How to Watch The Honda Classic, Round 3: Live leaderboard, TV times, tee times, live stream

Strength matters in sports, golf is a sport, ergo strength (distance) matters in golf. But at courses like Harbour Town Golf Links, home of this week’s RBC Heritage, it just doesn’t matter as much as it normally does on the PGA TOUR. Quirky but good—that’s what Xander Schauffele calls the course, a par 71 of only 7,099 yards and with greens that average just 3,700 square feet. Others call it a throwback to old-school, target golf. “This property historically suits sort of a shorter hitter that’s very precise, putts well and wedges it pretty well,â€� said Schauffele, who is coming off a T2 finish at the Masters Tournament last week. “You can sneak a few extra drivers off the tee, but you don’t really have to.â€� Schauffele is no one’s idea of a shorter hitter, but neither was five-time champion Davis Love III, and he did OK here. “I wouldn’t show up if I didn’t think I could win,â€� Schauffele said. RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks | Tee times | Featured Groups Neither would RBC ambassador Dustin Johnson, who is in the field this week and looked comfortable in finishing T16 here last season. This, despite the fact that the roster of champions at the RBC Heritage is full of highly skilled but not particularly long players. Loren Roberts (1996), Brian Gay (2009), Jim Furyk (2010, ’15) and Graeme McDowell (2013) are among those who are average- or even below-average in driving distance but have worn the plaid coat. “Just need more golf courses like this on the TOUR,â€� said Kevin Kisner, who lost a playoff to Furyk here in ’15. Precision players love cozy courses. Then again, if the wind blows, it helps to have the strength to power through it. “The golf course is really good,â€� said Johnson, who finished a career-best T2 at the Masters, his fourth straight top-10 there and sixth top-10 (including a win at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship) in nine TOUR starts this season. “It’s tight. It’s tree-lined. It’s kind of position golf. If you’re playing well, or if I’m playing well, I enjoy any golf course.â€� Harbour Town, with the second smallest greens on TOUR, featured the shortest average driving distance (273 yards, behind only Pebble Beach) last season. Accuracy off the tee and pinpoint iron play are more important that brawn. Witness defending champ Satoshi Kodaira, who led in Strokes Gained: Proximity-to-the-Hole as he averaged nearly six feet closer than the field average of 35 feet, 5 inches last year. Or the success here of 2014 RBC Heritage champion Matt Kuchar, the FedExCup leader, who is seventh in SG: Approach-the-Green this season. The type of player who thrives at Harbour Town also tends to do well at El Camaleon Golf Club (Mayakoba Golf Classic) and Waialae Country Club (Sony Open in Hawaii), which is why you have players like Kuchar, who has won on all three courses. All told, he’s made 197 total birdies at RBC Heritage since 2003, second only to Stewart Cink (217). Then there’s McDowell, who like Kuchar has won Mayakoba and RBC Heritage but also at Pebble Beach (2010 U.S. Open), the only course with greens smaller than Harbour Town. He’s not a bad pick this week, either, having just ended his win drought at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship three weeks ago. That leaves the bombers to remind themselves about the success of Love, one of the longest hitters of his era but also a pinpoint iron player who twice won THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass, another Pete Dye design that largely negates the usual advantages of length. Luke List and Bryson DeChambeau, who tied for third at the RBC Heritage last year, aren’t short, either. “If I’m hitting the ball where I want to,â€� Johnson said, “it doesn’t matter what kind of course it is; I like it. And this is the kind of golf I grew up playing. It’s something I’m used to.â€� He even likened Harbour Town to Augusta National, one of the TOUR’s most wide-open and bomber-friendly tracks. “It’s actually a good preparation for this week as far as because you’ve got to hit your numbers,â€� Johnson said. “These greens are really small. Last week the greens were big, but very small quadrants. There’s a lot of similarities, even though the golf course may not look anything alike.â€�

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Day back in the mix at a major

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Justin Thomas isn’t quite sure when caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay arrived at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, but when it was suggested that it was Sunday – in order to get an extra day of preparation in – the former FedExCup champion said with a smile that sounded about right. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Hovland leads by two at Mayakoba | JT’s unique set of irons The extra prep has helped Thomas through three rounds at El Camaleón Golf Club. He sits at 16 under, just three shots back of the lead held by Viktor Hovland. He’ll be in the penultimate group on Sunday with Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz. Ortiz and Thomas have some history, as they both played in the 2012 World Amateur Championship. Team USA won that week, but the Mexican squad finished runner-up, just five shots back. Thomas, who won THE PLAYERS Championship earlier this year, classified his game in 2021 as “C at best, C-minus” even going so far as saying, “it has not been a very good year at all.” But a win Sunday in Mexico would go a long way to help change how he’s felt about 2021 overall – and some credit, at least according to Thomas, should go to MacKay. With each passing week, Thomas said, Mackay is getting more comfortable with the kind of shots he hits. “This is a new season. Completely different. Especially with (Mackay) it kind of feels like it’s a new start,” said Thomas after shooting a 7-under 64 on Saturday. Mackay filled in for Thomas’ previous caddie, Jimmy Johnson, on occasion (even winning together once before at the 2020 World Golf Championship-FedEx St. Jude Invitational). The pair made things official at the end of September. Johnson caddied for Thomas for six years. “I think the more rounds we have and the more times that we play and spend time on the golf course, he’s getting used to that to where he feels more comfortable, maybe, stating his opinion, if you will,” said Thomas of their new relationship, which is all of two months old. Thomas admitted to wasting a few scoring opportunities in the third round at Mayakoba, but overall was pleased with his bogey-free effort. The speed of his lag putting has been a weakness, having notched a few “sloppy” three-putts through 54 holes. He said he drove it much better on Saturday than at any other point during the week. If he does more of that in Sunday’s finale, that should help give him plenty of chances, he said, to overtake Hovland. Hovland, who has had a turbulent week highlighted by a last-minute driver switch, shot a 9-under 62 in the third round – a career low. Hovland’s playing competitor on Saturday, Anirban Lahiri, said the Norwegian “could have shot 59” if he got a few more putts to fall. “I got max out of my game, essentially,” said Hovland. “Obviously got off to a nice start and it was nice to have one of those rounds where you can keep it going throughout the day.” If Hovland does go on to win Sunday he’ll become the first back-to-back winner in this event’s history and the first repeat winner on TOUR since Brooks Koepka’s back-to-back PGA Championships in 2018 and 2019. Still, Hovland said knowing Thomas is chasing him will be a stout challenge – especially given Thomas’ effort over the last 41 holes. JT started 3-over-par through nine holes and was in last place at one point Thursday, but now he’ll enter Sunday playing in the final group looking for his 15th PGA TOUR title and second with Mackay on the bag. “It was obviously impressive for him to fight back and to be in the spot that he’s in coming into tomorrow,” said Hovland. “He’s a great player and I don’t expect anything else from him but to play well tomorrow. I’m going to have to play some of my better golf to have a shot.”

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