PGA Tour Valero Texas Open Scores

CROMWELL, Conn. – Brendon Todd and Dustin Johnson each shot career-low 61s at the Travelers Championship on Saturday, leaving Todd with a two-stroke lead. The 34-year-old Georgian, playing a couple holes behind Johnson, had a chance at the tournament’s second 60 of the week but missed a 10-foot putt to the left on the 18th hole. He finished with a 54-hole score of 192 after shooting 66-65 the first two rounds. Johnson, who is looking for his 21st win on the PGA TOUR, also has improved each day, opening with a 69-64. Both golfers shot bogey-free rounds, with Todd making five birdies on the front nine and Johnson five on the back. Todd said the round became a game of whatever you can do, I can do just as well. RELATED: Leaderboard | Tee times | Morikawa’s made cut streak comes to an end | Gordon making the most of opportunity at Travelers “It’s hard to miss the leader boards obviously, so (Johnson’s) name was up there from a pretty early point,” Todd said. “Again, I just use it as motivation to go out there and make some more birdies.” Todd is looking for his third win of the season but his first since the fall, when he went back-to-back at the Bermuda Championship and the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico. “Whenever I get a two- or three-week stretch in a row, I tend to be playing better by the end of it,” he said. “That’s just something I’m using to my advantage now after missing two cuts. I’m peaking in the third week and hopefully I can get it done tomorrow.” Despite going 9 under for the day, Johnson lamented missing several birdie chances and and eagle attempt on the par-4 ninth, when his ball stopped six inches from the pin. Just two of his birdie puts, an 18-footer at the 10th hole and a 21-footer on the 12th, were longer than 9 feet. “I really felt like I controlled the distance with my irons really well and hit tons of good shots,” he said. “I had a lot of really good looks at birdie.” Kevin Streelman fired a 63 after two straight rounds of 66 and was just three shots back. Mackenzie Hughes, who led after a 60 on Thursday, shot his second straight 68 for sole possession of fourth place. “Today if I had putted like I did the first day, I could have shot low 60s for sure,” Hughes said. “Play the same as I did today tee to green and roll in a few putts and it’ll be awesome.” Bryson DeChambeau and Kevin Na each shot 65 and were tied for fifth at 197. Phil Mickelson, who celebrated his 50th birthday last week, began the day with a one-stroke lead but struggled, finishing tied for seventh in a group six shots back. He made just his second bogey of the week on the third hole and also dropped strokes on the seventh and 13th before finishing with a 71. Mickelson, looking for his 45th win and third on this course, has mostly struggled. He missed the cut in his previous three tournaments. “I haven’t played great this year,” he said. “I’ve missed a lot of cuts, and the next thing I know my game is starting to come back and I can sense it. I played two great rounds, and this is really a lot of fun.” Top-ranked Rory McIlroy, who opened the tournament with a 63, said he feels he is too far back to contend for the title after rounds of 68 and 69. He bogeyed two of his final four holes — his tee shot landed in the water on the course’s signature 15th hole and he also made bogey at 18 — to finish in a group eight shots back. “I guess, if I had have been able to sneak a couple more over the last few holes, get to 14 and then all of a sudden you feel like you’re right in it. But I went the other way those last few holes, and that’s what took me out of it,” he said. Jason Day requested to be tested for COVID-19 on Saturday morning just before his round. Officials decided to have him play as a single on Saturday as a precautionary measure. He shot a 69 and is 1 under par headed into Sunday. The round began early in the day because of threatening weather, with golfers going off both the first and 10th tees. It finished just before the skies opened. A forecast for more rain on Sunday will mean another early start.

