Justin Rose birdied the first three holes to quickly extend his lead at the Fort Worth Invitational and finished with a 4-under 66 on Saturday to take a four-stroke advantage into the final round at Colonial.
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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – A trip around PGA National’s Champion course is rarely a smooth one. Pitfalls lurk around every corner. The same can be said about professional golf careers. Players can compete on the PGA TOUR for decades, but somewhere along the line, they’re likely to suffer through slumps and injuries. Champions are rightly celebrated, but the spotlight blinds us to the ebbs and flows that comprise most careers. The tightly-packed leaderboard at The Honda Classic is a study in the difficulties that most players endure. The contenders include a major champion and players who once sat atop the world ranking, but they’ve traveled through valleys to get to this moment. Related: Leaderboard | Insider: No ‘faking it’ during Florida swing They’re all chasing one of the world’s top players, Tommy Fleetwood, who will take a one-stroke lead into Sunday’s final round. The 29-year-old Englishman, who’s ranked 12th in the world, is seeking his first PGA TOUR victory. He’s the only player in the top 20 of the world ranking who’s winless on the PGA TOUR. “It would be a win at a great golf course, a tough golf course, and I think if you’re going to win around here, you’re proving yourself as an all-around golfer,â€� Fleetwood said. “I want to win everywhere I play, and the PGA TOUR is for sure one of those places where I haven’t done it yet.â€� Fleetwood sits at 5-under 205 par after shooting a 3-under 67 on Saturday. Only 11 players broke par in the third round as the wind continued to blow and the greens got firm. And, of course, there’s always the ever-present water that surrounds many of the holes here. Players have compared this week’s conditions to a major championship. The average score this week is 2-over-par. The difficult setup has kept anyone from pulling away from the field. It’s crowded atop the leaderboard. Six players will start Sunday within three shots of Fleetwood. Brendan Steele is one shot back, while Fleetwood’s fellow Englishmen, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald, trail by two. Three more players – Daniel Berger, Charl Schwartzel and Sungjae Im, the reigning PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year – are three behind. Steele is the most recent winner in that group, and it’s been more than two years since he lifted a trophy. He won his second consecutive Safeway Open in October 2017. He’s found his game this year after having the worst season of his career in 2019. “I was feeling good about my game in the fall, but mentally … I had some scars with how I’d been playing and was just worried about how to play golf,â€� Steele said. He’s already contended once this year, taking a three-shot lead into the Sony Open in Hawaii before losing in a playoff to Cameron Smith. Westwood and Donald once traded the top spot in the world ranking, but they’re both looking to end lengthy droughts on the PGA TOUR. Westwood is having a career resurgence at the age of 46 thanks to a positive outlook and carefree outlet that is well-suited to the challenges of the Champion course. He recently won in Abu Dhabi to return to the top 50 in the world for the first time in nearly three years. It was just his second win on the European Tour since 2015. He’s competing on a sponsor exemption this week. Donald would like to join him. Injuries limited him to just 21 starts in the previous two seasons. He had just one top-25 in that span, and had to use a career money list exemption to compete on the TOUR this season. He is 456th in the world ranking. “Lee has obviously proven that age is just a number,â€� Donald said. “He’s been playing great lately. … Just seeing those guys continue to grind and continue to fight and do well, it’s nice to see and certainly it motivates me.â€� Westwood last won in the United States 10 years ago. Donald, a five-time winner on TOUR, hasn’t won since 2012. Schwartzel, 35, and Berger were sidelined by wrist injuries. Schwartzel’s injury, which forced him to sit out from May to December last year, had him questioning if he’d be able to continue his career. The former Masters champion hasn’t won anywhere in the world since the 2016 Valspar Championship. Berger, 26, won the FedEx St. Jude Classic in 2016 and 2017 but is winless since. He’s arrived at his hometown TOUR event after finishing in the top-10 in his previous two starts. “It’s funny because I never thought I went anywhere other than just being a little bit injured,â€� Berger said. “I feel good about my golf game, and I feel good about heading into tomorrow, and another good round and I’ll have a chance to win.â€� Even Fleetwood has endured difficulty in his young career. He won the Challenge Tour’s Order of Merit at age 20, but won just once in the next five years. He fell outside the top 150 in the world ranking in 2016 but rebounded to win the European Tour’s Race to Dubai the following year. He’s been a fixture among the game’s elite since. The difficulty of this week’s venue, and the crowded leaderboard, will make it easier for players to focus on the task at hand instead of the roads they’ve travelled to get here. “At no point does the golf course let up,â€� Fleetwood said. “No matter what happens, whether you make eagle all the way through double-bogey, you have to stand up on the next and hit a golf shot.â€� One man will be left standing Sunday. He’ll have endured his share of hardship to get to the winner’s circle.
SANDWICH, England — Louis Oosthuizen set a 36-hole record at The 149th Open and is halfway to ending that run of near misses at the majors. He’ll have to hold off a cast of major champions on the weekend at Royal St. George’s. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Morikawa makes waves on Friday On a day of pleasant summer weather that took the fear out of the links off Sandwich Bay, Oosthuizen broke away from a three-way tie with a birdie-birdie-eagle run from the 12th hole. He shrugged off his first bogey of the week for a 5-under 65 and a two-stroke lead on Friday. Former PGA champion Collin Morikawa had a 64 and was two shots behind. Another shot was Jordan Spieth (67), going after his fourth major. Lurking was two-time major champion Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world who shot 65. Oosthuizen was at 11-under 129, breaking the 36-hole Open record first set by Nick Faldo in 1992 at Muirfield and matched by Brandt Snedeker in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. This will be the fifth time in the last nine rounds at a major that Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion at St. Andrews, has had at least a share of the lead. He was runner-up at the last two majors, to Phil Mickelson at the the PGA Championship in May and to Jon Rahm the U.S. Open last month. “I’m not really going to think about the second spots,” said Oosthuizen, when asked what he’ll do differently this time. “I know my game is in a good place.” He’ll also be aware of the quality of player behind him, though. Morikawa, making quite a debut in links golf, made seven birdies in his first 14 holes as part of a clinic in iron play. He missed a 5-foot par putt on No. 15 and had a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole catch the lip. Spieth, four shots behind when he teed off, was tied for the lead after 12 holes and then played the last six holes in 1 over. Then there was Dustin Johnson, a runner-up at Royal St. George’s in 2011, who stuck his approach at the last to 3 feet for a birdie and a round of 65, which left him tied for fourth place at 7 under with Dylan Frittelli of South Africa (67) and Scottie Scheffler (66). One shot behind an eclectic mix of players at 6 under — including two more South Africans in Justin Harding and Daniel Van Tonder — were Rahm (64) and Brooks Koepka. Koepka made four birdies in his last five holes for a 66. DeChambeau just made it to the weekend at Royal St. George’s by shooting a 70, which saw him make the cut on the number at 1 over. Rory McIlroy did, too, needing a birdie on the final hole for another 70. He was 11 shots behind. Other big names weren’t so lucky: No. 7 Patrick Cantlay, No. 9 Patrick Reed, former Open champions Francesco Molinari and Henrik Stenson, and Darren Clarke, the 2011 champion at Royal St. George’s, were all headed home.
Chez Reavie’s 4-under 68 in the opening round was good enough for the outright lead in South Korea.
