Rickie Fowler switches back to trusty putter once reserved for Tiger Woods

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. - Dustin Johnson is 21 shots worse to par than he was a week ago and still looks to be the player to beat. Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama survived another demanding day at Olympia Fields, both scratching out a 1-under 69 that felt better than it looked to share the lead Saturday at the BMW Championship. Everyone else was over par going into the final round. Sunday is one last chance for some players to be among the top 30 who advance to the FedExCup finale, and one last round for others — like Tiger Woods — to prepare for the U.S. Open on a course that plays every bit as tough. Patrick Cantlay only hit five fairways and didn’t make a birdie as he tumbled out of a tie for the lead with a round with a 75 that left him five shots behind and might cost him a spot in the TOUR Championship. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Rahm cards 66 despite Rules gaffe Rory McIlroy had to play left-handed to escape the base of a tree in starting the back nine with a bogey, and he finished with a shot he thought was going to be long, came up 70 feet short and led to a three-putt bogey for a 73. He still was only three shots back assuming he plays. Jon Rahm matched the low round of the day at 66 that could have easily been one shot better if not for a blunder that even he couldn’t believe. He forgot to set a marker down on the green before picking up his golf ball on No. 5, freezing in his tracks when he realized what happened. “I was thinking of somebody else or something else … and yeah, I just picked up the ball without marking it, simple as that,” Rahm said after a round that left him only three behind. “I can’t really give you an explanation. It’s one of those things that happen in golf. Never thought it would in my professional career, but here we are.” The BMW Championship remains up for grabs, and if Sunday holds to form, it will be more about holding on than pulling away. Eleven players were separated by three shots. Johnson and Matsuyama were at 1-under 209. A week ago at THE NORTHERN TRUST on a rain-softened course with little wind, Johnson was at 22-under par through three rounds and had a five-shot lead. That felt easy. This does not. Johnson had a three-shot swing go against him on the opening hole when he went rough to rough to bunker and made bogey, while Matsuyama holed a bunker shot for eagle. Matsuyama quickly built a three-shot lead with a birdie on No. 4. He made only one birdie the rest of the way. Joaquin Niemann had a 68 and was part of the group at 1-over 211 that included Adam Scott (70) and Mackenzie Hughes (69). Another shot back were the likes of Rahm, Bubba Watson, Brendon Todd and Kevin Kisner, who had 16 pars, one birdie and bogey for his round of 70. Rounds like that go a long way at Olympia Fields, the former U.S. Open course playing like one with its thick rough and rock-hard greens and enough wind to make the fairways look tighter than they are. Woods, meanwhile, had a reasonable start to his round and wasn’t losing much ground until he lost a tee shot into the water right of the 17th fairway and then smothered a fairway metal to the left. He walked across a cart path smacking the club off the concrete and twice looked like he wanted to break it. He missed a short putt for triple bogey and shot 72. Woods has yet to break par this week. One more round like that and it will be the first time in 10 years — the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone — that he had all four rounds over par. He needed something around fourth to advance to the TOUR Championship for the first time since 2018. Matsuyama is trying to end three years without a victory. Johnson is trying to win for the second time in seven days, along with positioning himself to be the top seed at the TOUR Championship, which would allow him to start the tournament with a two-shot lead under the staggered start. For players like Niemann, Hughes and Scott, they are simply trying to get to East Lake in Atlanta. All of them are one round away on a golf course where small mistakes can lead to bogeys or worse on just about every hole.

