Opening Day is here, and fans are ready for a tripleheader. Thanks to Statcast, we’ll have brand new high-tech details, including star-rated catches, barrels and catcher pop time to help us analyze and understand the game.
(Officialsportsbetting.com) – Rickie Fowler four-putted the final green to hand Kang Sung-hoon a three-stroke lead after the third round at the Houston Open in Texas on Saturday. Fowler overcame a seven-stroke deficit to reel in South Korean Kang, only to stumble at the end with a bogey at the 17th and a double-bogey at the par-four 18th. Fowler (67) was on 14-under, with fellow American Russell Henley (69) another shot back.
HUMBLE, Texas – Notes and observations from Saturday’s third round of the Shell Houston Open, where Sung Kang shot a 1-under 71 in tricky winds but saw his lead cut in half. Rickie Fowler played sensational golf as he went 8 under par through 16 holes to tie Kang at 17 under par. But a bogey at 17 and a double-bogey at 18 dropped him back to 14 under as he looks to chase down Kang for his fifth career PGA TOUR victory and second this season. For more coverage from the Golf Club of Houston, click here for the Daily Wrap-up. FOWLER MAKES CHARGE, LATE MISTAKES Rickie Fowler could do no wrong. He went for the drivable par-4 12th hole and nearly hit the green before getting up and down for birdie. He nearly jarred his difficult pitch from the trees short-right of the green at the par-5 13th hole. He birdied 14, giving him three straight for the second time in the round. Everything was going so, so right, Fowler crafting a potentially epic round considering the conditions. Then, as has been his wont this week, he fell apart at the finish. Fowler missed three putts of five feet or less on the last two holes, going bogey, double-bogey to end the round. “Drove it well, hit a lot of fairways and greens, made some good putts,” Fowler said. “Really not [looking] at the last two holes. It was a great day of golf.” As for the last two holes, he said he was aiming around a spike mark on 17 and the putt broke more than he anticipated. His four-putt double-bogey on 18 was even tougher to stomach. “The second putt, my par putt, it’s supposed to go right,” Fowler said with a disbelieving smile. “I started it inside left. I thought I hit a great putt.” Fowler has played holes 15-18 in a combined 6 over the last two days, but at least he’s in a familiar position at three shots off the lead. He was three back heading into the final round at the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship and 2015 PLAYERS Championship, and won them both. KANG HOLDS STEADY Sung Kang has never played with Rickie Fowler, has never won a TOUR event, and has never even held the 54-hole lead in one. But he had never led through 36 holes, either, and that went well. Kang birdied the first hole and the fourth to steady his nerves, then fought the Golf Club of Houston to a draw in the wind. “It was playing very hard today,” Kang said. “The wind was blowing much harder and the greens got a lot firmer because we played in the afternoon. The greens got a lot faster.” Kang was born and educated in Korea, but he lives in Dallas and works with Los Angeles-based swing coach George Gankas. The L.A. connection, and the Kobe-and-Shaq era, turned him into a Lakers fan. He has been going out to eat this week in Koreatown in Houston, but after Saturday’s wind-blown third round he wasn’t sure he had any energy left to do anything. “I am so tired right now,” Kang said. “I have no power to think about anything.” HENLEY FINISHES STRONG Just the tournament was starting to look like a two-man race, Russell Henley birdied 17 and 18 to come in with a 69 for a 13-under total. At third place by himself, four off the lead, Henley—who played in the final threesome with Kang and fellow Georgia Bulldog Hudson Swafford—is well in the mix to pick up a win. “I love how I finished,” Henley said. “I hit great shots coming in, right on my targets.” That’s been something of theme for Henley in Houston. He has now shot 12 consecutive rounds under par at the Golf Club of Houston, and has finished in the top 10 the last three years. He said the wind was so strong Saturday he was playing extra break on the greens on the more exposed holes. Still, he added, “The hardest thing is [picking] the right club, not the greens.” LIST’S CAREER SEASON GETS EVEN BETTER Luke List finished second to Ryan Moore at the 2004 U.S. Amateur, giving him a berth in the 2005 Masters, where he made the cut. His career looked promising, and then it didn’t, and now it does again. List, who at 32 is in his third full year on TOUR, shot the best round of the day Saturday, taming the wind gusts to fire a 7-under 65 on a course that played tougher than it has all week. At 12 under he sits in fourth place alone, five behind the leader Kang. “I like tough conditions,” List said. “To me, it’s a premium on my ball-striking. More attitude than anything. I worked really hard on that the last couple years, and especially this year, I feel like it’s paid dividends for me just being as positive as I can. “I was just trying to be relaxed out there,” he added. “That seems simplistic, but sometimes it’s really tough, especially when it’s this windy.” Whatever List is doing with his coach Jamie Mulligan, it’s working. With six top-25 finishes already this season, List came to Houston at 24th in the FedExCup standings. With one more good day, he is poised to jump into the top 20. ODDS AND ENDS Eight third-round leaders/co-leaders have gone on to win this season on the PGA TOUR, most recently Adam Hadwin at the Valspar Championship. … Fowler came into this week ranked first in Scrambling and first in Sand Saves on the season. … Four players have won the week before the Masters and gone on to win at Augusta National the following week: Ralph Guldahl (Wyndham Championship) in 1939, Art Wall (Azalea Open) in 1959, Sandy Lyle (Wyndham) in 1988, and Phil Mickelson (BellSouth Classic) in 2006. Sam Snead won the 1949 Wyndham and the next official event on TOUR, the Masters, two weeks later. CALL OF THE DAY SHOT OF THE DAY BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Comfortable leads have been shrinking lately for the Los Angeles Clippers. It happened again Saturday against the lowly Lakers. Only after the Clippers inserted all of their starters in the fourth quarter did they finish off a 115-104 victory, the 800th of Doc Rivers’ coaching career.
Chase Elliott had spent lap after lap pursuing race-leader Christopher Bell, trying to find, or create, a way around him. Elliott grabbed the lead when Bell wiggled with 17 laps to go and held off teammate Johnny Sauter to win the NASCAR truck race at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday. ”I was trying,” Elliott said.
