DORAL, Fla. — The theme from the chasers was the same.
Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott and Danny Willett all walked off the Blue Monster speaking the same language while looking ahead to Sunday’s final round. They all talked about getting off to quick starts and putting early pressure on Rory McIlroy, who leads by three shots.
“Rory is obviously playing well,” Johnson said. “But a good score around here will definitely move you up the leaderboard, and getting off to a good start will definitely help to put some pressure on him.
“Anything’s possible. With this golf course, there’s trouble on just about every hole, so I just need to go out and keep playing like I’m playing.’’
Mickelson talked about making McIlroy take notice of the leaderboard Sunday.
“I have to make a lot of birdies,” he said. “I have an opportunity to go out ahead of the leaders and to shoot a really low round and put pressure on them to try to make birdies. I have to get off to a good start if I expect to win. The goal for me is put the leaders in a position where they have to try to make birdies to keep pace, and if I can do that, I have a good shot.’’
Said Willett: “We’re going to have to go out there and play clever and play aggressive when we can, and hopefully we can knock a few birdies off and post a good number.’’
Spaniards Sergio Garcia and Rafa Cabrera-Bello posted the low scores of the day with a pair of 5-under-par 67s, and both have an outside chance of catching McIlroy.
“We’ll see what happens,’’ Garcia said. “There’s still a lot of golf to be played out there. If they don’t go too crazy, we maybe have a little chance.’’
For Garcia, this has been a quick and solid rebound from his disappointing loss to Scott in last week’s Honda Classic.
“It probably took me — as soon as I shook hands with Adam, it was over,” Garcia said.
Garcia did get into a Twitter spat with Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, who criticized his attitude.
In his first tweet, Garcia misspelled Chamblee’s first name — perhaps intentionally.
“You must be right Brendal Chamblee @GolfChannel according to you my bad attitude has made me a top 17 player 15 out of 17 years, sorry!”
He followed with this: “He’s so important in my life that I can’t even write his name right, haha. Well, maybe next time.”
Good friends Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas were paired together in Saturday’s third round, and Thomas proposed a friendly bet, challenging Spieth on Twitter: “Loser shaves their head tomorrow?’’ Spieth responded on Twitter, saying, “That’s not a bet either one of us wishes upon each other.’’
Spieth, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, shot 73 to Thomas’ 78 on Saturday.
Afterward, Thomas said the bet “wasn’t real.” Spieth said, “It was just for fun.”
Jordan Zunic, a 24-year-old Aussie, shot 75 on Saturday and is 8-over for the week, which has been a dream week for him. Zunic, who is named after Michael Jordan because his father was a professional basketball player and Jordan was his favorite NBA player, is ranked 530th in the world.
He has been staying in the Sam Snead Villa at the Trump Doral resort. He played a practice round with fellow Aussie and an idol, Jason Day. And he even got to see his first NBA game, taking in a Heat-Bulls game earlier in the week.
Aussie Steven Bowditch has not had a good week. He is 25-over par in three rounds after shooting 80 on Saturday, the third consecutive round he failed to break 80. Making matters perhaps even worse, because of the odd number of players in the field, he was first to tee off in the morning and played alone.