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2021 Sanderson Farms Championship, Round 2 Top 10 win probabilities: 1. Keegan Bradley (1, -13, 33.3%) 2. J.T. Poston (T2, -11, 15.0%) 3. Charley Hoffman (T2, -11, 12.5%) 4. Denny McCarthy (T5, -9, 4.8%) 5. Sergio Garcia (T7, -8, 4.6%) 6. Kristoffer Ventura (T5, -9, 4.5%) 7. Talor Gooch (T7, -8, 2.9%) 8. Corey Conners (T12, -7, 2.3%) 9. MJ Daffue (4, -10, 2.2%) 10. Sebastian Munoz (T12, -7, 2.2%) Top Strokes-Gained Performers from Round 2: Putting: Maverick McNealy +3.5 Around the Green: Scottie Scheffler +2.4 Approach the Green: Kyle Stanley +3.3 Off-the-tee: Charley Hoffman +2.0 Total: Keegan Bradley +6.6 NOTE: These reports are based off 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 Sanderson Farms 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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HILTON HEAD, S.C. – A new putter and a new driver seemed to breathe new life into Shane Lowry’s game on Thursday at the RBC Heritage. The Irishman admittedly had started the year off on a strong note with a win in Abu Dhabi in the season-opener on the European Tour. But he simply hadn’t been able to build on that momentum – on either side of the Atlantic — in the weeks following his third career win. In fact, Lowry hadn’t broken 70 in four stroke-play events on the PGA TOUR since he missed the cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am back in February. He was a combined 24 over par in those tournaments and had only made the weekend once. On a blustery morning at Harbour Town Golf Links, though, Lowry was back in control — firing a bogey-free 65 that earned him a one-stroke advantage. “Pretty much my whole game felt good,â€� Lowry said. “… I haven’t had that feeling in a while. So, it’s kind of nice.â€� He only needed to use that putter he put in his bag this week 27 times in the first round. Lowry took advantage of all three par-5s, too, getting up and down at each with birdie putts in the 3-foot range. His other birdie putts ranged from 8 to 19 feet. “It was something I’ve been struggling with — my par-5 scoring hasn’t been very good,â€� Lowry said. “I just played them nicely today. I struggled off the tee quite a bit this year, and I managed to find a new driver that I like. I hit that pretty good. And when you do that on par-5s it always gives yourself a chance.â€� Related: Featured Groups, tee times | Insider: Big week for small ball | Kisner keeps perspective as lifelong friend battles tumor Finding the right driver has been a work in progress for Lowry, who even in that early victory struggled off the tee – hitting just four fairways as he shot a course-record 62 in the first round in Abu Dhabi. Lowry estimated he tried 30 different drivers this year before settling on the Srixon one he first used at the Masters and liked so much that it earned another spot in his bag this week. “We’ve done a lot of work and I managed to find one I like and feel like I can trust it there,â€� Lowry said. “So, hopefully it keeps going. Today was the first day that I hit the ball well off the tee. So even it felt okay last week in Augusta, but today was the first real day.â€� Lowry hit 13 of 14 fairways in the first round and 14 of 18 greens in regulation, scrambling successfully for par on the ones he missed. Not surprisingly, then, he ranked in the top three in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, Tee-to-Green and Around-the-Green. “I’m happy with my golf,â€� Lowry said. “My scores haven’t been great as of late. But I felt like I’ve been playing okay. So maybe this is a reward for the perseverance.â€� Lowry has only played the RBC Heritage once previously, finishing tied for 44th in 2017. But he had some success that week – opening with a 66 before giving all that back with a 75 in the second round and eventually finishing 2 under for the week. “It’s just difficult,â€� Lowry said of the Pete Dye creation. “And if you’re 7- or 8-under going into Sunday, you’re going to have a chance to win the tournament, I think. And that’s kind of the way this course plays. You just need to be as patient as you can. “A couple of years ago I got off to a good start and I maybe tried to force it a little bit. So just try to stay patient the next few days. I enjoyed today. It’s nice to shoot a good score. And it’s my first good score in a few weeks. So just enjoy that and just get out there tomorrow and get after it.â€� Friday figures to be a challenge for everyone but particularly those with afternoon tee times when winds of 20-30 mph, gusting to 40, are expected and severe thunderstorms are possible. “You know the forecast is not going to be great,â€� Lowry said. “Yeah, I’ve seen it and knew this was my chance to go out and shoot a good number.â€� Mission accomplished.

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