May 3, 2003
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Junior Tom Johnson (Sacramento, Calif./Del Campo) maintained his strong play at the 2003 Big Ten Championships at Indiana University and is one stroke off the lead heading into Sunday's final 18 holes. As a team, the Wildcats are tied for sixth place, 31 strokes behind Illinois, which owns a 6-stroke advantage over defending champion Minnesota.
Johnson turned in a round with three birdies, one bogey and 14 pars. He is 4-under (68-72-69=209) for the tournament and tied with four other players for second place. Illinois' James Lepp is 5-under and is the tourney's individual leader.
The Wildcats turned in the third-best team score (4-over 288) of the day, along with Ohio State, but they failed to gain on ground on the Fighting Illini and Golden Gophers who turned in the top two scores of 276 and 280, respectively.
Junior T.C. Ford (Covington, La./Mandeville) is tied for 23rd place after shooting a 1-over 72 (73-75-72=220) on Saturday. He is 7-over after three rounds. Senior Bjorn Widerstedt (Vasteras, Sweden/Carlforsska Gymnasiet) is a stroke behind Ford and tied for 27th.
The final round begins at 8 a.m. CST Sunday. Live Stats and current results are available for the tournament by linking to 2003 Big Ten Men's Championships.