Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, Round 3: Leaderboard, tee times, TV times

Phil Mickelson faces perhaps the biggest challenge of his historic golf career as he partners with NBA legend Charles Barkley against two-time Super Bowl champion Peyton Manning and current Golden State Warriors NBA legend and three-time NBA Champion Stephen Curry in Capital One's The Match: Champions for Change. Stone Canyon Golf Club in Oro Valley, Arizona is our host as 44-time PGA TOUR winner Mickelson tries to get Barkley's notoriously unreliable swing smooth enough to get through against near-scratch golfer Curry and single digit handicapper Manning. RELATED: How to watch The event will contribute toward and highlight diversity, equality, and inclusion through donations to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and organizations that support them (Thurgood Marshall Fund, United Negro College Fund) while raising awareness and spotlighting opportunities for diversity and equality in sports. As many of us lay back in a food coma following Thanksgiving feasts it's also important to note The Match will support Feeding America. Around 50 million people may face hunger in the U.S. during 2020's pandemic times, including more than 17 million children. The competition format will be modified alternate shot match play where each player will hit a tee shot and the team can then choose their best option before continuing in alternate shot fashion until the ball is holed. PRE MATCH The smack talk has already begun with Manning handing Barkley a special kit that includes an airhorn he can blow if he gets lost in the desert. Clearly these four champions are out for some fun while raising money and awareness for great causes. Mickelson has his calves out in all their glory - and he'll likely need them to carry a pretty big load given what we've seen out of Barkley in the past. But the 44-time PGA TOUR winner is at least talking a confident game - while reminding us he'll be hitting bombs and hellacious seeds to put some pressure on the Curry/Manning combo. And hey, look at this, Barkley has actually made some decent contact on a few at the range. Could an upset be on the cards? GO TIME Just minutes away from the start of The Match and players are getting their final warm up moments in. Mickelson is dialed in on the putting green while Barkley is trying to stretch out his back before he submits it to his swing that usually resembles a frog in a blender. Curry and Manning have that look of quiet confidence but there's also a whiff of nerves coming from the duo who, at their best in their respective sports, were seemingly impervious to jitters. The anticipation for the smack talk battle is just as high as it is for the golf itself. HOLE BY HOLE HOLE 1: (par 4, 426 yards) The Curry / Manning team gets off to a fine start after Curry splits the fairway. Mickelson then busts out his driver and lets the group know, "I wouldn't normally hit driver here but I just want to set the tone," and cuts the corner of the dogleg left opener, but finds the rough. Barkley then takes iron and hits a perfect draw into the fairway, but it's well back meaning they decide to use Mickelson's shot. Manning pulls his approach ever so slightly to the fringe of the green, but ensures Curry will get a birdie look from around 20 feet. Mickelson tells Barkley the shot is 70 yards as he's worried about pace through the rough. It's actually 55 yards. Mickelson math backfires and Barkley hits it through the green to the back fringe leaving about 70-feet. "I won't do that to you again," the TOUR star is forced to say to his teammate. Mickelson lags it down to six-feet giving Curry a chance to win the hole, but his effort comes up well short. "I don't recall Tiger leaving you five-footers," Mickelson chirps to Manning referencing the previous Capital One's The Match where Tiger Woods and Manning bested Mickelson and Tom Brady 1up. Barkley leaves his par putt on the high edge and lips out but Manning makes no mistake and an early lead is established. Hole Result: Curry / Manning WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Par; Mickelson / Barkley - Bogey Match Score: Curry / Manning 1up Mickelson / Barkley Hole 2: (par 5, 559 yards) A change in strategy for the Mickelson / Barkley team is instituted immediately as Barkley defies all odds and finds his second straight fairway off the tee. Mickelson's drive is significantly longer, but they choose Barkley's ball, allowing Phil to try to reach the green in