Oosthuizen and Stanley co-lead at The Players

Round 3 of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans takes place Saturday from TPC Louisiana. Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay lead after 36-holes. Click here for a breakdown of the team format and how it works. Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action, including Featured Groups for PGA TOUR LIVE and newly expanded and extended coverage on ESPN+. Click here for more details. Leaderboard Full tee times HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3 p.m.-6 p.m. (CBS). Radio: Thursday-Friday, 1 p.m.–6:30 p.m. ET. Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m.–6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio) For outside of the U.S., click here for GOLFTV powered by the PGA TOUR PGA TOUR LIVE PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+ • Main Feed: primary tournament-coverage featuring the best action from across the course • Marquee Group: new “marquee group” showcasing every shot from each player in the group • Featured Groups: traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups • Featured Holes: a combination of par-3s and iconic or pivotal holes FEATURED GROUPS SATURDAY Marquee Group Scottie Scheffler/Ryan Palmer, Stephan Jaeger Joel Dahmen Featured Groups Justin Rose/Henrik Stenson, Tyler Duncan/Adam Schenk Viktor Hovland/Collin Morikawa, Nick Hardy/Curtis Thompson Bonus Coverage Cameron Smith/ Marc Leishman, Shane Lowry/Ian Poulter Bubba Watson/Harold Varner III, Brandon Wu/ Patrick Rodgers MUST READS Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele maintain one-shot lead at Zurich Classic Jay Haas breaks Sam Snead record as oldest to make cut on PGA TOUR Jason Scrivener: Five Things to Know Five generational Zurich Classic of New Orleans teams

Click here to read the full article…

Welcome to this week’s edition of Numbers to Know, where we’ll take a closer look at Bryson DeChambeau’s victory at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. DeChambeau’s radical transformation of his game, and body, finally led to a victory after several weeks in contention. Let’s take a closer look at how he did it. 1. DIGGING THE LONG BALL: You may have heard that DeChambeau is hitting it farther. Just how far? He led the field with an average of 350.6 yards per measured drive. That was 9.6 yards farther than the second-place finisher in that statistic, Cameron Champ. DeChambeau hit 16 drives over 350 yards at Detroit Golf Club, an average of four per round. That was more than twice as many as the next two players on the list, Matthew Wolff (7) and Cameron Champ (6). Those are two players who aren’t exactly known for being short hitters. 2. LONG AND SHORT OF IT: DeChambeau is the first player in the ShotLink era to win an event while leading the field in both Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Strokes Gained: Putting. He’s been outstanding with the clubs he hits the farthest and shortest. He’s gaining +1.113 strokes off the tee per round, trailing TOUR leader Cameron Champ by just 0.003. DeChambeau is 12th in Strokes Gained: Putting (+0.69). Just nine players have averaged +1.0 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee per round over an entire season. DeChambeau is on pace to become the first player to gain at least 1 stroke off the tee and 0.5 strokes on the greens in the same season. Players who have gained at least 1 stroke off the tee have averaged just +0.06 strokes gained on the greens in the same season. DeChambeau is on pace to gain the most strokes per round from the driver and putter in a season since ShotLink began in 2004. Every player who gained at least 1.4 strokes per round with their driving and putting won multiple times in that season. 3. GAINING ON THEM: The Rocket Mortgage was the best Strokes Gained: Putting performance of DeChambeau’s career. It wasn’t the top Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee performance of his career – it was his third-best – but it continued a recent trend. The top four Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee performances of his career have all come in his last six starts. 4. WHAT A TURKEY: DeChambeau and Wolff were separated by just a stroke after DeChambeau’s bogey on the par-5 14th and Wolff’s birdie on the par-3 15th. DeChambeau sprinted away from his closest pursuer with birdies on the last three holes to win by three shots. It was a measure of revenge for DeChambeau, who watched Wolff eagle the 72nd hole to beat him by one on the previous Fourth of July weekend. DeChambeau is the first player since 2016 to birdie the final three holes to win a stroke-play event by three or fewer strokes. 5. BREAKING BAD: Wolff started the final round with a three-shot lead, but shot 38 on the front nine to fall off the pace. He put some pressure on DeChambeau, though, with four birdies in the final seven holes. Wolff led the field with 31 par-breakers (30 birdies, 1 eagle) but was undone by 12 bogeys. It was the most par-breakers in a 72-hole event by a player who didn’t win since Ryan Palmer at the 2014 AMERICAN EXPRESS. It was the first time since 2008 that a player made that many par-breakers at an event other than THE AMERICAN EXPRESS and didn’t win. In the last decade, only two players have made more birdies and eagles in a 72-hole event than Wolff’s 31. Justin Thomas (2015 CIMB) and Patrick Reed (2014 AMERICAN EXPRESS) both made 32 in their victories.

Click here to read the full article…

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.

Click here to read the full article…