Bryson DeChambeau’s disc golf hobby provides thrill for Augusta family

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — The resurgent Ian Poulter shot a 4-under 67 on Saturday to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the RBC Heritage, putting him in position for his second victory in three weeks. Before April, Poulter had not won on the PGA TOUR in more than five years. Now, he’s one more solid round away from adding another title to his dramatic win at the Houston Open on April 1. No joke, Poulter’s play is for real. Seven of the Englishman’s last 11 rounds have been in the 60s after having just three such showings in his first 20 rounds this season. His latest left him at 13-under 200, and a stroke ahead of Luke List (67) and Si Woo Kim (68). World No. 1 Dustin Johnson failed to make a move and, after a 72, was tied for 41st, 10 shots behind. Poulter and his chasers will have a quick turnaround Sunday with TOUR officials starting play at 7 a.m. and going off in threesomes on both tees because of expected bad weather in the afternoon. C.T. Pan and Billy Horschel, both with 67s, were another stroke back at 11 under, and Kevin Kisner (66) and Chesson Hadley (69) were three shots behind at 10 under. Poulter made his run in spurts, moving out front with birdies on the fifth and sixth holes before getting his last two on the 12th and 13th. He saved par out of the bunker on the par-3 17th, rolling in a rock-solid 6-foot putt and making a routine par on the signature lighthouse hole, the 18th, to stay in front. Kim was in front at 12 under after birdies on the eighth and ninth holes. He fell back with a bogey on No. 12 and could not catch Poulter down the stretch. List took off with three straight birdies on Nos. 14-16. List, who finished second earlier this season at the Honda Classic, is seeking his first PGA TOUR win. Second-round leader Bryson DeChambeau had the confident stride of a pending winner with his first solo 36-hole lead as a pro — at least until the third round got going. After grabbing a two-shot lead with a birdie on No. 1, DeChambeau imploded with a triple-bogey eight on the normally birdie-able par-5 second. DeChambeau struck his second shot past the green and out of bounds by some condos. He fluffed his fifth shot into a bunker, then missed a 5-foot putt for the dreaded snowman. Three holes later, DeChambeau botched another par 5, the fifth, by rolling his blast from a bunker off the green and into a sprinkler cover. “Unbelievable what’s happened on the par fives today,” DeChambeau said as he saw his ball. DeChambeau had been 6 under par on Harbour Town’s three par 5s the first two rounds. He played them in 3 over Saturday on the way to a 75 to fall seven shots back. In his only two previous appearances here Johnson missed the cut badly — at 16 over in 2008 and 5 over in 2009. This time, he tried to channel the game that’s made him the world’s top-ranked golfer for more than a year. Instead, Johnson had bogeys on four of his first 11 holes before rallying to finish with a 72 and was 10 shots in back of Poulter. Again, Johnson pointed to putter problems this week. Johnson missed five birdie putts of 16 feet or less on the front nine. “Around here, you’ve got to hole some putts if you want to compete,” he said. Johnson said the early call will be difficult as the winds pick up on what has been an unusually mild layout.

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Tom Lehman won the Charles Schwab Challenge in 1995, before many of the player in this week’s field were born. On Thursday, he beat many of those same players. Lehman, 61, nearly shot his age Thursday to find himself on the first page of the leaderboard when the morning wave completed play. His 5-under 65 left him just two strokes behind leader Justin Rose. Lehman is now the oldest player to shoot 65 or better on TOUR in the last 40 years. Colonial is a course that rewards precision over power, which allows older players to hang with their younger peers. Only three players under the age of 30 have won at Colonial in the last 30 years. Lehman’s performance was on another level, though. He averaged just 264 yards off the tee, but missed just three fairways and three greens. It was his lowest score on the PGA TOUR since the opening round of the 2011 Waste Management Phoenix Open, where he finished T37. “Do I feel like I’m capable of shooting a 65 out here at Colonial? Well, for certain I do,â€� Lehman said. “Did I expect to do it today? Well, I would be probably lying if I said I fully expected to play and shoot such a low score. But I did expect to play well.â€� Lehman’s 65 today was two strokes lower than his first-round score when he won at Colonial. He shot 9-under 271 that week to finish one shot ahead of Craig Parry. It was the second of Lehman’s five PGA TOUR victories, which also included the 1996 Open Championship. Lehman showed last year that he can still hang with the kids. He shot 67-69 in the first two rounds of the inaugural 3M Open in his native state of Minnesota, and was tied with Matthew Wolff at the tournament’s halfway point. They were paired together in the third round when Wolff, who’s 40 years younger than Lehman, shot a 62 that put him in position to win his first PGA TOUR title. “I think the opportunity to play and to play in a tournament that I love so much and that I’ve had some success at and I’m part of the history here, that’s kind of what drove me to want to do it,â€� Lehman said. “If it would have been the second week back, third week back, fourth week back, it would have been the same feeling for me.â€�

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The Americans are loaded and the International team has been hit hard by LIV Golf defections. Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas will try to win a 10th straight Presidents Cup for the U.S. team.

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