Baddeley's birdie dashes dream

Is it possible to fit 30,000 people on one golf hole?

Until the final shot of the third round Saturday, the folks at the BMW Championship had to be pondering that exact scenario as they watched Steve Stricker (64) and Tiger Woods (65) make their way to the clubhouse a stroke apart atop the leaderboard and just minutes away from officially being paired in a final group that would've attracted a monster gallery.

But then Aaron Baddeley (65) came along and sank a 5-foot birdie putt on No. 18, his second consecutive birdie, and just like that any hopes of a Stricker-Woods dream pairing were dashed.

Instead, co-leaders Baddeley and Stricker, each at 15 under, will go head to head today in a group behind Woods (14 under) and his merry band of followers.

A disappointing notion for many, but not for Stricker, who already played with the world's No. 1 player Thursday and Friday.

"You know … probably not," the University of Illinois alum said with a laugh when asked if he would have preferred being paired with Woods instead of Baddeley. "I wouldn't have minded it, though. We get along so well and it was nice to play with him the first couple of rounds here and get that under my belt.

"But I'm sure (Sunday) would have been different."

But probably no less wild than the third round was for Stricker, who turned in the shot of the day -- and the tournament -- holing out an approach shot from 112 yards for an eagle on No. 8, a shot that elicited a roar that's probably still echoing across Dubsdread.

"Yeah, you've got roars, then you've got Tiger roars and then you've got the hometown crowd roar," said Baddeley, who put together a bogey-free round Saturday. "When he holed his second shot on No. 8, you just knew that was a Steve Stricker roar out there."

And Stricker, who is third in the FedEx points standings, was loving every minute of it.

"I don't get this on a weekly basis, that's for sure," he said. "Any other part of the country, they don't know who I am, for the most part.

"It totally reminds me of back in 1996 when I won here. I got the same sort of receptions going around here today."

And he deserved everything he got after a round in which he hit all 18 greens in regulation, becoming the first player to accomplish that feat since Joe Durant did it in 1998. With his 64 Saturday, Stricker has now shot in the 60s in 12 of his last 14 rounds.

"A lot of things went right today; it was a good day," he said. "I gave myself a lot of opportunities all the way around."

He wasn't alone. The BMW field really took it to a rain-softened Dubsdread on Saturday, averaging 69.292 strokes for the first sub-70 average round in course history.

Woods, who felt he could've gone much lower than his 65, said to expect more of the same today.

"The way the course is playing, you've got to make birdies," said Woods, who would go over the $75 million mark in career earnings with a victory. "You can't just go out there and make a bunch of pars.

"If you make pars you're going to get run over."