Round 4 of the Puerto Rico Open takes place on Sunday. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action. Leaderboard Full tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 2:30 p.m.-5 p.m. (Golf Channel). Sunday, 2:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. (Golf Channel).
Warriors star guard Stephen Curry said Saturday that “we cannot give in to this losing mentality” after Golden State dropped its fourth straight game, and he added that the team must “figure out how to turn things around pretty quick.”
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Mike Krzyzewski faced rival North Carolina in his final home game, and the sports world paid tribute.
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ORLANDO, Fla. – Arnold Palmer was watching a pro-am round at Bay Hill Club and Lodge a number of years ago when Phil Mickelson launched a short iron to the heavens at the par-4 first hole, only to watch in pure disbelief as the ball bounded high off the green, 8 feet high, as if it had caromed off a trampoline. Not sure Palmer, the late tournament host of his namesake PGA TOUR stop, ever flashed a bigger smile as he sat in his cart along the side of the fairway. Palmer loved to create a test of golf that was firm, and tougher than a $3 steak, where pars meant something, and every birdie carried away was as valuable as a gold brick. When scores soared on Saturday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, he is one that would have enjoyed the show. Somebody will walk away on Sunday with a winner’s check for $2.16 million (gulp!), but it’s going to take an honest week’s work. You win at Bay Hill the old-fashioned way. You earn it. Welcome to that new yearly suspense thriller, titled “Weekend at Arnie’s.” Billy Horschel (1-under 71) and Talor Gooch (72) were the best Saturday survivors, considering they played late in the day, when conditions were toughest, and will enter Sunday sharing the lead at 7-under 209. That’s two shots to par backwards than it was 24 hours earlier. Viktor Hovland, who had a four-shot lead at one point, faded with a 40 on the back nine to slide to 75 and lose his grip on the tournament lead. He is one shot back, with Scottie Scheffler (68) two behind and Gary Woodland (70) three. The day did not go so well for many others. World No. 1 Jon Rahm, playing here for the first time, made one birdie all day. Seasoned Lee Westwood, a runner-up at Bay Hill a year ago, shot 33-43. Cameron Young, a hot stick of late, finished his front nine with a double bogey and back nine with a triple. He shot 76. The greens were glassy, and players had difficulty just getting the putter to settle behind the ball. Scheffler, who teed off two hours ahead of the last group and tied the day’s low round of 68, paused to think about the last time he had such a challenge just getting his putter to sit still as he readied to putt. Let’s see … Oh, it would be two years ago, right here. “Brutal” became a well-worn word muttered inside the scoring area. Billy Horschel, who grew up in Florida not far from Orlando and Bay Hill, often would visit the tournament to watch the stars play as a youth, hoping that he might make it inside those ropes one day. Winning here would be extra special for the Florida Gators alum. It just won’t be easy, that’s all. Saturday’s rough conditions (scoring average: 74.06) was not everyone’s cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean that some men cannot enjoy the challenge. “This is awesome golf,” Horschel gushed as dusk settled in after a long and demanding round. “It’s testing and it wears you down, but this is the golf that I think – I can’t even say we all ‘enjoy’ all the time, but we do enjoy, because it does reward fairly good golf shots on a regular basis. “It rewards people who think their way through a shot, and how it needs to be played to really turn out properly.” How tough was it? Horschel stood on the tee at the 163-yard 14th hole, wind helping, with a pitching wedge in his hand, just praying that he could hit a shot that stayed on the green. Mind you, the 14th green isn’t an island, either. “How many times are you happy to just hit the green with a pitching wedge for a PGA TOUR pro?” Horschel asked. Rory McIlroy had promised that Saturday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was going to be a wild ride. More prescient words never were spoken. The Northern Irishman has a great feel for this place, was the tournament’s champion in 2018, and seemed very much in control two days earlier when he opened with 65. On Saturday, he was 11 shots worse, and relieved that a round of golf only lasted 18 holes. “Yeah, look, it’s so tough out there,” said McIlroy, who tumbled to 3-under 213, and will start Sunday four shots out of the lead, hoping to chase. “It’s so tricky. It’s just on a knife edge, like you’re literally talking like feet. Two feet here, two feet there from 200 yards can make a huge difference in where the ball ends up.” McIlroy wasn’t whining, just giving an honest assessment. His back nine on Saturday appeared like an EKG graph: A double bogey, three bogeys, three birdies and even a couple of pars. It added up to 76. There were only seven players who shot in the 60s, and most of them turned in those scores earlier in the day, before the hardest winds kicked up and players flipped the switch to survival mode. Nick Watney barely made the cut (74-72), but a 69 on Saturday rocketed him all the way to a tie for 12th. “I guess, the last few years, we sort of know what to expect coming here,” McIlroy said. “It just seems to be this way over the weekend. It’s just hard. It’s hard not to get frustrated.” Max Homa was 2 over for his day – not all bad, truthfully – when he reached the par-3 14th on Saturday afternoon. He floated a nice high cut with a pitching wedge, the ball traveling the direction of the flagstick, and soon it vanished into the hole for an ace. A well-earned bright spot. Take that, Bay Hill! Scheffler was playing alongside Homa, and after his round, was asked if Homa, Mr. Ace himself, had offered to buy him a drink. “I think he owes all of us a drink,” Scheffler said. “Isn’t that how it works?” After Saturday’s round, players at Bay Hill appeared ready to line up behind him. The test had been brutal. Just the way Palmer liked it.
