Winner’s Bag: Matt Fitzpatrick, U.S. Open

He keeps coming close. That means he’s playing well. It also means something is off just enough, over and over, to keep him from holding the trophy.

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FORT WORTH, Texas — Webb Simpson shot a 3-under 67 on Saturday to break out of a crowd and take the third-round lead at the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational. At 9-under 201, Simpson was two strokes ahead of Danny Lee and Paul Casey after both of them made long birdie putts at the 18th hole. Stewart Cink and Kevin Kisner were three strokes off the lead. Part of a four-way tie for the 36-hole lead, Simpson went ahead alone to stay after consecutive birdies to start his back nine. He made a 6-foot birdie putt at the 387-yard 10th and a 12-footer at the 630-yard 11th before finishing with seven consecutive pars. It is only the second time in 12 years at DEAN & DELUCA for the 54-hole leader to have more than a one-stroke advantage. Defending champion Jordan Spieth shot a 68 with a caddie switch after making the turn, and was at 4 under. Spieth’s regular caddie, Michael Greller, left the course after 11 holes because of heat exhaustion on a steamy day with temperatures in the 90s and the heat index higher than that. Damon Goddard, the personal trainer for the player and the caddie, carried the bag the rest of the round — a stretch when Spieth had a bogey and two birdies. Lee and Kisner also were tied for the second-round lead, along with Scott Piercy, whose shot 72 to fall five strokes back. After three birdies and three bogeys his first eight holes Saturday, Lee had a steady stream of pars until finishing with a 16-foot birdie for a round of 69. Casey, who shot 68, was alone in second for only a couple of minutes. He made a nearly 25-foot birdie putt that had just enough speed to fall into the cup at No. 18, while Lee was playing in the group behind him. Casey was 1 over for the day without a birdie until starting his back nine with three birdies in a four-hole stretch that included a bogey. Piercy was still within a stroke of the lead at 8 under after a par-saving 13-foot putt at the 12th hole after driving into the rough and hitting his approach in a greenside bunker there. Piercy then promptly hit his tee shot at the par-3 13th into the pond on way to a double-bogey. He followed with another bogey at 15 when he drove into the rough and then hit into a greenside bunker, and did the same at No. 18. Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open winner playing in the final group, started the round with birdies at the first two holes. He gave one of those back with a bogey at the par-3, 192-yard No. 8 after missing the green with his tee shot. Since losing a playoff to Hideki Matsuyama at Phoenix, Simpson had missed four of nine cuts before this week. The four-time PGA TOUR winner’s best finish in that stretch was a tie for 11th at the RBC Heritage.

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Augusta National cofounder Bobby Jones once said, "There's golf. And then there's tournament golf." The greatest amateur golfer of all time understood the fundamental difference between playing for fun ... and playing for real. The nature of competitive golf is to simply get the ball in the hole in the fewest number of strokes. The player with the lowest score wins. But, as everyone who has ever entered a golf tournament knows, there's nothing simple about it. As soon as a player must putt everything out, as soon as you know a score will be posted by your name, the game is unforgiving. You got to get the ball in the hole. Somehow. Whatever it takes. Especially on the PGA TOUR where the quality of play is the best in the world. RELATED: Tee times, groupings | Determining where DeChambeau could drive it at Augusta | Pro long drivers discuss DeChambeau’s length Great putters, such as Jones himself, thrive on the greens. But for every Masters champion who is an outstanding putter, such as Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Tiger Woods or Jordan Speith, there are dozens of their contemporaries who could hit the ball well from tee to green, but couldn't keep up once they reached the putting surface. Players will go to great lengths to improve their putting. The Claw. Croquet. Left-handed. Eyes closed. Cross-handed. Bryson DeChambeau is the latest example. He is the hot topic entering this year's Masters because of his physical transformation, but a focus on his driving distance overlooks his drastic improvement on the greens. DeChambeau has become one of the TOUR's best putters with a unique arm-lock style, using an extremely upright putter that sits almost perpendicular to the putting surface. The narrative around DeChambeau is that he bludgeoned Winged Foot en route to winning the 2020 U.S. Open. Sure, he bombed it off the tee, but he didn't lead the field in driving that week. Rory McIlroy did. Bryson led the field in putting. He's steadily climbed in the rankings for Strokes Gained: Putting, finishing 10th in that statistic last season. He's also hitting more greens in regulation and his short game was spectacular at Winged Foot. That's the true narrative: Bryson has improved everything about his game. And that's why he's considered a serious favorite at this week's Masters. DeChambeau is the latest to experiment with a different or unique putting style in an attempt - sometimes a desperate attempt - to get the ball in the hole in fewer strokes. He's certainly not the first. Four-time U.S. Open champion Ben Hogan said, "There is no similarity between golf and putting. They are two different games; one played in the air, and the other on the ground." The legendary ball-striker would have been perfectly happy without the need for putting. "There shouldn't be any cups... just flagsticks," Hogan famously said. "And then the player who hit the most fairways and greens and got closest to the pins would be the tournament winner." Anyone who's ever four-putted has probably thought the same thing at least once. The competition on the PGA TOUR is so intense that even the slightest improvement on the greens can be a huge boost. We've seen right-handers putt left-handed. Langer is credited with bringing the arm-lock method into the spotlight after using it to win the 1993 Masters. Spieth has looked at the hole while hitting short putts. Johnny Miller putted with his eyes closed (he also won the 1976 Open Championship while focusing his eyes on a spot of red nail polish he painted on his putter). Here's a list of some of the unique styles we've seen, and photos illustrating them. • Left-arm locked - notables Bernhard Langer, Matt Kuchar, Bryson DeChambeau, Will Zalatoris • Eyes closed - Johnny Miller, Sergio Garcia • Looking at the hole - Johnny Miller, Jordan Spieth (on short putts) • Left-handed — Blaine McCallister (hit all other shots right-handed) • Left-handed and right-handed — Notah Begay (used a Bullseye putter and putted both right-handed (on putt that broke right-to-left) and left-handed (on putts that broke left-to-right) • One-handed - Mike Hulburt • Croquet style - Sam Snead (until USGA banned it) • Side saddle - Sam Snead • Long putter — Bernhard Langer, Adam Scott, Scott McCarron and many other PGA TOUR Champions players • The Claw - Chris DiMarco, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose Whatever it takes. At least for one week. Especially on the PGA TOUR.

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