ATLANTA (AP) -Sergio Garcia enjoyed an amazing turnaround Saturday against Anthony Kim in the Tour Championship, and it had nothing to do with the Ryder Cup.
Garcia shot 3-under 67 to go from a three-shot deficit on the front nine to a three-shot lead through 54 holes, leaving him poised to become only the third player to capture The Players Championship and the Tour Championship in the same year.
Garcia was at 8-under 202 and will play in the final pairing Sunday with Phil Mickelson, who made some long par putts and just enough birdies for a 69, giving him a chance to end his year on a strong note.
Six days after Kim crushed Garcia in the leadoff singles match at the Ryder Cup, the 23-year-old American looked as if he would get the best of Garcia again with six straight one-putt greens. But Kim hit only four fairways, and his wildness caught up with him. Kim wound up with a 72 and was three shots behind.
The worst of it came on the ninth, when his tee shot hit a 48-year-old man in the forehead on the fly, opening a 2-inch gash that spilled blood on the Bermuda rough. The fan, David Whitfield of Atlanta, was taken to a hospital, but he never lost consciousness and appeared to be in good spirits.
Kim gave the man's wife a golf ball that he signed with a note: "Sorry."
Garcia birdied the par-5 ninth to catch Kim, and pulled away with a birdie on the par-5 15th.
Navistar LPGA Classic
PRATTVILLE, Ala. (AP) - Winless since May, top-ranked Lorena Ochoa shot a 3-under 69 for a share of third-round lead in the Navistar LPGA Classic.
The Mexican star, making her first start since tying for sixth in the Safeway Classic on Aug. 24, matched Louise Friberg (65) at 13-under 203.
Ochoa has four top-seven finishes in a row, but is winless in seven starts. She opened the year with six wins in nine events, including four straight.
LPGA Championship winner Yani Tseng (68), Christina Kim (69), Song-Hee Kim (69), Michele Redman (70) and second-round leader Janice Moodie (67) were 11 under.
After opening with consecutive 67s, Ochoa had five birdies and two bogeys in the third round. Friberg had seven birdies in her bogey-free round on the links-style Senator Course, part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail's Capitol Hill complex.
