Houston Open, fourth round: Leaderboard, tee times, TV schedule

NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. — Brittany Lincicome walked off the 18th green after her first PGA TOUR event to applause before stopping on the way to the clubhouse to sign autographs and acknowledge spectators’ warm wishes. The LPGA Tour player made sure to savor every moment of a historic weekend she wished could have lasted longer. “I would’ve liked to have shot better (Thursday),” said Lincicome, who missed the cut at the Barbasol Championship after shooting a 1-under 71 on Saturday. She failed in her bid to become the first female player since 1945 to make the cut in a PGA TOUR event. “Obviously, today was a pretty nice day, so I guess ending with today’s round is a good way to leave.” Meanwhile, the crowd atop the leaderboard includes one of Lincicome’s playing partners. Robert Streb, six-time PGA TOUR winner Hunter Mahan, Tom Lovelady and Troy Merritt shared the lead at 18 under after a busy day in which much of the field had to complete the rain-delayed first round before starting the second. Merritt tied the course with a first-round 62 on Thursday. “I just tried to keep pace today,” Streb said after shooting 63 with nine birdies. “Obviously, the scores were very low, you get to place the ball and the greens are holding. Everybody’s making a bunch of birdies and I’m just trying to keep up and have a chance tomorrow.” Sam Ryder — who played with Lincicome — and Blayne Barber each shot 63, and Billy Horschel had a 69 to stand within a stroke of the lead. Richy Werenski and Cameron Percy were two behind, J.T. Poston was 15 under, and four more — including Hall of Famer Davis Love III — were within reach at 14 under. Attention before that focused on how Lincicome would finish with her chance of making golf history out of reach. The eight-time LPGA Tour winner with two major titles was the first woman since Michelle Wie in 2008 to play in a PGA TOUR event. Lincicome had sought to join Babe Zaharias (1945) as the only women to make the cut. Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam and Suzy Whaley have also played in PGA TOUR events. Lincicome faced a huge hurdle after an opening 78 left her near the bottom of the field. She had six birdies in Saturday’s rain-delayed second round at Champions Trace at Keene Trace Golf Club, highlighted by an eagle-3 at 17. “I thought I hit it a little short,” Lincicome added. “I thought it was going to spin back a little bit on me. Then when it landed I was like, OK, it’s on top and then it rolled back and I was like, `Oh, my gosh.’ The highlight of my week.” Lincicome also had consecutive birdies on the sixth, seventh and eighth holes before another on No. 10. But her round included six bogeys, including three on the final four holes, and she finished at 5 over 149. Playing partner Conrad Shindler, who made the cut along with Ryder, described playing with Lincicome as “a pleasure, a treat.” Despite her roller-coaster performance, he felt her approach was consistent. “She does the same thing every shot,” he said. “She just knows where it’s going to go. Each day, she gained confidence.” Her goal now is applying lessons learned from playing with the men back to the LPGA Tour. Lincicome couldn’t immediately say whether she would return to play this event, but seemed eager for LPGA Tour and PGA TOUR players to be on the same course in some form. That remains to be seen, but Lincicome definitely appreciated this opportunity with her PGA TOUR counterparts. Even without the history. “Just being inside the ropes with the guys, hitting on the range, on the putting green, it’s just a cool feeling,” she said. “I feel like I’m at home here. The guys just made me feel so comfortable.”

