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Sunday
Sep132009

A foggy day in Lemont town ...

Writing from Lemont, Ill.
Sunday, September 13, 2009

It may be sunny where you are, but Cog Hill Golf & Country Club was shrouded in heavy fog on Sunday morning, delaying the start of the final round of the 106th Western Open.

What the marketing gurus currently call the BMW Championship will begin at 9:55 a.m., with threesomes off the first and 10th tees. That means both Brandt Snedeker and Marc Leishman will play with leader Tiger Woods in the final pairing, and they will begin play at 11:45 a.m., not 12:55 p.m.

The goal is to finish at 5 p.m. to satisfy NBC, which would hang around for a sudden-death playoff, if necessary, but would prefer to leave the air on time.

Assuming the revised schedule holds, NBC has little to worry about. Woods carries a seven-stroke lead on Snedeker and Leishman into the final 18 holes after Saturday's Dubsdread-record 62, a 9-under-par outburst that saw him make up a three-stroke deficit on Padraig Harrington.

The affable Irishman is tied for fourth entering the final round, sitting at 8-under 205 with Matt Kuchar, who captured the 1997 U.S. Amateur on Dubsdread.

The fog was reminiscent of last year's Saturday play at Bellerive Country Club in Town & Country, Mo., where the delayed second round began, only to be halted for 90 minutes when a fog bank settled over the golf course, while the rest of the St. Louis area was sunny.

"We can't get away from it," WGA assistant tournament director Gabe Ottolini said, shaking his head.

Once the fog, so thin the sun can be seen shining through, but hugging the ground so tightly the Cog Hill barn can barely be seen from Archer Road, burns off, play should continue without delay. Meanwhile, the few thousand already on hand are searching for breakfast.

– Tim Cronin

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