Curtis, Johnson moving on Moving Day

    Saturday, September 8, 2012
    Writing from Carmel, Indiana

    The entire concept of “the leader in the clubhouse” in golf went out the clubhouse window when electronic scoring allowed everyone to know their standing at any time.
    But it might still have merit to the person who makes a big move on Saturday, which Ken Venturi long ago named Moving Day. Say, to Ben Curtis, who is 3-under for his first 10 holes in the third round of the BMW Championship – a.k.a. the 109th Western Open – at Crooked Stick Golf Club.
    Curtis, in the first threesome to tee off the first hole, thus has moved to within five strokes of leader Vijay Singh some 40 minutes after Singh’s tee time.

   Dustin Johnson was moving as fast, and is even closer. He's 3-under through five holes and has joined world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and Ryan Moore at 12-under, a stroke behind Singh.
    The field is destined to be well under par again today, even though there’s a stiff breeze of  12 miles per hour from the northwest, and the mercury has reached only 70. It’s the 2.60 inches of rain that fell here in Carmel from 6 p.m. last night through the wee hours, the highlight a severe thunderstorm that hit in early evening, which has kept the course soft and kept the PGA Tour’s “lift, clean and place” rule in effect.
    The leaders at 2:45 p.m. ET:
    Vijay Singh -13 (3)
    Dustin Johnson -12 (5)
    Ryan Moore -12 (3)
    Rory McIlroy -12 (3)
    Graham DeLaet -11 (4)
    Tiger Woods -11 (3)
    Lee Westwood -11 (3)
    Phil Mickelson -10 (7)
    Television coverage is on NBC until 2:30 p.m. CT, then shifts to Golf Channel for the rest of the afternoon.
    Updates as warranted; a full report at the end of the day’s play.
    – Tim Cronin