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Patrick Cantlay will start with a two-stroke lead over his closest pursuer as the FedExCup is decided once again at the TOUR Championship at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club starting Thursday. As the oldest course in Atlanta, East Lake has provided plenty of excitement over the years. But its proud history began well before it started hosting the PGA TOUR’s season finale. Here are five things to know about East Lake Golf Club. 1. It was originally part of Atlanta Athletic Club. The Atlanta Athletic Club (AAC) was formed in 1898. The club was dedicated to several sporting endeavors, but it initially had no golf course. John Heisman, the Georgia Tech football coach for whom the famed Heisman Trophy was later named, directed the club’s athletic program of swimming, tennis, basketball and track. In 1904, it acquired property in the Atlanta suburbs to create a country club. Tom Bendelow was tasked with laying out the course. East Lake is the oldest golf course in Atlanta. The course was completely reworked by Donald Ross nine years later. That layout survives as the basic design today. The Atlanta Athletic Club sold the course in the 1960s to relocate to its new home in Duluth (where it held the 2011 PGA Championship and 1976 U.S. Open). As the area around East Lake began to decay, the original course and clubhouse were saved by a group of 25 members who purchased them and began operation as the newly-formed East Lake Country Club in 1968. The course failed to thrive until 1993, when a local charitable foundation purchased East Lake with the intent to restore it as a tribute to Bobby Jones and the club’s other great amateur golfers. The East Lake Foundation has used the renovation as a catalyst for revitalizing the surrounding community. In 1994, Rees Jones, son of famed golf course architect Robert Trent Jones, restored Donald Ross’s original golf course design at East Lake to its current layout today. 2. It is the home of Bobby Jones. World Golf Hall of Famer Bobby Jones, widely known as one of the greatest golfers of all time, learned his craft at East Lake. He was there at the age of 6 when the course held its grand opening in 1908. Jones turned the golf world on its head in his time as an amateur. Jones won 13 national championships from 1923 to 1930: four U.S. Opens, five U.S. Amateurs, three Open Championships, and one British Amateur. He won the Grand Slam in 1930, claiming all four of those championships in the same calendar year. He would then go on to help found Augusta National and the Masters tournament. 3. It took the arrival of the FedExCup for Tiger Woods to thrive at East Lake. Hal Sutton was the first player to win a TOUR Championship at East Lake when he took out Vijay Singh in a playoff. Woods was 20th that year in his first TOUR start at the course. Two years later, Woods already had nine wins in the 2000 season when he came to East Lake. So, when he shared the 54-hole lead with Singh, Woods was the hot favorite to win. But rival Phil Mickelson had other ideas and a final-round 66 helped him overtake Woods. Two years later, Woods had the chance to be a final-round conqueror, but a Sunday 70 left him in seventh spot behind Singh. His East Lake woes did not stop there. In 2004, when the TOUR Championship returned again, Woods again seized the 54-hole lead, tied with Jay Haas and four clear of the rest of the field. Surely this time … Nope. His 72 on Sunday relegated him to second behind Retief Goosen. A year later, Woods sat third with a round to go, one back of Goosen and four back of surprise leader Bart Bryant. Alas, Bryant continued his hot week and won by six shots. And so it came to 2007, the opening season of the FedExCup and the new $10 million bonus for the season-long champion. Woods led the regular-season points and still held the top spot when he arrived in Atlanta. Woods was determined to put his past East Lake issues behind him. An opening 64 had him in third place, but he backed it up with a 63 to take control. He turned a three-shot buffer through 54 holes into a dominant eight-shot win to exorcise any demons. In 2009, Woods shot a final-round 70 to finish second to Mickelson’s 65, but Woods still claimed his second FedExCup. He and Rory McIlroy are the only two-time winners of the season-long championship. Which brings us to 2018. Who could forget Woods coming down the 18th hole on Sunday? The crowds burst through the ropes to create one of the greatest scenes sport has ever witnessed. It was Woods’ 80th PGA TOUR title and came more than five years after his last victory. It was one that certainly helped erase any previous pain at the course. 4. It is part of the successful East Lake Foundation. East Lake Golf Club has played a central role in the remarkable transformation of the East Lake community. With the motto “Golf with a Purpose,” it joins organizations like the Charlie Yates Golf Course, The First Tee of East Lake, the Charles R. Drew Charter School, the YMCA and of course the PGA TOUR and its TOUR Championship in contributing to the success of the project in a different way. The East Lake Foundation was formed to revitalize a suffering inner-city neighborhood and turn it into a vibrant community where all residents can thrive. Over the last two decades, the Foundation has proven that working with residents and public and private partners, while providing the right combination of comprehensive programs and services, is transformative for the community. The East Lake Foundation works with many partners to deliver and support a wide range of programs, including early childhood education; supplemental enrichment at Drew Charter School; college and career readiness and scholarships; entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy training for adults; golf and life skills instruction; and healthcare access and education. 5. It has played host to some incredible shots. Every shot matters for a winner, but there were two moments at East Lake in the FedExCup era that will make highlight reels for the rest of time. In 2016, Rory McIlroy needed something to happen fast. Three shots behind with three holes to play at the TOUR Championship, McIlroy holed a pitching wedge from 137 yards for eagle that gave him the spark he needed to close with a 6-under 64 and join a three-way playoff with the FedExCup title riding on the outcome. He drilled a 15-foot putt on the same hole to win it all. In 2011, Bill Haas and Hunter Mahan needed a playoff to decide the FedExCup champion. On the second playoff hole, Haas pulled his approach into the water. A dry summer left the water level lower than usual, allowing Haas to still see part of his ball. His recovery shot from the hazard spun to within a few feet of the hole. A par on the next hole was enough to hand Haas the title. “You play it like a bunker shot, for those of you that want to know, if there’s a little bit of water, if you don’t mind getting your feet dirty, and then blast it out of there. It came out perfect. Lucky,” Haas said.

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DALLAS – Tyler Duncan’s lone bogey Friday during his second round of the AT&T Byron Nelson came at the par-4 13th at Trinity Forest. His wife Maria, however, felt the sting as well. Duncan inadvertently hit his wife with an approach shot that drifted right of the green. After the ball took a bounce, it hit Maria before settling 34 yards away from the pin. Duncan failed to get up-and-down, the only blemish on his 5-under 66 that left him at 12 under and tied for second heading into the weekend. “I had a little mud on the ball, little unfortunate timing there and shot out to the right,â€� Duncan explained. He was unaware he had struck his wife until finishing his round. Related: Tee times | In cold weather, Kang produces hot round | Spieth in, Romo out this weekend at Trinity Forest | Nine holes blind, but Koepka still walks away with a 65 | Leishman withdraws with back injury | Origin story: Arm-lock putting “Took a big bounce and hit her, I guess,â€� Duncan said. “I didn’t know until after the round. … I’m just happy she’s not hurt, and I was with her a while ago.â€�  This is not the first time Maria has been struck by a golf ball. “Not long after we started dating, she actually got hit in the head by another ball, a random ball from the driving range,â€� Duncan said. “She’s dodged two hits to the head. I’m sure most people can’t say that.â€� Tyler and Maria were wed in her hometown of Jasper, Indiana, in October of 2017, just two weeks after Duncan played his first event as a PGA TOUR member.

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