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By Seth Soffian
The News-Press
The two-year title run of Hank Kuehne and Jeff Sluman in The Franklin Templeton Shootout appears to be over.
 | | "I tried as hard as I could to drag him down," Kuehne quipped of his playing partner, holding two-week-old son Henry in his arms. |
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Barring a stunning comeback in today's final round at Tiburón in North Naples, the duo will have to settle for sharing consecutive-title status with Brad Faxon and Scott McCarron, the 2000-2001 champions and the only other back-to-back winners in the 17-year-old event.
Kuehne and Sluman shot a 5-under-par 67 in Saturday's better-ball format and are 11-under overall, eight shots behind leaders Fred Couples and Adam Scott going into today's scramble format.
"We've got a very long way to go, but anything's possible," Kuehne said. "Thankfully, we birdied the last three holes. It gave us somewhat of a good thing to sleep on. Hopefully, we can come out tomorrow and play some good golf."
The duo had seven birdies Saturday but also bogeyed two holes.
"We both seemed to kind of mess up on the same holes a little bit," Kuehne said.
The pairing has thrived on Kuehne's long hitting and Sluman's short but steady play, but Scott pointed out that teammates' games don't have to be opposites to work well together.
"If you play well, it doesn't matter, and we're both playing pretty well," Scott said of himself and Couples. "We hit it similar yardages and can really feed off each other. But there's really no secret to success in any format of this game."
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