What were you doing yesterday on holes 2-9 in your match? Scott Piercy was making birdies…on all of them. Piercy birdied every hole on his front nine at the Reno-Tahoe Open save the first, shot 28, and bounced back from a penultimate-hole bogey with a final-hole eagle to post 61 and take a two-stroke lead into the final round. After a few bland, run of the mill PGA Tour quotes “First two days was kind of a little frustrating because I hit it well and didn’t see a whole lot go in. I told my caddie yesterday, I said, if I can keep hitting it well and get a few balls to go in the hole, we might do something special. I didn’t think this, but I’ll take it when I can get it, you know” Piercy let us in a bit on what really matters out there:
“Well, I think the biggest factor here is the wind in the afternoon. I mean, it’s going to start blowing; it has the last two days or whatever day it is. So a lot of it depends on the wind. I didn’t play in any wind”
and
On partner Mathias Groenberg’s similar run “There’s probably definite feeding off. I’m kind of off on my own just making all those birdies, and I kind of cool off and he starts making birdies. So I’m sure that him seeing me go, and forcing him to make birdies. So it’s a feeding factor”
I was playing in the Wales Kiwanis Scramble at Ironwood Golf Course and I know that our group didn’t make 8 consecutive birdies…and that was with 4 WHACKS AT EVERY SHOT! If you didn’t know how good pro golfers are, now you do. I think that we made birdie on 14, birdie on 15 and eagle on 16…that was the extent of our run (the pin on 16 was really tough…back left…on a shelf…whine whine whine.)
Piercy blew past 44 golfers to vault into the top spot. Nice personification of the term “moving day,” Mr. Piercy. Pat Perez? Fashioned a nice little 65, shot past 31 golfers, still finds himself 3 back of the lead. Josh Teater? Posted 67-66 on Friday/Saturday, vaulted beyond another 12 golfers yesterday, still a pair of shots back. Steve Elkington is the golfer within three with the most experience, although Chris Riley and Nick O’Hern also lurk at -10. Is another 61 or lower out there on Sunday? Yes. Anyone at -9 or better should not be counted out.
