American Stewart Cink made an early move before getting a reality check during the third round at the Deutsche Bank Championship today.
Cink, a member of the United States team for the upcoming Ryder Cup, showed some decent early form with four birdies in the first seven holes at the Boston TPC.
However, he bogeyed the par-three eighth and then double-bogeyed the par-four ninth to slip back to seven under, seven strokes behind halfway leader Tim Clark of South Africa, who held a one-shot advantage over Canadian Mike Weir after two rounds.
After two days of benign conditions, a testing breeze made the course challenging for the third round, although that did not stop some of the early starters from making low scores, with Swede Jesper Parnevik among those to card five-under 66.
Eighty-six players made the halfway cut, but under PGA Tour rules, another cut will be made after the third round, reducing the field to top 70 and ties.
Among those seemingly destined to bow out after 54 holes are Phil Mickelson, Kenny Perry and Adam Scott, who all had mediocre third rounds.
Mickelson and Perry, both members of the United States Ryder Cup team, have both been struggling recently, and have only three weeks to turn their form around before taking on the Europeans at Valhalla in Kentucky.
