Watch: Brian Harman four-putts from 5 feet, plummets down U.S. Open board

SAN DIEGO — Mackenzie Hughes and Louis Oosthuizen brought the memories of Tiger Woods roaring back to life Saturday in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Just like in 2008, when Woods made eagle putts across the green on Nos. 13 and 18, it left this U.S. Open up for grabs. RELATED: Leaderboard | Inside the Field: Travelers Championship First it was Hughes, rolling in a 60-foot eagle putt from the back of the green to the front pin at No. 13 that got him into the mix. Next came Oosthuizen with an eagle putt from 50 feet to a front pin on the 18th. That led to them being tied for the lead with Russell Henley, who was hanging on for dear life at the end of a third round that set the stage for a Sunday filled with possibilities. Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau were two shots behind. McIlroy has gone seven years without a major, while DeChambeau can get the last laugh by joining Brooks Koepka with back-to-back U.S. Open titles. A U.S. Open that for two days lacked excitement came to life in a big way. Hughes, coming off four consecutive missed cuts, birdied the 18th for a 3-under 68. He was the first player to reach 5-under 208. Oosthuizen made next to nothing until he holed 80 feet worth of putts over the final three holes, a 30-foot birdie on the 16th and his big eagle at the last. “The only thing you see is … you can actually putt this in the water,” Oosthuizen said. Woods is recovering from his February car crash that badly injured his legs and is not back at Torrey Pines. In his absence were replays of the eagles he made on the 13th and 18th hole in the third round in 2008 that gave him the 54-hole lead. It took two players to do that this time, but it was equally spectacular. “I know Tiger’s was further right, but halfway there, I loved it,” Hughes said. “The charge that goes through your body when the ball goes in the hole and the crowd erupts is why we play. It gives me goosebumps now thinking about it.” And he’ll have plenty of nerves Sunday playing in the final group with Oosthuizen, who has had five runner-up finishes in the majors — two in playoffs — since winning the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews. Henley holed a bunker shot on the par-3 11th for birdie for a two-shot lead and made a great par save from the cabbage behind he 12th green. But he showed signs of cracking over the last hour, dropping shots on the 15th and having to escape with par on No. 18. Thirteen players remained under par going into the final round. Eight players were separated by three shots on a tough course that might not be as accessible as it was Saturday, when all three par 5s were set up to be reachable in two. McIlroy started the day six shots behind and did his best work to save bogey. He ran off three birdies in four holes to start the back nine, only to pull his tee shot into a ravine. He took a penalty drop instead of going into the ravine — a smart decision considering television showed a large rattlesnake in the area — and limited the damage to a bogey. A birdie on the 18th for a 67, matching the low score of the week, gave him a chance to win a major for the first time since the 2014 PGA Championship. McIlroy hasn’t had many of those opportunities lately. “This is the only tournament in the world where you fist-pump a bogey,” McIlroy said. “Only losing one there was a big deal, and getting it up-and-down out of the bunker on 16 and making that birdie on 18 just to get that shot back that I lost, really big.” DeChambeau played it big, too, going with driver just about everywhere and missing some fairways by such a wide margin that he had good lies in fan-trampled grass. It led to his first time in 67 rounds at the majors without a bogey on his card, and his 68 gave him a chance to join Koepka and Curtis Strange as the only back-to-back Open winners in the last 50 years. Koepka, meanwhile, was among those who lost a good opportunity. He shot 71 and was only five shots behind, but with 13 players ahead of him. Jon Rahm, slowed by a double bogey on No. 14 and not nearly enough birdies, had a 72 and was in the group at 2-under 211 along with Scottie Scheffler (70) and Matthew Wolff (73). Dustin Johnson shot a 68 and was among those at 1-under 212, four behind and very much in the game in this major and on this golf course. “It’s a golf course where anything can happen,” Oosthuizen said.

