Winner’s bag: Chez Reavie, Travelers Championship

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JACKSON, Miss. - Ignorance was bliss for Cameron Davis when he won the 2017 Australian Open. He figured he'd shot himself out of the tournament and didn't even bother looking at the leaderboards in the final round. Someone had to tell him afterward that he'd won. That won't be the case at the Sanderson Farms Championship on Sunday, because after making five straight birdies and shooting a 9-under 63 in the third round, Davis will go into the final round tied at the top at 14 under with Sergio Garcia (66) and J.T. Poston (69). Davis, 25, would be the tournament's seventh straight first-time winner. "It’s a different story when you know you’re in the lead or near the lead," he said. Well, yes. He's never entered the final round of a PGA TOUR event higher than T6. His best result in 51 TOUR starts is a T8 at The Honda Classic earlier this year. He's in uncharted territory. Poston cooled off with the putter Saturday but made a 13-foot par putt on the last hole to retain a piece of the lead. "Three guys tied for the lead and a bunch of guys right behind us," he said, "so I think you’re going to have to go shoot something pretty low because out of that group somebody is going to shoot probably 6-, 7-under I would guess, maybe even lower." Garcia is putting with his eyes closed in an effort to revive his career. A 10-time TOUR winner, he hasn't won since the 2017 Masters. He's fallen out of the world top 50 and is coming off a season in which he recorded just one top-25 finish, a T5 at the RBC Heritage, in 12 starts. To put that in perspective, he had never recorded fewer than four top-25s in 21 previous TOUR seasons, and he missed the Playoffs for just the second time in the FedExCup era. "Obviously Sunday it’s always a little bit more difficult," said Garcia, who is making his first start at the Sanderson, "but I’ve got to go out there and go through the same routine and just go with it, even if you stumble a little bit early on or something like that, just believe that what you’re doing is right, and that’s what I’m going to try to do." The no-look putting is working; he's gaining over a stroke on the field on the greens. Eight players are within two shots of the lead. Kristoffer Ventura (68, 13 under, one back) is 11 for 11 in shooting par or better rounds this season, and also would be a first-time winner. He's tied with 2012 FedExCup champion Brandt Snedeker (67), who is 11 under for his last 36 holes and seeking his 10th victory. "Probably as excited and confident as I’ve been about my golf game in a long time," Snedeker said. "I’m talking years. I’m really excited to see how it holds up tomorrow." No player, though, will go into Sunday with as much momentum as Davis. After buying a home in his U.S. base of Seattle earlier this year, he and longtime girlfriend Jonika Melcher got married on Sept. 5. Now he's flattening out the peaks and valleys of his career. His 63 was the lowest round of his TOUR career and was just one off the tournament course record. In retrospect, winning the Australian Open win at 22 may have been a mixed blessing. He announced himself as a force to be reckoned with, beating stars like Jason Day and Jordan Spieth, but the flip side was he had created huge expectations and struggled to meet them. "I felt like I tried way too hard," he said. "But I knew I had enough game to be out here, and this last season (while finishing 84th in the FedExCup, I knew it) a lot more. ... I feel like I can compete out here. It’s just putting four rounds together for me now." Having experimented with the driver the first two rounds, Davis went back to a stock shot and improved Saturday, hitting 10 of 14 fairways. He missed just two greens, saving par both times, and needed just 26 putts. As for the streak of six first-time winners, he said, "I don’t know why it’s come down to every single one being a first-timer, but hopefully there’s another one." There's still plenty of work left to do.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. — The rounds are starting to repeat for Byeong Hun An: No bogeys, a bunch of birdies and more time atop the Wyndham Championship leaderboard. An shot a 4-under 66 on Saturday for a one-stroke lead after three rounds at the PGA TOUR’s final event before the FedExCup Playoffs. An, who was at 17-under 193, has held or shared the lead after each of the first three rounds and has yet to play a hole worse than par. The 27-year-old South Korean with three international victories has put himself in position to claim his first win on TOUR. “It feels similar to yesterday, to be fair,” An said. “I had some nice shots here and there, but scrambled well today. Another bogey-free (round). I’m quite happy with it — a 66 out here, and I have a lead.” Former Wyndham winner Webb Simpson and Brice Garnett were tied for second, with Simpson shooting a 65 and Garnett a 66. Ryan Armour was 15 under following a 65. “One shot is basically nothing,” An said. “It’s not that big of a lead. It’s just one shot.” Overall, it was yet another low-scoring day at Sedgefield Country Club. For a while midway through An’s round, six players were tied for the lead at 13 under. “I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody shot 8, 9, 10 under, a guy who’s within striking distance,” Simpson said. “I’ve got to keep the pedal down, and if I don’t shoot a low one, I’m not going to win.” An started to get some separation from the crowd with three birdies in the four-hole span from Nos. 5-8, moving to 16 under. Then came his best shot of the day, a 50-foot birdie putt on the par-4 14th. He closed with four straight pars. Simpson — a native North Carolinian who named his daughter Wyndham after his first career victory came here in 2011 — strung together three birdies around a bogey midway through his back nine to move to 16 under. If nothing else, he’s in good position to claim his fifth top-10 finish in six years at this tournament. Garnett made the turn at 15 under following back-to-back birdies, then rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on the 17th to pull even with Simpson and saved par on the 18th after rolling his third shot from a greenside bunker to within 3 feet from the flagstick. “I was just trying to get the putt (on 17) somewhere around the hole,” Garnett said. “Fortunately, the putt had some eyes and drifted in. Huge momentum going into tomorrow.” Armour climbed into contention with six birdies in a 10-hole stretch midway through his round that put him two strokes back. And Viktor Hovland finished his season-best round with a birdie on the 18th after landing his 150-yard approach shot some 3 feet from the flagstick. He was tied for fifth with J.T. Poston and Paul Casey at 14 under. After winning the U.S. Amateur last year, Hovland turned pro two months ago after tying for 12th at the U.S. Open. “I just try to tell myself that I don’t have anything to lose,” Hovland said. “I’ll be on the Korn Ferry Tour no matter what happens kind of unless I play really well tomorrow, and to be in the spot where I am right now after college, that’s a pretty good spot to be in.” It wasn’t a low-scoring day for everyone, though: Jordan Spieth had three double-bogeys and a bogey during a birdie-free 77 that left him at 2 under for the tournament. It came two days after he flirted with a career-best round, putting just 23 times during his first-round 64. “I putted my (butt) off for two days to be able to be where I was at, and you can’t exactly fix your ball striking in a day,” Spieth said. “It’s just too much to try and force it. So this extra day could serve me really well through the playoffs.”

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