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Stricker has best round of Open

SAN DIEGO — Steve Stricker finally made a positive move on the U.S. Open leaderboard.

With an early tee time Saturday, Stricker, 41, shot an even-par 71 on the South Course at Torrey Pines Golf Course to move up to a tie for 34th place. Stricker, though, still trails leader Tiger Woods by 10 shots heading into today’s final round.

Stricker is paired with Chad Campbell. The twosome will tee off at 12:40 p.m.

With Major winners Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Geoff Ogilvy ahead of him at day’s beginning, Stricker started in hopes of playing well enough to finish in the top 16 and earn an invitation back next year.

“Any time you can go around in a U.S. Open or any major and shoot even, it’s not a bad score,” said Stricker of his best round in a U.S. Open since a 2-under-par 68 in the third round at Oakmont last year. “The wind kicked up a little bit on us. It never really warmed up again. But we were out early. We were out early and the greens were staying fairly soft.”

The even-par mentality had worked well for Stricker in the past, with top-15 finishes in five previous U.S. Opens. But starting the third round 10 shots back of leader Stuart Appleby, Stricker knew he needed birdies.

“Had a lot of opportunities, really,” Stricker said. “I hit a lot of greens, I think I missed three greens today. So a lot of opportunities and that’s what you kind of need to do here too is just get in the fairway and get it on the green and kind of par it to death.”

Stricker had his best ball-striking round of the championship, hitting eight of 14 fairways and a championship-high 15 of 18 greens. Stricker, though, converted only two of his multiple birdie opportunities — at the par-5 ninth and 18th. Given that the third-round scoring average was xxxx, Stricker’s round was impressive.

One of the three greens Stricker did miss, the seventh cost him dearly when he made a double-bogey six.

“I lipped out on the second,” Stricker recalled of his round. “The fourth I had it in there about 10 feet. Didn’t make it. The 17th I hit it in there about 10 feet coming in and the 15th I hit it about 15 feet there.”

Stricker came into this week with his game a little off. And he still feels his game is a work in progress despite a positive Saturday. After a birdie on 18, Stricker went to the range to work.

With two majors upcoming in the next seven weeks, and a potential spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team looming in the distance, Stricker has little time to waste in getting his act together.

“My tempo is still a little off,” Stricker said. “I’ve constantly been messing with my grip out there too and I got to come up with something. I played the last few holes and I turned it on there pretty strong and I actually hit the ball pretty well. So I’m messing around out there, which you don’t like to do, you want to just have one thing in mind and do it and continue to do it.”