Also Saturday at Woodbine, Town Cruise won the Ricoh Woodbine Mile (G1) by 2 1/4 lengths over Space Traveller and Raging Bull with favorite Set Piece 7th. Also on the card, La Dragontea won the Canadian Stakes (G2). Get the results, charts, and photos here.
NAPA, Calif. — Jim Knous shot a 7-under 65 on Saturday for a share of the lead with Maverick McNealy after three rounds in the Fortinet Championship. RELATED: Leaderboard | Phil Mickelson in contention at Fortinet Championship Knous had eight birdies, five on the front nine, then held on after a bogey on No. 12 to match McNealy at 14 under. McNealy, the second-round leader, had four bogeys on the front nine, then closed with three consecutive birdies for a 70. Max Homa (65) was two strokes back with Scott Stallings (67), Mito Pereira (70), Troy Merritt (69) and Beau Hossler (70). Ten others, including Phil Mickelson (67), were four strokes back heading into the final round. On a cool, sometimes blustery day when the lead changed hands several times, Knous made up for an uneven day off the tee with steady, consistent iron play that put him in good shape on the greens. The 31-year-old needed just 22 putts covering 69 feet to maneuver his way to the front of the pack. “Putter got hot there late on the back nine,” said Knous, who is winless on thePGA TOUR since making his debut at this course in 2019. “I just tend to see the breaks pretty well out here. A lot of them have big swings and you can use your imagination and that’s kind of how I like to putt, so I was able to roll some nice ones in.” Knous made an 8-foot birdie putt from off the green on 18. “Me and my caddie had a great read,” Knous said. “It was just going to break a little bit right at the end. Put a good stroke on it, perfect speed, and there you go.” McNealy entered the day with the lead, but fell three strokes behind after struggling with his driver on the front nine. McNealy was 2 over for the round midway through the back nine when he got rolling. He made a 22-foot putt for birdie on 13, rolled another long putt in for birdie on 16, then sank two more birdie putts on the final two. “It was a crazy day,” said McNealy, who, like Knous is seeking his first TOUR win. “I remember hitting a good tee shot down the middle on the 12th with a utility iron and everything seemed to slow down and calm down for me. I started seeing my lines with the putter.” McNealy stayed in the hunt despite appearing to hurt his right wrist punching out from a tree on No. 3, the first of his four bogeys on the front nine. “(I) was really lucky that I didn’t try to hit a full swing because I chipped out sideways and a softball-sized rock came out from under the ball,” McNealy said. “I stung my wrist a little bit. I’m really glad I didn’t go after that one full because I told (my caddie) I would have been out for a year.” Mickelson had his best round of the tournament and made five consecutive birdies on the back nine. The 51-year-old PGA Championship winner immediately went to the putting green after finishing his round. “I felt like I blocked a couple putts … and I just wanted to work on that,” Mickelson said. Webb Simpson also was 10 under after a 65. The 2012 U.S. Open champion had eight birdies – three more than he had in the first two rounds combined.
NAPA, Calif. – The Fortinet Championship marks the beginning of a new season and, for 26 rookies and other Korn Ferry Tour graduates, the start or restart of a PGA TOUR career. For Phil Mickelson, 51, it’s more like the culmination of a wild 2021 season, and he’s looking forward to taking three months off to process it all. Well, the PGA Championship victory, mostly. Other than that, his season was a reminder that he’s in the September of his years. Until now, which happens to be, ahem, September. Mickelson strung together five straight back-nine birdies to reach 10 under par and with a very real shot at the Fortinet trophy going into Sunday. He is just four behind surprising Jim Knous (65) and Stanford product Maverick McNealy (70), with just eight players ahead of him. “I’m in a position where a good round tomorrow will do some good,” Mickelson said after making 123 feet, 8 inches of putts with his new grip extension and arm-lock putting method. “And it’s fun to have a little later tee time and to feel some of the nerves and so forth. I know I’m going to have to shoot probably 7, 8, 9 under par to have a chance, but either way it’s fun having that chance.” That was before the wind picked up in the afternoon, and the leaders stalled. The distance he might have anticipated between himself and the leaders never really materialized. “I’ll have to be a little bit more precise,” he said after hitting just five of 14 fairways. Mickelson’s 2-wood broke Friday, but he travels with backups and simply popped on a new head. Whatever happens Sunday, he will stay busy. Although the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits will mark the first U.S. Ryder or Presidents Cup side he hasn’t made as a player since 1993, he will still be there as a vice-captain to Steve Stricker. He plans to fly from Napa to San Diego after the final round, spend a night in his own bed, then depart with wife Amy for Wisconsin. While Mickelson will be chasing his 46th TOUR win Sunday, the eight guys ahead of him on the leaderboard have seven victories combined. Scott Stallings (67) leads the way with three, while Max Homa (65) and Troy Merritt (69) have two apiece. All are at 12 under, two back. Co-leaders Knous and McNealy are each seeking their breakthrough TOUR win, and only one of them is a surprise atop the board. McNealy, 25, racked up 11 victories at Stanford, just 60 miles south of here, and has made the BMW Championship in each of his first two TOUR seasons. A win Sunday would be a very natural next step in his progression, and it would be hard to find a more fitting place to do it. McNealy grew up in the Bay Area, got sponsor exemptions into the Fortinet as an amateur, and had his parents, uncle and friends cheering him on Saturday. “It’s one of the places on TOUR where I don’t feel like as much of a rookie,” he said, “and it’s going back to the Bay Area roots. Something about the air here, I feel really comfortable, and the grass and the conditions and it’s a lot of fun having people rooting for you.” As for Jim “Hard K” Knous – his real nickname, by the way – well, no one saw him coming. He made just five cuts in 18 Korn Ferry Tour starts last season and got into the Fortinet field on a major medical extension due to a wrist injury. Knous, who finished 25th in the 2018 KFT Finals to earn his TOUR card, has this and one more start to fulfill the terms of his extension. A two-way tie for third or better Sunday would give him enough points to equal the 125th player in the 2018-19 FedExCup standings, while a solo 12th or better would give him conditional status on TOUR and full Korn Ferry Tour status, allowing him to skip the upcoming Q school. “Do your best,” he said his wife told him. “Let God do the rest.” So far, it seems to be working. Two days after world No. 1 Jon Rahm missed the cut, Hard K is playing to dramatically alter the trajectory of his career. “Yeah, nothing to lose really for me,” he said. “I can go out there and play free and hit the shots that I know I can hit, try to go win the tournament. I know it sounds like a lot, but I’m going to play like that because that’s when I play my best golf, when I make full committed swings.” With so much inexperience at the top; 18 players within four of the lead; and Mickelson, Webb Simpson (65), and newly minted Rookie of the Year Will Zalatoris (71) lurking, the stage is set.