Nearly 100 former Duke players, including Grant Hill, Jason Williams, Shane Battier and Christian Laettner lined the court at Cameron Indoor Stadium to welcome Mike Krzyzewski for the final time Saturday, as the Blue Devils wrapped their regular season.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Billy Horschel got a rare break at Bay Hill on a day that punished so many others, leading to a birdie on the 18th hole Saturday for a 1-under 71 that gave him a share of the lead with Talor Gooch in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Horschel was buried in deep rough behind the 18th green and facing a fast chip down the hill. His foot was on a sprinkler head and he received a free drop. From the collar, he was able to use putter and his 30-foot putt trickled into the cup. “To make that putt on 18, to shoot 1 under on a really tough day is really satisfying,” he said. It was a happy moment, and those were hard to find in a third round where Viktor Hovland lost a four-shot lead at the turn, Matt Jones heaved his putter into the water and Rory McIlroy lost momentum with a tee shot out-of-bounds. Scottie Scheffler managed to make a charge. After missing three straight par putts from 6 feet or closer to cap off his front nine, Scheffler made three birdies and a 20-foot eagle for a 31 on the back for a 68, matching the low score of the day. He started the day eight shots behind. He ended it two shots out of the lead. The final group was making the turn when Scheffler finished and he was asked if his round put him back into the tournament. “I didn’t really feel out of it at the beginning of the day,” Scheffler said. He and everyone else had an idea of what to expect on a course that is a strong test in any condition. Add gusts of about 15 mph and greens so baked by the sun there was barely any grass, and this was all the best players in golf could handle. Gooch, the Oklahoman who won his first PGA TOUR title in the final event of last year, was up to the task. He rolled in a 35-foot birdie putt on the tough 15th, followed with a 15-foot birdie on the next hole and was in the lead until a tee shot into ankle-deep rough on the final hole kept him from reaching the green. Gooch and Horschel were at 7-under 209. Hovland suffered as much as anyone. He three-putted from 10 feet on the par-3 second hole, only to recover by holing a bunker shot for eagle on the par-5 sixth with his ball on a slight downslope in the sand and not much green between his ball and the hole. The back nine turned into a slow bleed, twice taking three putts for bogey and missing the fairway on two other holes. He shot 40 on the back nine for a 75. Still, he was only one shot behind. Former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland overcame three bogeys for a round of 70 and was three shots behind, followed by the group of Chris Kirk (68), Graeme McDowell (69) and McIlroy, whose 76 could have been worse. “I feel like I’ve never had as many 6-footers for bogeys as I’ve had today,” he said. McIlroy, the 18-hole leader, ran off back-to-back birdies early on the back nine and was making up ground until he lost a tee shot to the right on the 15th hole that bounced into a backyard. That led to double bogey, and he bogeyed the last two holes to fall back. “It’s so tough out there. It’s so tricky. It’s just on knife’s edge,” McIlroy said. “You’re literally talking like feet — 2 feet here, 2 feet there from 200 yards can make a huge difference in where the ball ends up.” He was among eight players separated by four shots going into the final round, and with conditions expected to be the same, Bay Hill should be primed for a shootout among survivors. Jones, meanwhile, hit a brilliant approach on the 11th hole to 8 feet only to have the putt slide off line. He reached the cup about the time the golf ball trickled there, tapped in with one hand and then heaved his putter into the lake. Max Homa made an ace on the par-3 14th hole with a pitching wedge from 163 yards, meaning a $200,000 donation by presenting sponsor Mastercard to the Arnold & Winning Palmer Foundation. A year ago on Saturday at Bay Hill, Homa was playing with Jazz Janewattananond when the Thai made a hole-in-one on the 14th hole.
RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico — Fighting to keep PGA TOUR status, Ryan Brehm shot a 4-under 68 in rainy conditions Saturday to open a three-stroke lead in the Puerto Rico Open. Brehm, with wife Chelsey at his side as his caddie, is making his final start on a minor medical extension and needs to win or finish second alone to retain status. He had a 15-under 201 total at Grand Reserve. “Obviously, if you would have given me that at the start of the week I’d have taken it,” Brehm said. “There’s just so much golf left. I mean, honestly, all Chelsey and I are trying to do is make one good swing after another and march along. That’s really all we’re trying to do.” The 35-year-old Brehm is winless on the PGA TOUR. He’s ranked 773rd in the world. “I know that somebody’s going to play well, probably more than one person, so it’s up to me to go out and do my job and play my game,” Brehm said. “We’re probably not going to change much strategically. We’ll hit irons off some tees and drivers off others.” Michael Kim was second after a 70. Since winning the John Deere Classic in 2018, Kim has made only 16 cuts in 76 starts on the PGA TOUR, including one stretch of 25 consecutive events without making it to the weekend. He was No. 75 in the world when he won and now No. 1,030. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in contention, but felt really comfortable out there, comfortable with my game and really looking forward to tomorrow,” Lee said. Chad Ramey (68), Andrew Novak (69), Tommy Gainey (69) and Max McGreevy (71) were 11 under. University of Oklahoma senior Chris Gotterup was 10 under after a 70. Making his PGA TOUR debut, he won the Puerto Rico Classic collegiate event two weeks ago at Grand Reserve. Puerto Rico native Rafa Campos shot a 73 to drop to 5 under. The event is being played opposite the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida. The winner will receive a two-year exemption and gets in the PGA Championship.
