Leishman backs up good start with a low score at BMW

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Stewart Cink maintained his five-stroke lead and set another scoring mark at the RBC Heritage with a 2-under 69 on Saturday, moving closer to his third victory at Harbour Town Golf Links. RELATED: Leaderboard | Wesley Bryan back in happy place at RBC Heritage Cink, 47, cooled off from his pace in the first two rounds, when he shot a pair of 63s for his lowest career 36-hole score and shattered the event’s halfway scoring mark shared by Jack Nicklaus and Phil Mickelson. This time, Cink scrambled his way to 18-under 195, also a tournament mark for lowest 54-hole score. The record had been held by Justin Leonard at 16-under 197 in 2002. PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa was at 13 under after a 67. Emiliano Grillo of Argentina had a 69 and was another shot behind in third. Matt Wallace of England and Sung-jae Im of South Korea were tied at 11 under. Wallace shot 65 and Im 69. While Cink slowed down, no one else could dent his large lead amid Harbour Town’s narrow fairways and smallish greens. That left Cink in prime position for a third plaid winner’s jacket for his collection after finishing first in 2000 and 2004. Cink rallied from behind in both of his previous wins here. His challenge 17 years later will be maintaining his poise on a course where front-runners are often upended. Only once in the past eight tournaments here as the third-round leader come out on top — and that was Webb Simpson last year. Corey Conners began the day five shots behind Cink and finished with a 72. He was in a group of four at 10 under that included defending champ Simpson. Simpson, who set the scoring mark of 22 under last June, had the round’s lowest score at 64. While the first two rounds showed off Cink’s accuracy, this one called on his scrambling ability to stay out front. He was right off the tee on No. 1 and left of the fairway on No. 3, the latter miscue leading to his first bogey since Thursday’s opening hole. Cink slammed the door on any hope he might falter with back-to-back birdies on the fourth and fifth holes to restore the big lead. On the back nine, Cink saved par after driving onto the pine straw on No. 11 and again on the next hole after his tee shot stopped against a small, loose branch left of the fairway. When Cink rolled an 8-footer for birdie on the 14th — his first in 40 rounds on that tricky par 3 — he had a six-shot lead. Any hope of the world’s top-ranked golfer, Dustin Johnson, making a third-round charge ended with a double-bogey 5 on the par-3 seventh. He shot a 71 and remained at 5 under.

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JACKSON, Miss. — Sebastián Muñoz of Colombia made a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to force a playoff, and then beat Sungjae Im with a par on the first extra hole to win the Sanderson Farms Championship for his first PGA TOUR victory. Muñoz, who closed with a 2-under 70, made it two straight weeks for South American winners, following Joaquin Niemann winning last week at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier. “Jaco’s win gave me the belief I needed, the little extra belief I’m good enough, I’m here,” Muñoz said. Niemann won by six shots at The Greenbrier. Muñoz had it far more difficult. He was among four players in the mix over the back nine at the Country Club of Jackson, and it looked as though the 21-year-old Im would snatch his first victory when he made a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 14th, got up-and-down from a bunker on the reachable 15th for birdie, and made it three straight birdies with a 12-foot putt. He closed with a 66, and that looked like it might be enough. Byeong Hun An made consecutive bogeys to fall out of the mix. Carlos Ortiz couldn’t get a putt to fall. Muñoz lost two good scoring opportunities with a drive well right of the fairway on the 14th, and then flubbing a lob shot left of the 15th green that went into the bunker, leading to bogey. Down to his last hole, he played it to perfection with a big drive, an approach to 15 feet below the hole and the most important putt of his young career. The 26-year-old from Bogota, who played his college golf at North Texas, poured in the birdie putt to join Im at 18-under 270. “We just decided on a line, kept it as as simple as can and just strike the putt,” Muñoz said. The playoff on the 18th hole wasn’t as clean. Im went left into the Bermuda rough and caught a flier, sending the ball well over the green against the grandstand. Muñoz was in the right rough and, expecting the ball to come out hot, he abbreviated his swing and it came out some 30 yards short. His chip-and-run rolled out to just under 4 feet. Im did well to pitch out of rough to just over 6 feet by the hole, but his par putt didn’t even touch the cup and he started walking soon after he hit it. Muñoz rolled in the par putt and the celebration was on. “I’m speechless,” he said. This is the first time since the tournament began in 1986 that it was not held the same week as another PGA TOUR event with a stronger field. That means it gets full FedExCup points, and Muñoz earned a spot in the Masters for the first time. Im, voted PGA TOUR rookie of the year last season for reaching the TOUR Championship, is still looking for his first win. An wound up alone in third with a birdie on the final hole for a 69, while Ortiz had to settle for a 71 and a tie for fourth with Kevin Streelman (64). The playoff ended a peculiar streak of 38 consecutive PGA TOUR events that were decided in regulation, dating to Charles Howell III winning in a playoff at Sea Island at the end of last year.

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All the attention is on Tiger. And when it’s not on him, it’s on Jordan and Rickie and DJ and JT. Brooks Kopeka, who won two more majors than any of them this year, has noticed.

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