PENINSULA DAILY NEWS for Sunday, June 17, 2012 SECTION
SCOREBOARD In this section
B U.S. Open
Legendary prep career Four-year MVP hangs up cleats BY LEE HORTON PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tiger Woods reacts after he made par on No. 9 during the second round of the U.S. Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Three in lead down stretch BY ANTONIO GONZALEZ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO — The one thing everybody agreed on entering the U.S. Open was that par would be a good score in any round at the unforgiving Olympic Club course. Just look at Tiger Woods, David Toms and Jim Furyk. When the third round started Saturday under blue skies along the California coast, this trio of major champions was tied for the lead at 1 under — an ordinary number any other week. Not even one other player in the field that began at 156 was at par. And par is shaping up to be a final score that might be all it takes to win. “I don’t see it getting much away from that,” said Graeme McDowell, the 2010 champion at Pebble Beach who is two shots behind the leaders. “As this golf course gets firmer and firmer, there’s no rain forecast. It’s up to the USGA, really. They can have whatever they want with it.” Nobody has had his way with Olympic. Joe Ogilvie already had four bogeys and a double bogey through the treacherous first six holes Saturday, dropping to 14 over — six shots over the cut line the day before. The thick rough and towering trees that line the tight, twisting fairways on the undulating Lake Course swallowed so many of golf’s best, including defending champion Rory McIlroy. The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland set a U.S. Open record last year at Congressional with a 131 through 36 holes. He was 19 shots worse at Olympic, with a 73 giving him a two-day score of 150 to miss the cut for the fourth time in his last five tournaments. “They set it up like a real classic U.S. Open,” McIlroy said. Those who have adjusted are the ones still around for the weekend. Woods survived a patch of bogeys early in his round for an even 70 that took him another round closer to that elusive 15th major title. Furyk rolled in a 40-foot birdie putt from off the third green in the morning for a 69. Woods and Toms, who showed a steady hand with the putter for a 70, joined him in the afternoon when the conditions were fiery and emotions were frayed. They were the only players to beat par for 36 holes at 1-under 139. “This tournament, you’re just plodding along,” Woods said. “This is a different tournament. You have to stay patient, stay present, and you’re just playing for a lot of pars. This is not a tournament where we have to make a bunch of birdies.”
STEVE MULLENSKY/FOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Chimacum’s Landon Cray, a four-year All-Peninsula MVP and Nisqually League MVP, is moving on to play at Division I Seattle University next year.
CHIMACUM — Landon Cray finished his time at Chimacum the same way he began. “He started ALSO . . . his first day ■ Area like he started all-star his last day,” baseball Chimacum team baseball coach selected/B4 Jim Dunn said. Dunn then expounded on his point. “He dominated when he started and he dominated all the way through.” For the fourth year in a row, Cray is the All-Peninsula baseball MVP. He also won or shared the Nisqually League MVP award for the fourth time, and Chimacum made the state playoffs for the fourth time in Cray’s four years as a Cowboy. It might seem like Cray breezed through his high school baseball career, but he doesn’t think so. “I don’t like to look at it that way,” Cray said. “It definitely wasn’t easy. “I had good teammates. If my teammates didn’t get on base, I couldn’t get RBIs. They push me to get better.” TURN
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CRAY/B4
Round 3 of Heat-Thunder Series moves to Florida starting today BY TIM REYNOLDS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI — At this point a year ago, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were using words like urgency and desperation. And that’s exactly what the Miami Heat expect the Oklahoma City Thunder to bring into Game 3 of this year’s NBA Finals. So far, this championship series has followed the same script as a year ago, with the home team winning the opening matchup, then falling in Game 2 to lose the home-court edge. Miami took the sting of that into Dallas last year and used it as fuel to win Game 3 — and the Heat will look to ensure that trend doesn’t repeat itself when the title matchup resumes on their home floor tonight. Watch the game on Channel 4 at 5 p.m. “You’ve got the two best teams in the league right now going against each other,” Wade said Saturday, when practices resumed after a day off for both clubs. “So it’s going to be a very tough game, but we have to find a way to win it. And it’s about taking, like I said, one possession at a time, one second, one minute at a time to make sure we reach our goal — and that’s to win the game.”
Heat learn lesson A Game 3 victory assures nothing, a lesson the Heat learned the hard way last year. That win in Dallas was Miami’s final victory of the season. But there are certain truths that will come from the outcome tonight. The winner will have homecourt advantage. The winner will be two games away from a championship.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (2)
Miami Heat center Ronny Turiaf, small forward LeBron James and shooting guard Dwyane Wade, from left, do a drill during practice Saturday in Miami. And the losing club will see what appears to be an already razor-thin margin for error in this series become even more precarious. “We have no other choice,” said Thunder star Kevin Durant, the league’s scoring champion. “We lost at home. Tough loss. We’ve got to get over it, get ready for a tough Game 3. “You know, the series is going to be tough. We know that. We know that. You’ve just got to be ready. It’s going to be a fun one.” By now, the Heat aren’t shy to say they’re completely exhausted about dissecting what went wrong in last year’s finals. Still, they know the importance of not letting one loss turn into another — because when that happened against the Mavericks a year ago, there was a parade in Dallas not long afterward. “I don’t know if we were any more motivated in Game 2,” Erik Spoelstra said. TURN
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Oklahoma City Thunder small forward Kevin Durant
FINALS/B3 shoots the ball during practice Saturday in Miami.