Sergio Garcia birdies final hole to win in Mississippi

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Notes and observations from the third round of the FedEx St. Jude Classic, where Rafa Cabrera Bello (65), Ben Crane (68) and Stewart Cink (69) are tied at the top at 9 under. Luke List and Chad Campbell each shot 66 and were just a shot behind, and 21 players are within four of the lead at 5 under or better going into Sunday.    For more coverage from TPC Southwind, click here for the Daily Wrap-up. CRANE RIDES POSITIVITY WAVE Ben Crane, 41, is a five-time TOUR winner but came into this week well down the list at 161st in the FedExCup and 461st in the Official World Golf Ranking. He couldn’t have looked happier Saturday. He kept his ball on the fairways at TPC Southwind; chatted with good friend Stewart Cink, who was also playing well; saw friends and family in the gallery; and had a thoughtful discussion about golf course architecture as he wondered if there was anywhere else he’d rather be. All the while, the Oregonian turned Texan turned Tennessean (his current home) was shooting a bogey-free 68 to get into position for his latest career highlight. His round was one of only two on the day without a bogey, along with Scott Stallings (65). “It’s great to be here so close to home,â€� Crane said. “We live right down the road in Nashville and so many great friends and a lot of family out here as well. “… I love this golf course. I love the routing of it. I think it’s one of the best courses. Stewart and I were mentioning walking up, ‘Is this the best golf course on TOUR?’ It’s certainly in the top five. It’s just really well thought out. I couldn’t love it any more.â€� It loved him back as Crane won the 2014 FedEx St. Jude Classic, the last time he held a 54-hole lead/co-lead on TOUR. He would become the sixth multiple winner here after Dave Hill (four), Lee Trevino (three), Nick Price (two), David Toms (two) and Justin Leonard (two.) CAMPBELL MAKES MOVE Cink, 44, and Crane, 41, aren’t the only ones rolling back the odometers at TPC Southwind. Chad Campbell, 43, got to 9 under but dropped a shot at the 17th hole and signed for a 66, getting himself in prime position for his first win since the 2007 Viking Classic. A decade ago, Campbell was a gracing magazine covers, beating Padraig Harrington in Ryder Cup singles (in Team USA’s winning effort in 2008), and racking up four TOUR titles when he wasn’t contending in majors. He came into this week 88th in the FedExCup standings after a solid two weeks in his native Texas, where he registered a T13 at the AT&T Byron Nelson and a T34 at the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational. MICKELSON FADES AT FINISH For the second straight day, Phil Mickelson dropped multiple shots on the closing holes, but his 69 left him tied for 13th and just four shots off the lead at 5 under par. This time, his par putt horseshoed out of the hole at the 17th hole, and he hit his tee shot into the water hazard and double-bogeyed the 18th hole to leave a sour taste. The most under-par player at the FedEx St. Jude over the last five years, Mickelson is still looking for his first victory since the 2013 Open Championship. He also has unfinished business at TPC Southwind after finishing second in 2013 and 2016, T3 in 2015, and T11 in 2014.  CABRERA BELLO EYES FIRST WIN Spain’s Rafa Cabrera Bello chipped in at the third and fourth holes and took just nine putts over his first eight holes as he surged into contention. He shot 65 to get to 9 under par, in prime position for his first PGA TOUR victory at age 33. A two-time winner on the European Tour, Cabrera-Bello is 91st in FedExCup points and 30th in the Official World Golf Ranking, but is in position to improve both of those numbers.  “It got me in a good mood,â€� Cabrera Bello said of the consecutive chip-ins. “And that’s probably why it helped me play better throughout the day.â€� His 65 was tied for the low round of the day with Scott Stallings and Tyrone Van Aswegen. Cabrera Bello’s co-leaders Cink and Crane each have multiple TOUR wins. “To be fair, today it’s been like playing a new course,â€� Cabrera Bello said. “I really felt like it was much firmer, much faster. I’ve been pretty much hitting driver everyone on the course these past few days, including practice rounds, just because the ball was rolling nowhere. “Today was a bit different.â€� CALL OF THE DAY Free play-by-play coverage of the final round streams from 1-6 p.m. ET Sunday on PGATOUR.COM. SHOT OF THE DAY ODDS AND ENDS Cink is calling this his hometown tournament. He grew up in Florence, Alabama, about a 2-and-a-half-hour drive east of Memphis, and said he is seeing familiar faces in the crowd, primarily the faces of “old golf buddies I grew up playing against.â€� He is one of four players in the FedEx St. Jude field whose most recent victory came at the Open Championship (2009). The others: David Duval (won the 2001 Open, shot 78-73 at TPC Southwind to miss the cut), Ernie Els (2012, 74 Saturday, T61) and Phil Mickelson (2013, 69, T13). … Vijay Singh, Hunter Mahan, Peter Uihlein, Ryan Palmer and Chris Kirk were among 15 players who missed the Saturday cut, which rendered players at 3 over or higher MDF. … Fabian Gomez and Daniel Berger, who won the FedEx St. Jude Classic in 2015 and ’16, respectively, were in the same threesome and played their way back into contention. Berger shot 66 to finish at 6 under. Gomez had a 67 to finish at 5 under. “Honestly, the way I’ve struck the ball the last few days, I’m underachieving at 6 under right now,â€� Berger said. … Whee Kim, who eagled the par-5 16th hole on the way to a 69 to get to 6 under par, lost a playoff for the final two spots out of the U.S. Open sectional at nearby Germantown Country Club on Tuesday morning, but as first alternate he’s expected to get in nevertheless. …  Coming into Saturday, TPC Southwind’s par-4 12th hole, with water down the left side, had collected the most errant shots since 2003 with 878. It claimed another victim on Saturday, twice, as Chris Kirk hit his approach shot into the drink, took a drop and a penalty stroke, hit his next one into the water hazard, too, and eventually tapped in for a quadruple-bogey 8.  BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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ORLANDO, Fla. – Rory McIlroy is a well-read man, and he likes to tell people that he knows “a little about a lot.” On golf, on business matters of the PGA TOUR, and even about the golf course at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, home to this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, he could hold an advanced doctorate. It took McIlroy some time to get to Arnie’s Place, but once he visited, played, soaked in the meaning and was able to spend some quality time with the tournament namesake before Palmer’s passing in 2016, he was sold on everything about it. Course conditions the past few years have been firm, dry and windy – it’s a little softer so far this March – and Bay Hill can be an intimidator, the way that Palmer always wanted it. But the mop-haired McIlroy, now 32, just seems to whistle along at this venue. For him, the course is one in which he can stay within himself, take care of the friendly par 5s, play smartly on the tougher holes and more often than not produce a good score. Seven times in seven years he has fired 66 or better, including a final-round 64 in 2018, when he won. McIlroy has finished T11 or better in six of his seven visits. His winning total of 16-under 270 in ’18 stands as the lowest 72-hole score at Bay Hill since 2015. With his trophy and winner’s share ($1.6 million then, $2.16 million this week, along with 550 FedEx Cup points) came the champion’s red cardigan sweater, a nod to Palmer’s fashionable side. It remains a treasured piece of McIlroy’s “trophy” collection. “I haven’t broken it out since then – it’s a little scratchy and wouldn’t be comfortable on the skin,” McIlroy said of the alpaca sweater. “The tradition, the cardigan, I think it’s one of the coolest trophies that we have in golf. I wish Arnold would have been around to be with me on the 18th green then. That would have been the icing on the cake.” McIlroy, a 20-time PGA TOUR winner who is ranked fifth in the world, does not have much in terms of a sample size to his 2021-22 season. That will change soon with a handful of bigger events looming, starting with the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and THE PLAYERS Championship next week, and running up toward the Masters, the lone major standing between him and the Career Grand Slam. His two official PGA TOUR starts this season include a victory at THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT, and a tie for 10th at The Genesis Invitational two weeks ago, where he shot 67-68 on the weekend. His reunion with his longtime swing coach, Michael Bannon, after the two were apart for most of 2021, has led to McIlroy being more cognizant of what his left arm is doing in his backswing, and he has tried to become more “neutral” at the top. That’s the golfspeak of his world. More simply, he wants to contend more often and regain the uber-confidence that made him world No. 1. He aims to become more consistent, and to win major championships again. Major No. 4 (his last) was at the PGA Championship in the summer of 2014, a considerable drought. He has won two FedExCups and THE PLAYERS since, but his Career Grand Slam quest continues. “I’ve driven the ball pretty well,” McIlroy said. “I’ve seen a bit of improvement in iron play. My short game’s been really good. If anything, just getting the consistency to a point where I feel like I can play like that day in and day out. But the game feels good, so just sort of trying to keep doing what I’m doing.” On Wednesday afternoon, after his pro-am and a few media obligations, McIlroy was headed to the chipping area next to the practice green behind the Bay Hill clubhouse, where pictures of Palmer adorn the walls. This year’s course setup at API includes replacing some of the tightly-mown runoff areas near the green complexes with thick rough. Greens can be hard to hit at Bay Hill; McIlroy said the new setup “is definitely a different test than the one in previous years.” McIlroy had shared his Bay Hill game plan with world No. 1 Jon Rahm, who is here for the first time. He told Rahm how he could play conservatively as long as he attacks on the par 5s. Rahm could hit iron off the tee at the par-4 10th, for instance, and maybe on a few other holes, McIlroy advised. The two stood together on the tee at Bay Hill’s par-5 sixth because of a backup on Wednesday. Rahm: “I said, Rory, where are the irons? I’m hitting driver on every single hole!” (Later, Rahm would add, “It’s a great golf course. I can see why Tiger won so many times here.”) In McIlroy’s group on Wednesday was former Major League Baseball knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who showed off a World Series ring to the group. Wakefield is a pretty decent golfer. When he received a call on Tuesday night that informing him of the pairing, he immediately phoned his wife, very excited, much the way a 10-year-old kid might. “HEY, GUESS WHO I’M PLAYING WITH TOMORROW!!!” he started. “Impressive,” was the word that Wakefield kept using to describe McIlroy after their round. Wakefield was asked if he was surprised that so much power can be generated by a player so relatively small in stature – McIlroy is 5 feet 10, and weighs 160 pounds, but was second on TOUR in Driving Distance last season (319.3 yards). He wasn’t. “He knows how to generate the power with what he has,” Wakefield said. “I’ve pitched against guys his size who hit homers a long ways. It’s all a matter of timing, and how he does it.” McIlroy’s emergence as a marquee regular at Arnie’s Place has been about great timing, too. He will be a crowd favorite this week, a thoughtful player with boatloads of charisma. (Sound familiar?) McIlroy is glad he is here. He gets it. The meaning of the week, and Arnold Palmer, isn’t lost on him. He’d absolutely love another one of those itchy red sweaters. “We all know what Arnold Palmer means to the PGA TOUR, and to the game of golf in general,” McIlroy said. “So, it’s always nice to be here and try to sort of remember his legacy, and remember what he meant to everyone. He was probably the catalyst with maybe a few other guys of why we’re here today, and why the game of professional golf is at such a high level.” At Bay Hill, Rory McIlroy knows a lot about a lot.

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