Rickie Fowler hopes to finish Wells Fargo Championship with 1st career title
May 05, 2012 (Menafn - The Charlotte Observer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --dscott@charlotteobserver.com
Rickie Fowler has yet to win on the PGA Tour. Will Sunday be the day he breaks through at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club?
"That would be awesome," said Fowler, who shot a 5-under 66 on Saturday and is tied for sixth with Stewart Cink, three strokes behind leader Webb Simpson. "It's a packed leader board and it would be nice to be on top of it."
Fowler, 24, was the tour's rookie of the year in 2010. But the best he's been able to do is finish second four times in his brief career. He was sixth at Quail Hollow in 2010 and tied for 16th last year.
"I've put up a lot of good rounds here and been playing well recently," said Fowler, who usually wears an orange outfit on Sundays in honor of Oklahoma State, where he played his college golf.
If Fowler wins, he would be the third player to win his first career title at Quail Hollow, joining Anthony Kim in 2008 and Rory McIlroy in 2010.
Notes
A MATTER OF GRAVITY: Ryan Moore incurred a one-stroke penalty Friday when the ball moved after he had addressed a one-foot putt on the 11th green. Moore initially thought a revision made in the rule this year -- that allows the ball to move if it's been caused by the wind or an outside agency -- would be in effect.
However, the ball moved of its own volition after he addressed it. That cost him a stroke that kept him out of a share of the third-round lead and could loom large Sunday.
"If a ball moves because of gravity, that's just part of the game," PGA Tour official Steve Rintoul said. "That's what happened to Ryan. The ball just settled, unfortunately, right after he addressed it."
Moore said he mistakenly thought the new rule protected him.
"It's obviously frustrating," Moore said. "I'm halfway through my stroke and the ball moves and I look at (playing partner Spencer Levin) and he's like, 'Yeah, there's no way you made the ball move' ... It's a weird rule and it's really bad wording. That's just how it's written and it's just maybe not written very well or very clearly."
CHIP SHOTS: McIlroy would regain the No. 1 world ranking if he finishes in a two-way tie for seventh or better Sunday ... The odds don't necessarily favor leader Webb Simpson today. The 54-hole leader at the Wells Fargo has won four times in nine years ... Four players had bogey-free rounds Saturday: Lee Westwood, Ryan Moore, J.B. Holmes and D.A. Points.
Observations
--Two years ago, Phil Mickelson called Quail Hollow's 12th green the worst on the PGA Tour, and neither the green nor his feelings have changed since then.
After hitting his second shot 61 feet behind the hole on Saturday, Mickelson originally grabbed his putter, then put it away in favor of a wedge. He hit a pitch shot from the putting surface trying to minimize the effects of a severe contour in the putting surface. It didn't work. The pitch shot went 29 feet past the hole and Mickelson made a bogey.
It happened when club president Johnny Harris was watching from a cart nearby. Harris has promised the green will be rebuilt after the tournament and had a friendly conversation with Mickelson after the round.
Was Mickelson trying to make a statement by hitting a wedge on the putting surface? No, he said. He felt it was his best play but he still got his point across.
"I probably did the nicest thing that's been done to that green by taking a hack out of it," Mickelson said.
--Few players probably felt worse than Stewart Cink, who is working through a major swing change and needed a par at the 18th to finish within a stroke of Simpson's lead. Instead, Cink missed the green and three-putted for a six that dropped him three behind.
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