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Steve Stricker is having too much fun at the Waste Management Phoenix Open to stress over a messy finish Friday. RELATED: Leaderboard | Return of fans helping return of Koepka Trying to become the oldest winner in PGA TOUR history, the 53-year-old U.S. Ryder Cup captain shot a 5-under 66 to get within a stroke of leader Xander Schauffele entering the weekend at TPC Scottsdale. Stricker scrambled for par on the eighth, but couldn’t overcome another poor approach on No. 9 in a closing bogey. “Just hit an awful iron into the green on No. 9,” Stricker said. “But overall a good day.” Stricker, who will be 54 on Feb. 23, won the last of his 12 PGA TOUR titles in 2012 at Kapalua. Sam Snead is the oldest winner at 52 years, 10 months, 8 days in the 1965 Greater Greensboro event. Seven players have won in their 50s, the last Davis Love III at 51 in the 2015 Wyndham Championship. “I know it’s a long shot,” Stricker said. “I’ve got to play my very best, just like anybody else does out here. But you know, I’ve been there. I’ve won a few times out on this TOUR and I know what it takes, although it’s been a while. It would be fun to see how I handle it if I do get that opportunity.” The five-time PGA TOUR Champions winner, with wife, Nicki, working as his caddie, birdied four of his first eight holes with hardly anyone watching in the chilly morning conditions. The attendance is capped at about 5,000 a day, a fraction of the usual turnout but the most for a TOUR event since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s always tough to get going around here in the morning and we started on the back nine with some pretty good holes and some water holes that can come up and get you,” Stricker said. Schauffele, coming off a second-place tie last week at Torrey Pines, played the back nine in 6-under 30 in the afternoon for a 64. He birdied Nos. 12-14, made a 21-footer for eagle on the par-5 15th, and hit a wedge to 4 1/2 feet to set up a final birdie on the par-4 18th. “It was a bit slow at first,” Schauffele said. “Kind of saw everyone’s name flying up the leaderboard.” He was at 12-under 130. Keegan Bradley was tied for second after a 65. He made 10 birdies in a 14-hole stretch from his 12th hole Thursday to the seventh Friday — all on the front nine. “All it was was having some putts go in,” Bradley said. Scottie Scheffler (65), Sam Burns (68) and Kyoung-Hoon Lee (66) were 10 under. Scheffler hit to a foot for birdie in the morning on the 16th. “There was literally nobody there, so I couldn’t tell if it had a chance or not,” Scheffler said. He followed with a 40-foot eagle putt on 17, but gave back the strokes with a four-putt double bogey on the par-4 fifth. Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka were 8 under. Spieth is trying regain the form that carried him to 11 PGA TOUR victories — three of them majors — in his first five seasons on the TOUR. Winless since The Open Championship in 2017, he shot his second straight 67, highlighted by an eagle on the par-5 third. “It felt like a 6- or 7-under day, and this is one of the first times I’ve almost been disappointed shooting 4 under in a round in long time, and that’s a good sign,” he said. “(Yesterday) I shot 4 under, but I got away with murder.” Justin Thomas was 7 under after a 65. He opened with a double bogey on the par-4 10th after making a late triple bogey Thursday on 17. “Hit a perfect tee shot down 10 and had a pitching wedge in and made about as easy and bad of a 6 as you possibly could,” Thomas said. He had five birdies in a six-hole stretch from No. 14 to No. 1, bogeyed the par-5 third, and then birdied four of the last five. “I stayed patient and understood that you can make a boatload of birdies,” he said.

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2021 RBC Heritage, Round 1 Scoring Conditions: Overall: -0.29 strokes per round Morning wave: -0.69 Afternoon wave: +0.09 Current cutline (top 65 and ties): 66 players at -1 or better (T46) Top 3 projected cutline probabilities: 1. 1 under par: 41.6% 2. Even par: 29.3% 3. 2 under par: 19.1% Top 10 win probabilities: 1. Cameron Smith (1, -9, 24.3%) 2. Collin Morikawa (T3, -6, 12.2%) 3. Stewart Cink (2, -8, 7.9%) 4. Daniel Berger (T8, -4, 4.8%) 5. Corey Conners (T8, -4, 4.4%) 6. Brian Harman (T8, -4, 4.3%) 7. Billy Horschel (T5, -5, 4.2%) 8. Charles Howell III (T5, -5, 3.0%) 9. Matt Wallace (T3, -6, 2.3%) 10. Sungjae Im (T17, -3, 1.9%) NOTE: These reports are based off of the live predictive model run by @DataGolf. The model provides live “Make Cut”, “Top 20”, “Top 5”, and “Win” probabilities every 5 minutes from the opening tee shot to the final putt of every PGA TOUR event. Briefly, the model takes account of the current form of each golfer as well as the difficulty of their remaining holes, and probabilities are calculated from 20K simulations. To follow live finish probabilities throughout the remainder of the RBC Heritage, or to see how each golfer’s probabilities have evolved from the start of the event to the current time, click here for the model’s home page.

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