Bjorn closes in on leaders

Thomas Bjorn just missed out on becoming the first player to score a round of 62 in major championship history.

But, thanks to his record-equalling 63 and Phil Mickelson’s none too convincing 72, Bjorn now has another chance to end Europe’s six-year wait for a major winner.

The 34-year-old, 10 behind Mickelson at the halfway stage of the USPGA Championship, will go into the final day on five under par and only one behind not only the left-hander, but also 1997 champion Davis Love.

The Ryder Cup Dane, who has had a season of amazing highs and lows, needed to birdie the two closing par fives at Baltusrol to set the magical mark.

But Bjorn, who only six weeks ago had an 11 on one hole and a closing 86 when leading the European Open at the K Club near Dublin, could “only” par the 17th - at 650 yards the longest hole in major history.

If he had sank his 50-foot eagle putt on the last the 62 would still have been achieved, but it came up short and so he became the 20th player to score a 63 in a major. Greg Norman and Vijay Singh have done it twice.

“It’s a long list, but it’s a good list to be on,” he said. “I came here with absolutely no expectations, but I must be a bit further in my swing changes than I thought I was! This was a special day.”

As the third round developed he found himself a bit further up the leaderboard than he must have expected as well when he started it down in 36th spot.

For a while at least, hard though it was to believe, he was joint leader.

That was because Mickelson, three clear of the field overnight, bogeyed the second, fifth and sixth in a three-over-par outward 37.

Last year’s Masters champion did then birdie the short 12th, but he could not birdie either the 17th or 18th either and that allowed Love to move into a share of top spot with a third successive 68.

Nottinghamshire pair Lee Westwood and Greg Owen, paired together in the third-last group, scored 71 and 70 respectively and slipped to joint eighth on three under, three behind.

For Owen it was disappointing because he played the last six in one over, but Westwood covered the same stretch in four under and said: “I am delighted. I really battled it out.”

Owen commented: “I played really well, but just made a couple of bad swings. I am still in there, though, and I just need the putts drop for me.”

British Masters champion Bjorn, who decided to alter his game after driving out of bounds on the wide open last hole of St Andrews to miss the halfway cut in the Open last month, now has a chance to make amends for what happened in the 2003 Open.

At Sandwich the 34-year-old led by three with four to play, bogeyed the 15th, took five at the short 16th after two attempts to get out of a greenside bunker came back into the sand, and bogeyed the 17th to lose by one to Ben Curtis.

A year later he walked out of the K Club “fighting demons” and has longed for a day like this ever since.

Bjorn birdied three of the first five, bogeyed the 505-yard par-four seventh, but then picked up further strokes on the 10th, 11th, 14th, 15th and 18th.

Mickelson was in bunkers at the second and sixth, while at the fifth he three-putted.

Owen, who a year ago was recovering from a back operation which saved his career, has already earned over £600,000 on the US Tour this season after coming through every stage of the qualifying school.

Controversially denied a place in last month’s Open on a technicality – he withdrew from a qualifier unaware that it would mean he was overlooked when a vacancy in the championship arose – he bogeyed the sixth after resuming on three under, but then birdied the seventh and ninth.

He then came agonisingly close to making a 12-footer at the 10th which would have put him alongside Bjorn and Mickelson.

Tiger Woods was up to 20th with a 66, but was another left cursing the 17th and 18th.

Birdies at both of them for him would mean he equalled his lowest round in a major – 64 at Troon in 1997.

Woods had to settle for pars on both and, having survived the halfway cut with nothing to spare at four over, he probably needed to go even lower on the final day to have a chance of making it three majors out of four this year.

“I didn’t get it as low as I wanted and I am a little hot right now,” said Woods, referring to his mood rather than the scorching temperature.

“I am disappointed because I had four opportunities on the back nine and could easily have been three shots better.

“If the leaders shoot in the mid-60s this afternoon guys like myself will be hard pressed to win this tournament.”

Nobody has been on the green in two on the 17th, but Woods had the length in his second round 69 and might even have gone through but for tugging it a touch and kicking into sand.

Off the perfect drive again this time he had 276 yards to go and took out a three-wood once more, but pulled it even more and the ball flew into the crowd.

His chip over the sand came up 25 feet short and he had to settle for a par five.

Woods was on in two at the last, but 30 feet above the flag and rolled it nine feet past. “A terrible putt,” he called it.

Missing the return totally took the edge off his day’s work – a day that actually began with a bogey.

Woods, who came to New Jersey to try to become the first player in golf history to win three majors in a season twice, blocked his drive under a tree.

His second was punched under the branches, but found a greenside bunker. He came out moderately to 10 feet and missed the putt.

Woods then had to save par on the second after missing that fairway as well and although he gave himself a birdie chance on the 503-yard par four third with two arrow-like shots the putt was a tough one and he did not read enough break on it.

But he then birdied the fifth, ninth, 10th, 14th and 15th and was flying at that point. The finish, though, took the wind out of his sails.

American Charles Howell holed-in-one at the fourth, while John Daly damaged his putter flinging it as his bag coming off a green and had to switch to his wedge on the greens for the rest of the round. He shot 78.