K.H. Lee joins elite company with AT&T Byron Nelson title defense

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Rory McIlroy was within sight of a first title in 17 months after the third round of the Dubai Desert Classic where he lay only one shot behind surprise leader Li Haotong on Saturday. McIlroy, who finished his second round in the morning, surprisingly struggled for the first time in seven rounds into his comeback from a three-month layoff, and was 1-over par at the turn in the third round. The four-time major champion then recovered with five birdies on the back nine for a 4-under 68 and 19 under overall that put him one behind Li. Li, in the leader group with McIlroy, shot a bogey-free 64 at Emirates Golf Club. Li, the highest ranked Chinese male player in the world at No. 60, produced a brilliant display of iron play and putting to be in great position to add to his only previous European Tour win, the 2016 China Open. He needed just 24 putts to complete his round, and said: “It’s going to be fun out there tomorrow.” McIlroy’s last win was in August 2016 at the Tour Championship, and he was impressed by Li. “He holed everything he sort of needed to,” McIlroy said. “I know that if he continues to play like that, he will be tough to beat, but I feel like if I play my game, I’ve got a good chance. “I showed that even when I didn’t have my best stuff, I was able to battle around and get in with a decent score. So hopefully, I have a bit of a better game tomorrow.” On another low-scoring day, Alex Levy of France made a hole-in-one in a round of 65, a score which was matched by playing partner Haydn Porteous of South Africa. The duo was tied for third, three behind the leader at 17 under par. Levy was making a stunning run and reached the top of the leaderboard briefly before falling back with consecutive bogeys on 15 and 16. That run included a hole in one on the par-3 fourth hole with a 9-iron shot from 171 yards. Porteous joined him with three birdies in his last three holes. The low round of the day was a 9-under 63 by Andy Sullivan of England, who moved to fifth on the leaderboard at 16 under.

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2023 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, Round 1 Scoring Conditions: Overall: -1.79 strokes per round Morning wave: -1.67 Afternoon wave: -1.91 Current cutline (top 65 and ties) 75 players at -2 or better (T64) Top 3 projected cutline probabilities: 1. 4 under par: 41.2% 2. 3 under par: 29.4% 3. 5 under par: 18.9% Top 10 win probabilities: 1. Scottie Scheffler (T7, -6, 13.9%) 2. Russell Henley (2, -8, 12.7%) 3. Viktor Hovland (T7, -6, 7.3%) 4. Francesco Molinari (T3, -7, 4.0%) 5. Brian Harman (T19, -5, 3.9%) 6. Will Gordon (1, -9, 3.8%) 7. J.J. Spaun (T7, -6, 3.5%) 8. Tom Hoge (T19, -5, 3.5%) 9. Maverick McNealy (T7, -6, 3.3%) 10. Matt Kuchar (T19, -5, 3.1%) 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 Butterfield Bermuda Championship, 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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A significant change helped Justin Thomas have success in his last start before The Open Championship. Thomas was one of several big names to play the Scottish Open in preparation for this week’s major at Royal St. George’s. He has struggled on the links in his career, but he finished T8 in Scotland for his first top-10 since winning THE PLAYERS Championship in March. A T11 in the 2019 Open Championship is his lone top-50 in four appearances in The Open Championship. At the Scottish Open, he swapped out his Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5.5 putter for a new Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5 Tour prototype featuring what the company calls a “knuckle neck.” The change comes after an inconsistent period on the greens for Thomas, who ranks 107th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season. In fact, Thomas has ranked outside the top 100 in that statistic in each of the past three seasons. The new flatstick came together after a recent trip to the Scotty Cameron Putter Studio in Encinitas, California. It combines a Phantom X 5.5 head, which is a similar head shape to his previous Futura X5 model, with a prototype knuckle neck akin to a Scotty Cameron Newport 2. The knuckle neck is Scotty Cameron’s version of the traditional plumber’s neck design. The knuckle neck is more rounded than the flat plumber’s neck golfers are accustomed to seeing, but it also features one shaft width of offset for ease of alignment. According to Scotty Cameron TOUR rep Drew Page, after adjusting the neck lengths, Thomas was able to find a more consistent stroke pattern with his new gamer. “JT’s had incredible success the last five years with his Futura X5.5 … but he had been thinking lately about experimenting with a slightly different look,” Page said. “We took the Phantom X 5 head shape he loves and gave it a Newport 2-style neck which he’s also used in the past. He tested it at a few different neck lengths and was able to find a setup that was giving him a more consistent stroke pattern with that little bit different visual and the same feel that he’s used to.” Thomas, who used a blade-style putter early in his career, had been using his Phantom X 5.5, which features a high-MOI (moment of inertia, a measure of a club’s resistance to twisting) wingback Phantom X design paired with a welded small slant neck to promote an arced putting stroke more commonly associated with blade designs. The new knuckle-necked Phantom X 5.5 features slightly less toe hang than his previous gamer and worked effectively in Scotland where Thomas putted well on his way to his first top-10 finish in four months. For reference, toe hang is a toe-weighted or toe-balanced putters. A putter with more toe hang is better suited to an arcing stroke, whereas a face-balanced putter works better for a straight-back, straight-through motion.

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