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Lanto Griffin took a long, hard road to becoming a PGA TOUR winner. He was 12 when his father, Michael, who bought him his first set of clubs, died of a brain tumor. But Steve Prater, Lanto’s coach, stepped in and got the boy an honorary membership to Blacksburg Country Club. Griffin struggled professionally and considered quitting as his bank account dwindled to nearly nothing, but sponsors and a sports psychologist intervened. At the Golf Club of Houston on Sunday, he made a 33-foot birdie putt on 16, scratched out pars on 17 and 18, and won by a shot to change his life. He earned a two-year exemption and secured a spot in THE PLAYERS Championship, Sentry Tournament of Champions, Masters Tournament, and other select events. “I get to go to Hawaii for two weeks now?� Griffin said. “It’s mind-boggling.� Welcome to the Monday Finish. THREE KEYS TO SUCCESS 1. Griffin is not easily discouraged. In addition to family tragedy, he quickly fell off the PGA TOUR the first time he got there, in 2017-18. But no matter; he played his way back through the Korn Ferry Tour. He also learned how to win so that when he was tested at the Golf Club of Houston, he had something to fall back on. He’d come through under pressure at the 2015 Robert de Vicenzo Punta del Este Open Copa on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica, and the 2017 Nashville Golf Open Benefitting the Snedeker Foundation and 2019 Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour. For more on Griffin’s wild ride, click here. 2. He was a birdie machine, but limited risk. Griffin, who now leads the FedExCup standings and is virtually guaranteed a spot in the Playoffs, was already leading the TOUR with 70 birdies when he got to Houston. (He had top-20 finishes in the first four events of the season.) It was no surprise, then, that he led the Houston Open field in birdies, with 24. Still, he was mindful not to be too aggressive, having aimed for every pin and played his way off the TOUR two seasons ago. Nursing a one-shot lead on 18, he aimed so far away from the water that he wound up in the right rough, which he called his fairway for the week at the difficult finishing hole. 3. He continued to putt well. Prior to this season, Griffin had never finished a TOUR event in the top 10 in Strokes Gained: Putting. Now it’s old hat. He was seventh in Strokes Gained: Putting in Houston, which marked the fourth time in five starts this season that he’s ranked in the top 10. He improved with practice, but also a putting tip from Vijay Singh last summer – the two each live in the Jacksonville area and practice at TPC Sawgrass – the week before Griffin’s Korn Ferry Tour victory. “I’m not going to give (Singh) all the credit,� he said, “but it helped.� For more on Griffin’s stats in Houston, click here. OBSERVATIONS It’s been an emotional start to the season: Lanto Griffin, 31, earned his tearful first victory in his 33rd start on TOUR. Scott Harrington pushed him with a 5-under 67 that gave him a T2 and greatly solidified his status on TOUR. Both have played through family tragedy, with Griffin just 12 years old when he lost his father to cancer and Harrington more recently stepping away from golf to help his wife with her own cancer battle. (She is one year into remission.) “I’m so happy for him,� Griffin said of Harrington’s T2. “Scotty’s story and journey is similar to mine.� Harrington, meanwhile, was happy for Griffin, whose win came just two weeks after Cameron Champ’s emotional victory at the Safeway Open. Add the deeply felt victories of Joaquin Niemann, Sebastian Muñoz and Kevin Na, and it’s doubtful any five-week stretch has better conveyed the difficulty and importance of winning on TOUR.     Korn Ferry grads had a big week: The top three finishers in Houston – Griffin, Harrington and Mark Hubbard (69) – all earned their TOUR cards via the Korn Ferry Tour last season. And all three took a huge step toward not just playing on TOUR this season, but staying there. They are just the latest examples of just how well the Korn Ferry prepares players to compete at the game’s highest level, as is Maverick McNealy. The Stanford graduate initially struggled as a pro, but earned his TOUR card this season via the Korn Ferry and now looks renewed. He spoke to his girlfriend, LPGA pro Danielle Kang, prior to the final round, and she told him not to look at scoreboards and to say two good things to himself after every shot. It seemed to work, as he made five straight birdies (Nos. 12-16) on the way to a career-low 65 on Sunday, which moved him up 29 spots and into a T17 finish. “I can build on this,� McNealy said. So can they all. QUOTEBOARD “The first one is win.� – Griffin on his 2019-20 goals, a list he keeps on his phone. “This is nothing. This is a game.� – Scott Harrington (67, T2) on the pressure he and his wife, Jennifer, felt as she fought cancer. (She’s a year in remission.) “My head is definitely a little bit elsewhere.� – Peter Malnati (73, T17), who led through 36 holes. His wife, Alicia, is due with their first child Oct. 26. SOCIAL SNAPSHOT

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