two. The 50-year-old comes up just short to the front of the green. After a sweet Manning drive, Curry lays up to a number that Manning clearly loved as his wedge shot tracks to the hole and actually lips out before settling about six-feet away. Unfortunately, Curry pushes the birdie putt out to the right. That miss proves costly as Barkley produces an impressive long lag putt from the front of the green to five-feet and given the chance to square the match, Mickelson makes no mistake. "I made a mistake there in strategy and gave them a hole," Mickelson says of the opening hole. "But Chuck and I can make pars and birdies on this course if we play to our strengths and with him that's his putting so I'll work on giving him those chances." Hole Result: Mickelson / Barkley WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Par; Mickelson / Barkley - Birdie Match Score: Curry / Manning ALL SQUARE Mickelson / Barkley Hole 3: (par 4, 304 yards) We've hit the Ford Mustang Mach-E Drivable par 4 challenge where a Hole-in-One would trigger a $5 million donation to HBCUs, an eagle nets $1 million, a drive within 10-feet is worth $250,000 and the winner of the hole $100,000. Mickelson doesn't even need driver and lets loose, coming up with a shot to the back fringe of the green. Barkley brings out his driver for the first time and snipes a low bullet that they can dismiss. Both Curry and Manning have a crack with driver with the former NFL star's shot just short and right in the rough the best of the two. Curry chips out, but the ball rolls out significantly so Manning must try for an unlikely birdie. It doesn't quite have the gas to get there and they settle for par. Barkley has a putt for the $1 million and the hole with Mickelson reminding him to "quieten his mind," and forget about the money, the cameras and all of the outside noise. His 25-foot eagle effort has some heat and runs five-feet past. The stress of it all is evident on his face, but you'd be hard pressed finding many 25 handicappers (Barkley's official number) able to do much better under the spotlight like this. Mickelson proves his pedigree by converting the birdie to win the hole and take their first lead in the match. Hole Result: Mickelson / Barkley WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Par; Mickelson / Barkley - Birdie Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 1up Curry / Manning Hole 4: (par 4, 374 yards) Barkley has clearly been in some sort of golf boot camp like back in the day when he was part of the Hank Haney Project on Golf Channel. His swing is holding up fairly well under pressure and he once again finds the middle of the fairway off the tee. This allows Mickelson to go full flex with his calves and try to hit a bomb up near the green. "I've only seen one better resurrection," Gary McCord quips of Barkley's game in commentary. Mickelson does hit a huge drive that finds the fairway, but the 50-yard pitch would have to go over a bunker and find the correct tier of the green so he learns from the opening hole and decides to back his approach game from distance against Barkley's short game. A clever shot to about 18-feet makes the strategy appear genius. Manning's drive hooks into the left rough leaving Curry under enormous pressure given the momentum of the match. The Warriors weapon steps up in the clutch and pounds a good drive up near the green, albeit into the left rough. The angle for the short wedge approach is a good one though. Manning, mindful of needing to get the ball to the back tier where the pin is located, is just a tad aggressive and sends the second shot into the back rough, but close enough for Curry to use his putter for their third. That effort rolls some 10-feet past the pin. Barkley's attempt to win the hole with birdie from 18 feet is tracking, but ends up just short. It's good enough though when Manning pushes his par putt. Hole Result: Mickelson / Barkley WIN Hole Scores: Curry / Manning - Bogey; Mickelson / Barkley - Par Match Score: Mickelson / Barkley 2up Curry / Manning

