. "He took advantage of it."
Appleby finished at 16-under 200. Two shots behind second-round leader Shigeki Maruyama when the round began, Appleby surged to the top with five birdies and a bogey on the front nine. Campbell hung in there with Appleby until the 14th hole, where he made the first of consecutive bogeys and finished with 37 on the back nine. Campbell's 70 left him four back, alone in second.
"He's hit it really well and made a lot of putts," said Campbell, 29, the winner of last year's Tour Championship. "That's usually tough to beat. If he keeps doing that, I'll have to shoot a really low number."
Another Australian, Adam Scott, moved into third with 68. He was six back. Maruyama didn't make a birdie and shot 75 to drop to fourth, seven back.
John Daly, trying to earn a spot in next month's Masters, shot 70 and was in a four-way tie for fifth with Darren Clarke, Steve Lowery and Rod Pampling, eight back.
Woods wishes he were that close. His quest for a fifth straight Bay Hill title ended when he followed his worst round of the year by matching it. A second straight 74 sent Woods spiraling down the leaderboard, 15 back. It was the first time since the PGA Championship that he shot consecutive rounds over par, and the first time since the 2002 Mercedes Championship that he did so in a nonmajor championship, a span of 33 events.
Still, Woods put a good spin on the developments, saying that 90 percent of what he is doing is fine. "It's just the other 10 percent that is off the charts," he said.
Woods, however, hit only 9 of 18 greens in regulation and just 8 of 14 fairways. He took 26 putts, and said he had some problems to work out with his irons.
As for making history by becoming the first to win the same tournament five straight years, Woods has moved on.
"I tried my best," he said. "It's not going to happen. But hopefully I can play well next week and get it going for Augusta. If I can win that one, that would be a little bigger than this one."
Woods was tied for 46th and in danger of his worst finish in five years, the last time he failed to end up inside the top 50 of any tournament.
When it comes to Bay Hill, that's usually where Appleby lingered - until now.
"He's playing as well as anybody this year," Campbell said. "He's playing really solid."
