After surging up the leaderboard with a day three-low 64 on Saturday, Germany's Bernhard Langer will enter the fourth and final round at the 2012 U.S. Senior Open Championship with a rather significant four-stroke advantage.
Looking to catch a beat on the 54-hole leader, a group of five men will open Sunday's 18-hole round at 6-under par and four strokes off the pace. Among those names lies none other than Corey Pavin, who responded to a disheartening two-stroke penalty at the end of his Friday with a third-round 68 to remain in contention. Pavin joins veterans Tom Pernice Jr., Roger Chapman, Tom Lehman and John Huston at 6-under, while four others, Fred Couples, Jay Haas, Fred Funk and Dick Mast, are hot on their heels at 5-under.
Live television coverage of the final round will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET on NBC and run until the conclusion of the tournament. But with as many as nine men within five strokes of Langer's 10-under mark with 18 holes left to play, it's hard to believe the last few holes at Indianwood's beautiful layout won't provide a great deal of excitement in the final round.
Here are the full pairings for Sunday:
1:50 p.m. - Bernhard Langer (-10), Tom Pernice Jr. (-6)
1:40 p.m. - Corey Pavin (-6), Roger Chapman (-6)
1:30 p.m. - Tom Lehman (-6), John Huston (-6)
1:20 p.m. - Fred Couples (-5), Fred Funk (-5)
1:10 p.m. - Jay Haas (-5), Dick Mast (-5)
1:00 p.m. - Lance Ten Broeck (-4), Mark Calcavecchia (-3)
12:50 p.m. - Steve Lowery (-3), Mark Wiebe (-3)
12:40 p.m. - John Cook (-2), Peter Jacobsen (-2)
12:30 p.m. - Peter Senior (-1), Tom Kite (-1)
12:20 p.m. - Peter Fowler (E), Mike Goodes (E)
12:10 p.m. - Joey Sindelar (E), Rod Spittle (E)
12:00 p.m. - Kirk Triplett (E), Rick Lewallen (E)
11:50 a.m. - Chien-Soon Lu (E), Andrew Magee (+1)
11:40 a.m. - Brad Faxon (+1), Jeff Sluman (+1)
11:30 a.m. - Michael Allen (+2), Jerry Pate (+2)
11:20 a.m. - Gary Hallberg (+2), Tom Watson (+2)
11:10 a.m. - Steve Jones (+2), Kiyoshi Murota (+2)
11:00 a.m. - Damon Green (+2), Dan Forsman (+2)
10:50 a.m. - Brad Bryant (+2), Fuzzy Zoeller (+3)
10:40 a.m. - Joel Edwards (+3), Fulton Allem (+3)
10:30 a.m. - Olin Browne (+3), Robert Thompson (+3)
10:20 a.m. - Gary Wolstenholme (+3), David Eger (+3)
10:10 a.m. - Tommy Armour III (+3), Jay Don Blake (+3)
10:00 a.m. - Jong-Duck Kim (+4), T.C. Chen (+4)
9:50 a.m. - Doug Hanzel (+4), Loren Roberts (+4)
9:40 a.m. - Andrew Oldcorn (+4), Bob Tway (+5)
9:30 a.m. - Mike Reid (+5), Ted Schulz (+5)
9:20 a.m. - Mikael Hogberg (+5), Tom Byrum (+6)
9:10 a.m. - Andy Bean (+6), Barry Lane (+7)
9:00 a.m. - Jim Rutledge (+7), Mark Brooks (+7)
8:50 a.m. - Bob Gilder (+8), Larry Mize (+8)
8:40 a.m. - Sean Knapp (+8), Jim Chancey (+10)
8:30 a.m. - Dave Eichelberger (+12)
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