Leaderboard: Round 3 of Dell Technologies

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Joost Luiten … The 32-year-old Dutchman easily is the most recognizable name on this page. However, like many continentals before and since, his game hasn’t translated as strongly against the PGA TOUR’s best as he’s without a top 10 in 35 career TOUR starts. Perhaps his return trip to Club de Golf Chapultepec (T25, 2017) cracks the goose egg in that column. He’s fresh off his latest of six European Tour victories having captured the NBO Oman Open by two strokes two weeks ago. That was foreshadowed by a surging T11 in Malaysia in his previous start. Shubhankar Sharma … Beware the fearless. Just 21 years young, the native of India has been a professional since the age of 16. He’s won twice already on the European Tour this season and sits atop the Race to Dubai standings. He got there in part with a second-round 61 at the Joburg Open in December and with a closing 62 at the Maybank Championship four weeks ago, sites of his titles. Rapidly 75th in the Official World Golf Ranking, he’s making his first appearance on the PGA TOUR. Dean Burmester … There has to be some bittersweetness to his appearance this week. See, if he didn’t qualify, his other option would be to defend his title at the Tshwane Open in his native South Africa. The win was among the litany of top 10s on last season’s Sunshine Tour from which his placement at No. 2 in the Order of Merit granted his exemption in Mexico. It also counted as a co-sanctioned, breakthrough victory on the European Tour. The 28-year-old can really move it off the tee and he’s more than capable with the putter. He’s also arriving on the muscle of a T4 at the Dimension Data Pro-Am where he recorded progressively lower scores in every round. Jorge Campillo … The former standout at Indiana University – he was a freshman the year after Jeff Overton graduated – has only one PGA TOUR start under his belt. It was also in Mexico, and it was way back in 2010 when he missed the cut at Mayakoba. Now 31 years of age, the Spaniard charges in at fifth in the Race to Dubai standings with a runner-up finish in Malaysia followed by a T4 in Oman. That gives him four top 15s already in 2018. Balanced throughout his bag, the veteran of 197 European Tour starts is still winless on his home circuit. Chris Paisley … Timing is everything as he makes his PGA TOUR debut. If the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship would have been contested in early January, not only wouldn’t he have qualified, but his odds to crack this field would have been staggering. Of the top 138 in the Official World Golf Ranking, no one started 2018 worse than the 31-year-old at 289th. He soars into Mexico City at 83rd with a contrail of successes. After launching the year with a maiden victory at the BMW SA Open, he added confidence-cementing fifth-place finishes in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. All of that yielded this week’s exemption via the Race to Dubai standings in which he’s slotted sixth. The terrific putter played collegiately at the University of Tennessee.

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AVONDALE, La. — Scott Stallings and Trey Mullinax shot a best-ball 11-under 61 to top the Zurich Classic of New Orleans leaderboard after a weather delay longer than seven hours prevented half of the 80 teams from even teeing off Thursday. Stallings and Mullinax, who started on the back nine, birdied their last four holes at the TPC Louisiana — and seven of nine holes after the turn — for a one-stroke lead over two teams. “We both played solid all day — missed a couple putts, short ones, but made a couple longs ones,” Mullinax said. “We both putted really well. Scott was really good with his wedges.” Martin Laird and Nick Taylor, who were in the same group as the leaders, finished at 10 under. But the team of Brian Gay and Rory Sabbatini had both of the top teams in their sights after birdies on the first five holes of the back nine got them to 10 under through 14 holes. All but 13 teams still had part or all of the first round still to play when darkness stopped play. Seventeen teams were within five shots of the lead. The Zurich Classic is the only team even on the PGA TOUR, and the format alternates between best ball in the first and third rounds and alternate shot in the second and final rounds. The Australian tandem of Jason Day and Adam Scott, who started on No. 10 at 7:39 a.m. could be seen jogging down the fairway on No. 8 in hopes of completing their round on the ninth hole as the sun set just past 7:30 p.m. local time. But as Scott lined up for his second shot on a fairway bunker, the horn sounded to signal that would be the last hole, and that players who hadn’t finished the first round would have to be back on the course at 7 a.m. on Friday. Scott backed away from his ball in a fairway bunker and briefly assumed a defeated, slouched posture, knowing he’d be among players with an early wake-up call the next day. The delay was caused by a downpour that dropped nearly three inches while lightning flashed intermittently in the vicinity of the course, which was carved out of cypress swamps just southwest of New Orleans. The first players to tee off were on the course for a little more than two-and-a-half hours before the horn sounded to suspend play. The tandem of Joel Dahmen and Brandon Harkins left the course with the early lead at 6 under through nine when the delay began. “We were rolling, too, so (the delay) wasn’t great for us,” Harkins said. Organizers briefly tried to restart early in the afternoon before another storm struck. “To get ready for a third time is hard,” Harkins said. “You can do two, but rarely do you do three.” They completed their round tied for fourth with Brice Garnett and Chesson Hadley at 9 under. During the delay, Stallings said he did “a whole lot of nothing,” adding that he “sat in the car, took a nap, went in the trailer, hung out” with other players. Play resumed in the evening with just more than two hours of daylight left. Galleries were so sparse at that point that chirping birds and croaking frogs made more noise than spectators, even for stars Day and Scott, who were among seven teams at 8 under. Only a handful of people were present to witness Day’s unusual second shot on the par-4 first hole, which was his group’s 10th hole of the day. After hooking his tee shot through the trees to the left of the fairway, Day had to find his ball among numerous practice balls on the driving range. He then lofted his second shot 123 yards back over a row of the trees to 8 feet from the pin. After all that, he narrowly missed his birdie putt and reacted by flipping his putter in the air and catching it after a full rotation. Day didn’t even bother the finish the par-5 second hole after his second shot landed in the rough. That’s because Scott was on in two after a 300-yard drive into the fairway and a 256-yard second shot to the green. He narrowly missed a 53-foot putt for eagle before draining a 2-footer for birdie. Day regained his form with an 8-foot birdie putt on the par-4, 435-yard No. 5 hole and added another birdie on the par-5 seventh when his 323-yard tee shot set up his 232-yard second shot to the green. His eagle putt rolled just inches past the hole.

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