Schauffele with 2 clutch putts gives U.S. golf gold

JACKSON, Miss. — Tom Hoge felt relieved to make his way back to the PGA TOUR. He is starting the new season with a clear head, no stress and great scores. One week after he was runner-up at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier for the best finish of his PGA TOUR career, Hoge opened with three straight birdies and closed with a 45-foot birdie putt for an 8-under 64 and a one-shot lead among the early starters Thursday in the Sanderson Farms Championship. Robert Streb, Cameron Percy and Seamus Power each shot 65. Thunderstorms moved in over the Country Club of Jackson in the afternoon and led to play being suspended for the day. First-round play is set to resume at 7 a.m. CT Friday morning. Of the late starters, Byeong Hun An and J.T. Poston were at 5 under. Joaquin Niemann, the 20-year-old from Chile coming off a six-shot victory at the Greenbrier, opened with a 68. Hoge, a 30-year-old from North Dakota, is winless in 134 career starts on the PGA TOUR and has only advanced to the FedExCup Playoffs once. Last month was the third time since 2015 he had to earn his card back through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. But he’s back again, and he wants to make the most of it. “There was so much pressure there for a few weeks to play well and get back out here on the PGA TOUR,” Hoge said. “Once you get that done, it frees you up a little bit. At the same time, you know you played well, so just kind of keep it rolling.” That he did. After a three-week break, he started the new season by posting all four rounds in the 60s for only the second time in his career. He contended on Sunday until Niemann pulled away, but it was his first runner-up on TOUR and took some of the pressure off. Thursday was more of the same. He missed only four greens, and twice saved par with big putts, including one from 12 feet after finding a bunker on the 16th hole. His start, however, was ideal. He holed a 6-foot birdie putt at No. 1, stuffed a wedge into tap-in range on the next hole and made a 12-footer on No. 3. The finish was a bonus, a 45-foot putt that rolled in the center of the cup with perfect pace. “Nice way to end for sure,” Hoge said. This is the first time the Sanderson Farms Championship is not sharing the week with another, bigger PGA TOUR event. Years ago, it was held opposite the TOUR Championship before the FedExCup era. More recently, it was held opposite the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. Now it gets full FedExCup points, and the winner gets an invitation to the Masters. For Hoge, it’s a chance to get his season off to a quick start. He knows from experience how valuable that can be. Two years ago, he tied for seventh in Las Vegas and then played in the final group and finished third in Honolulu. That was the one year he kept his card. “Just frees up the rest of the year,” Hoge said. Brandt Snedeker, playing the Sanderson Farms Championship for the first time, opened with a 69. Among those playing in the afternoon was 17-year-old Akshay Bhatia, who turned pro this week. He was even par through four holes.

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Dufner’s clutch 30-foot putt seals Memorial win

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NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Four shots behind at the start of the day, Russell Henley ran off three straight birdies to start the back nine Saturday and posted a 5-under 67 to build a three-shot lead going into the final round of THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK. RELATED: Full leaderboard | What the pros are playing at Shadow Creek Henley had plenty of help from the other players in his group. Xander Schauffele, who had a three-shot lead going into the weekend, had a pair of late bogeys and failed to capitalize on the par 5s in his round of 74. Tyrrell Hatton didn’t make a birdie until the final hole in a 73. Of the top 25 players, they were the only two who shot over par. Henley’s putting has been a great fit for the firm, glass-like greens of Shadow Creek. He leads the field in the most important putting category, and it has carried him to only the second 54-hole lead of his PGA TOUR career. Henley was at 15-under 201. Lanto Griffin, who won his first PGA TOUR event a year ago at the Houston Open, found the water off the tee on the par-5 18th and made bogey and still managed a 66. He was at 12-under 204 along with Talor Gooch (69), Jason Kokrak (68) and Schauffele, still in the mix despite a sloppy Saturday. Hatton was in the group five shots behind with Justin Thomas (68) and Jason Day, who had a 66. Henley started to close the gap when he got up-and-down from a bunker in front of the green on the par-5 seventh, and Schauffele missed the green on the par-3 eighth and took bogey. And when they made the turn, Henley took off. He holed a 25-foot birdie putt on No. 10, hit driver just through the green on the reachable par-4 11th hole to set up a simple up-and-down for another birdie, and then hit his approach to just inside 5 feet on No. 12 for a third straight birdie. Henley closed with six straight pars, missing chances on the two par 5s, but no one could catch him. But he knows what can happen, having flipped his fortunes on Saturday. "Anybody can come at me," Henley said. "You can go low out here. The greens are great and it’s gettable, but you’ve got to play well to do that. You’ve got to do everything well. I’ve got to just keep my head down and play a good round for me." Schauffele was hopeful of at least finishing his round at par, and that didn’t go his way, either. He went long on the par-3 17th into rough so deep he could barely keep it on the green, leading to his fourth bogey. And he went just over the back of the 18th green in two, again in rough facing a downhill chip that he rolled all the way to the fringe. Schauffele likes to talk about "strokes gained attitude," and it was a struggle for him with rounds stretching close to six hours at Shadow Creek because of deep rough, limited marshals and plenty of searching. Sung Kang knows the feeling. He took an 11 on the par-4 second hole, which included two lost balls when he spent more than three minutes looking and came up empty. He also hit a few backward trying to escape trouble. Nothing worked. Schauffele wasn’t that bad. It just felt like it. "I was trying to figure out what was worse, the pace of play or my quality of golf," he said. "It was kind of a tie today. Not to be a sour person, but just one of those days. Today was my bad day for the week. Got it out of the way before Sunday. I guess I’m in a familiar place being three back now.” Schauffele has been trailing going into the final round in all four of his PGA TOUR victories. Henley’s last victory was in 2017 at the Houston Open, where he came from four shots behind in the final round. Now he has a cushion at Shadow Creek, and a hot putter on putting surfaces he loves.

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