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Rickie Fowler calls his last five weeks “somewhat of an off-season.â€� It’s fitting, then, that Fowler will begin his 2017-’18 season with somewhat of a working vacation at this week’s OHL Classic at Mayakoba, where he is the highest-ranked player in the field (10) and perhaps the most anticipated first-timer in the event’s 11-year run. “I mean, I’m excited to be down here,â€� said Fowler, who with his girlfriend, Allison Stokke, got to the Riviera Maya on Saturday for some pre-tournament fun in the sun. “I want to play well and I feel like I definitely can play well. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t feel I could win. But I’m also enjoying the relaxation and getting some time in the gym and we’ll definitely be ready to go and really get the season going in January.â€� On TOUR, the off-season is where you find it, and while Fowler has been busy since he beat Emiliano Grillo 6 and 4 in the Presidents Cup on Oct. 1, he hasn’t been playing golf. Fowler served as Grand Marshal at alma mater Oklahoma State’s homecoming; went to Stokke’s homecoming at Cal-Berkeley; did a wine-tasting tour in the fire-ravaged Napa Valley; shot TV spots for Farmers Insurance in Los Angeles; swung through Scottsdale, Arizona; and squeezed in five rounds of golf. Oh, and he also sent his coach, Butch Harmon, video of his swing last week. (Harmon said it looked good if slightly laid off the top, according to Fowler.) It seemed almost rude to interrupt the relaxed Riviera Maya vibe and ask how Fowler might play this week. “I like the golf course,â€� he said of the 7,000-yard, par-71 El Camaleon Golf Club. “It’s a fun layout. I enjoy playing in windy conditions; I know it can get fairly windy down here.â€� Another thing he noticed in his first trip around the course Wednesday: It’s not very forgiving off the tee. “You have to hit the ball pretty straight to stay out of the native area, whatever you want to call it,â€� Fowler said. “Stay out of it.â€� In the big picture, Fowler, 28, is doing very well, with room for improvement. In 32 major starts he has seven top-five finishes, none of them wins. He led the U.S. Open at Erin Hills after shooting a 7-under 65 in the first round, but faded to a T5 finish. (He has never broken par in the final round in nine U.S. Open appearances.) He picked up his fourth career win at The Honda Classic, but had nine other top-10s. In one sense, Fowler says, last season was “arguably the best I’ve played.â€� That’s one way of looking at it. He also admits he had “maybe not as many wins as I would have liked.â€� Meanwhile, he keeps hanging around to congratulate his friends when they win. Jordan Spieth at the Open Championship. Justin Thomas at the PGA Championship, where Fowler again finished T5. Spieth has said that when Fowler himself wins, a whole world of friends will be waiting for him behind the 18th green. That’s not just karma; it speaks to Fowler’s likability.    If form holds, his major W is coming, perhaps with fate providing a nudge. Fowler won THE PLAYERS Championship in 2015 after a poll in Sports Illustrated tagged him as overrated. And while his critics once said he was too nice, pointing to all those halved matches in the tense, mano-a-mano theater of the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, he went a sporty 3-0-1 at the recent Presidents Cup at Liberty National. He seems likely to figure out the majors, too. “It’s a fine line,â€� Fowler said Wednesday. “You know well enough, seeing guys and where they finish and how they play and understanding how much one putt or one shot can do, whether it’s coming down the stretch or even that one putt early in the week.â€� Patrick Reed, who is also making his first OHL start and also in search of his first major, echoed Fowler’s sentiments. “Nowadays the PGA TOUR is so deep, top to bottom,â€� Reed said. Whatever happens at lush, leafy El Camaleon this week, Fowler will spend some time at home in Jupiter, Fla., before starts at the Hero World Challenge, Nov. 30-Dec. 3, and the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Jan. 4-7. For those scoring at home, that’s the Riviera Maya to the Bahamas to Maui. “Not a bad little swing,â€� Fowler said. You can bet he’ll make the most of it.

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NEW DELHI — Emiliano Grillo took a four-stroke lead at the Indian Open after shooting 4-under 68 on Friday. The Argentine had five birdies and a bogey, lowering his total to 11-under 133 for the tournament. Shubhankar Sharma, who three days ago received a special invitation to play at the Masters, made a charge with an 8-under 64 — the best round of the day. He had nine birdies, including six on the last nine holes. His only bogey came on the par-4 seventh. Sharma was 5 over after his first nine holes on Thursday. Pablo Larrazabal (71) and Andrew Johnston (66) were tied for third at 6 under, one stroke behind Sharma.

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