Stephen Curry announces new junior golf tour

AUGUSTA, Ga. – You look at the scoreboard, the golfers, and back again. You do the math, run the scenarios, and wonder if there’s any way Scottie Scheffler won’t win the 86th Masters Tournament. And then along comes Cameron Smith, whose third-round 68 was the lowest round of the day by two and cut the deficit to just three shots behind Scheffler (71) going into Sunday. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Tiger struggles with putter en route to 78 “I’ve always been quite good at not giving up,” Smith said after his first individual PGA TOUR victory in a playoff over Brendan Steele at the 2020 Sony Open in Hawaii. The deficit Smith overcame that day? Three shots. No player would admit it, but Smith is the last guy a leader would want to see in the rearview mirror right now. When he won the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January, his 34-under total was the lowest 72-hole score in PGA TOUR history. (He also held off then-world No. 1 Jon Rahm.) He made 10 final-round birdies to win THE PLAYERS Championship last month. The attribute that best describes Smith: grit. He made eight birdies here Thursday; has finished in the top 10 in three of his five Masters starts, including a T2 in 2020; and took down Justin Thomas in Presidents Cup singles in 2019 after falling 3 down through five holes. “He is a danger man,” said CBS golf analyst Nick Faldo, who in 1996 overcame a six-stroke deficit to win his third Masters over a faltering Greg Norman. Scheffler, meanwhile, had held steady before bogeys on three of his last five holes Saturday. “Yeah, should be a great fight tomorrow,” he said. “Obviously, Cam is a tremendous player, and he’s got a fantastic short game, and he’s coming off a huge win at THE PLAYERS.” If there were a final pairing that made the most sense, given where golf is now, Scheffler and Smith are that pairing. They are both in the top five in the FedExCup, and the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking, and each has won multiple tournaments already this season. The last time the final pairing at a major met any of those criteria was the 2015 PGA Championship, with Jason Day and Jordan Spieth, who also met all of those criteria. Sungjae Im shot 71, one of just nine under-par scores on the day, to get to 4 under, five back. Shane Lowry and Charl Schwartzel each shot 73 and were at 2 under, still with an outside shot. Warmer temperatures are expected for the final round after a frigid, blustery Saturday in which Scheffler repeatedly put on a vest in between shots. Others, including Daniel Berger, Kevin Kisner and Hudson Swafford, wore ski hats. Tiger Woods shot his highest Masters round (78). Scheffler started the day with a five-shot lead over four players, briefly extended it to six on the front nine, and then began to come back to the field with bogeys on 14 and 15, the latter when a gust of wind appeared to blow his birdie putt well past the hole and he missed the comebacker. Although he birdied 17 to get the lead back to four, Scheffler pulled his drive into the trees at the narrow, uphill 18th hole. He found the ball but had to take an unplayable lie, and bogeyed. Scheffler is world and FedExCup No. 1 after victories in three of his previous five starts, most recently at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. Smith also won in his last start, at THE PLAYERS, and also seems to be coming into his own. His never-say-die attitude is quite unlike the borderline-defeated tone of many of his peers. “Whatever I do is in his hands,” Tommy Fleetwood (70, 1 over total) said of Scheffler. Said Rory McIlroy (71, 1 over), “I think I moved up a few places with that score today, and just try to move up a few more tomorrow and try to get a top 10 and move on.” A 10-shot deficit, alas, is very different from a three-shot deficit. Although even a 10-shot lead is not entirely insurmountable. Faldo began the final round six shots behind Norman in ’96, but the steady Englishman shot 67 to Norman’s 78 and won by five. “I think the back nine tomorrow is obviously where the tournament will be decided,” Smith said. Asked what people should glean from his track record, those victories at THE PLAYERS, Sentry TOC, Presidents Cup and elsewhere, he said, “Yeah, it just means I can get it done I guess when I’m up against the best guys in the world. It’s a good feeling to have. “It’s earned,” he added. “It’s not given to you.” With the game’s two hottest players ready to square off Sunday, that seems like a safe bet.

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NORTON, Mass. (AP) — Dustin Johnson looked dominant as he ever as, and nothing could stop him Sunday in THE NORTHERN TRUST. Not even the weather. Johnson played the final two holes in near darkness after a late storm delay and finished with a birdie for an 8-under 63 and an 11-shot victory over Harris English. It was the 22nd victory of his PGA TOUR career, and he never made it look easier. Johnson won his fifth FedExCup Playoffs event — tied with Rory McIlroy for most — and now leads the FedExCup standings and also returned to No. 1 in the world. He finished at 30-under 254. Staked to a five-shot lead over Harris English going into the final round, Johnson sent a towering 7-iron over the water to a front pin on the par-5 second, the ball settling 8 feet next to the pin for an eagle. Two holes later, his 3-wood was placed perfectly in front of the fourth green for a simple up-and-down for birdie. It was like that all day. It was like that all week. He led by five and went out in 30, stretching his lead to seven shots at the turn. On the 500-yard 12th hole, where on Saturday he hit a tight draw with a 6-iron to a foot, this time he hit a slight fade with a 6-iron to 3 feet for anther birdie. The only drama was whether he could set two PGA TOUR scoring records — 31-under par by Ernie Els at Kapalua in 2003, and the 253 by Justin Thomas at the Sony Open in 2017. But after that birdie on the 12th put him at 29 under, Johnson settled into four straight pars. He is only the third player to finish 30 under, joining Els and Jordan Spieth, also at Kapalua. So he at least owns the record on the mainland. It was reminiscent of Friday, when he was 11 under through 11 holes and the only question was whether he could become the first player to shoot 57. He made seven straight pars for a 60. This closing stretch was different. Johnson cares more about trophies than records, and getting his round finished was all that mattered. It was like that three years ago at Riviera, when he was poised to break Lanny Wadkins’ 72-hole record at Riviera, the longest standing on the PGA TOUR schedule. But he finished with three bogeys over the last 10 holes playing conservatively, and only later said he didn’t know what the record was. Nor did he care. English tried to hold his own, three times matching birdies with Johnson. He finished with a bogey that didn’t matter, shot 69 and moved to No. 6 in the FedExCup. English started the year without a full card. Now he has locked up a spot in the TOUR Championship. There’s just no stopping Johnson when he puts all parts of his game together, particularly the irons. Johnson didn’t miss a green in the final round. Kevin Kisner, who grew up playing junior golf with Johnson in South Carolina, has seen this all before. “He can absolutely dismantle a golf course when he’s on,” Kisner said. “I’ve been watching it for 25 years. I’m pretty accustomed to it. When he’s on, I just step to the side and try to add to my bank account.” Kisner did that part well. He closed with a 66, well enough that he is in good shape in his bid to lock up a spot in the TOUR Championship. He had said all week he wanted to take care of that at the TPC Boston instead of having to deliver next week in the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields, a course he has never seen. The top 70 in the FedExCup advance to the BMW Championship, and there was one shot that mattered when play resumed. Louis Oosthuizen at No. 99 in the standings was in the 18th fairway, easily in range of the green on the par-5 closing hole. He managed a two-putt birdie in the dark to lock up the 70th spot. Robby Shelton closed with a 63, enough for him to be among six players who moved into the top 70. The others were Oosthuizen, Harry Higgs, Alex Noren, Russell Henley and Jason Kokrak. Five of the six players knocked out missed the cut, including Phil Mickelson. The other was Denny McCarthy, who shot 73 on Sunday.

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