The rarity of three-peat winners on the PGA TOUR

Jon Rahm, who was leading Memorial by six strokes following Saturday’s third round, has been forced to withdraw from the tournament after testing positive for COVID-19.

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KAPALUA, Hawaii – Just as they became accustomed to the gusty trade winds off the Plantation Course the contenders at the Sentry Tournament of Champions face a new battle on Sunday. Heavy winds and gusts out of the east / northeast have tested the 33-man field for three rounds but Sunday’s final round forecast calls for a switch in direction and power. Sunday sees the winds expected to switch and come from the north / northwest – an entirely different proposition. While they are expected to drop from the gusts of around 20 miles per hour to around 10 miles per hour the change of strategy is one players must adjust to quickly. The drop in speed is something leader Gary Woodland is looking forward to. He is three clear of Rory McIlroy and four ahead of Marc Leishman. “It just allows you to be more aggressive. I’m very confident with where my game is, in the past it might have affected me a little bit, but I feel very good changing,â€� Woodland said. “I think it suits me, when it’s not blowing it suits me as much as it does when it is, so I’m excited about it.â€� For McIlroy it obviously means a change in game plan, but one he is confident he and his caddy have prepared for despite the fact this is his first trip to Kapalua. “A couple of adjustments to be made. It’s a little different, especially when it’s one you haven’t played in before,â€� McIlroy said. “To not have had that practice and try to go into a final round when you’re trying to win a golf tournament, it’s a little challenging, but it’s going to be the same for everyone. “Harry and I need to do a good job tomorrow of just hitting it to the right spots on the fairways. There’s going to be a lot of holes where I’m not hitting the same club off the tee as I was the previous few days and it’s just about picking your spots to hit at and trusting that this is what you need to do and just trying to be a little more thoughtful about where you’re placing the golf ball. That’s going to be key tomorrow.â€� Leishman grew up in the Australian town of Warrnambool which often gets high coastal winds that can switch on a dime. “I need to get off to a good start. It depends how the other boys start as well as to how aggressive I get,â€� Leishman said. “But it’s going to be very different. I think it’s a different direction, the wind, which we haven’t played this course in, in those conditions very often. “And so it’s sort of hard to tell what the scores are going to do, but, yeah, either way I’m going to have to play really good golf.â€� MUST-READS Woodland leads with heavy heart McIlroy looks for final group atonement CALL OF THE DAY

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SANDWICH, England — Louis Oosthuizen set a 36-hole record at The 149th Open and is halfway to ending that run of near misses at the majors. He’ll have to hold off a cast of major champions on the weekend at Royal St. George’s. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Morikawa makes waves on Friday On a day of pleasant summer weather that took the fear out of the links off Sandwich Bay, Oosthuizen broke away from a three-way tie with a birdie-birdie-eagle run from the 12th hole. He shrugged off his first bogey of the week for a 5-under 65 and a two-stroke lead on Friday. Former PGA champion Collin Morikawa had a 64 and was two shots behind. Another shot was Jordan Spieth (67), going after his fourth major. Lurking was two-time major champion Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world who shot 65. Oosthuizen was at 11-under 129, breaking the 36-hole Open record first set by Nick Faldo in 1992 at Muirfield and matched by Brandt Snedeker in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. This will be the fifth time in the last nine rounds at a major that Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion at St. Andrews, has had at least a share of the lead. He was runner-up at the last two majors, to Phil Mickelson at the the PGA Championship in May and to Jon Rahm the U.S. Open last month. “I’m not really going to think about the second spots,” said Oosthuizen, when asked what he’ll do differently this time. “I know my game is in a good place.” He’ll also be aware of the quality of player behind him, though. Morikawa, making quite a debut in links golf, made seven birdies in his first 14 holes as part of a clinic in iron play. He missed a 5-foot par putt on No. 15 and had a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole catch the lip. Spieth, four shots behind when he teed off, was tied for the lead after 12 holes and then played the last six holes in 1 over. Then there was Dustin Johnson, a runner-up at Royal St. George’s in 2011, who stuck his approach at the last to 3 feet for a birdie and a round of 65, which left him tied for fourth place at 7 under with Dylan Frittelli of South Africa (67) and Scottie Scheffler (66). One shot behind an eclectic mix of players at 6 under — including two more South Africans in Justin Harding and Daniel Van Tonder — were Rahm (64) and Brooks Koepka. Koepka made four birdies in his last five holes for a 66. DeChambeau just made it to the weekend at Royal St. George’s by shooting a 70, which saw him make the cut on the number at 1 over. Rory McIlroy did, too, needing a birdie on the final hole for another 70. He was 11 shots behind. Other big names weren’t so lucky: No. 7 Patrick Cantlay, No. 9 Patrick Reed, former Open champions Francesco Molinari and Henrik Stenson, and Darren Clarke, the 2011 champion at Royal St. George’s, were all headed home.

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