With baby due, Rory iffy for Tour Championship

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Max Homa holed a wedge for eagle on No. 6 and nearly made an ace two holes later, but he said the putt he sank on his final hole was the most exciting of the bunch. Homa hooked his tee shot on 18 into the left trees before hitting a good recovery shot to the fringe, 33 feet from the hole. He swung his fist in excitement after making that birdie putt. “It was loud,” Homa said. “Six was cool but 18 was loud. That was fun.” Homa trailed by four shots for most of the back nine Saturday but that birdie, combined with bogeys on 18 by co-leaders Sam Burns and Keegan Bradley, means he trails by just a single stroke. RELATED: Full leaderboard Bradley and Burns, who started Saturday four clear of the field, both shot 69 to tie the Valspar’s 54-hole scoring record at 14-under 199. Homa is 13 under after shooting 66. The next-closest players on the leaderboard – Ted Potter, Abraham Ancer, Joaquin Niemann and Cameron Tringale – are all four off the lead. Potter’s 63 was the low round of the day by three shots; he one-putted 14 consecutive holes Saturday and needed just 20 putts for the round. He will join Homa in Sunday’s second-to-last group. Burns, Bradley and Homa each made an eagle on Saturday, but they had to deal with a tougher Copperhead Course on the back nine. The wind picked up and the greens dried out to slow the record scoring that had been seen this week. The Valspar traditionally ranks as one of the most difficult tournaments on TOUR. The winning score is often single-digits under par, but the warm May weather meant the greens had to be watered for the first two rounds. Sunday could be a return to what players are accustomed to from the hilly course on Florida’s west coast that requires precise ball-striking. “The golf course is changing quickly,” Burns said after his round. Homa, who won earlier this year at the Genesis Invitational, is looking to join Bryson DeChambeau and Stewart Cink as the only two-time winners this season. Next week, Homa will defend his title at the Wells Fargo Championship. “I used to do this decent amount in college and when I first turned pro,” said Homa, who won the 2013 NCAA Championship and in his first two Korn Ferry Tour seasons before winning the Wells Fargo in 2019. “I had a dry spell for a while, but … I’ve kind of been in this position a few more times more recently. I feel like the old me is back.” Bradley is seeking his fifth career victory. After winning three times in 2011 and 2012, including a major and a World Golf Championship, Bradley’s only other win is the 2018 BMW Championship. Saturday’s round included a chip-in on 14 for eagle. “It just gave me a little bolt of energy, which was fun,” Bradley said. “It’s so great to have the fans out here. You can feel it again and it’s a fun time to be out here playing.” He is leading the field in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, greens in regulation and Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. Saturday was the first round this week where he lost strokes on the greens. The shortest shots are the ones that will determine if Bradley is successful Sunday. Burns is looking for his first TOUR victory after a promising collegiate career that included winning the Jack Nicklaus Award as college golf’s top player in 2017. He also finished in the top 10 of a PGA TOUR event, the Barbasol Championship, while still an amateur. The next year, Burns earned attention for his strong play alongside Tiger Woods in the final round of The Honda Classic. Burns shot 68 to Woods’ 70 to finish in the top 10. That earned him a start into the next week’s Valspar Championship; he started the final round in fifth place, three shots off the lead, but shot 73 to finish 12th. A triple-bogey at 16 and bogey on the final hole left him six shots behind winner Paul Casey. This is Burns’ third 54-hole lead of the season, tied with Jordan Spieth for the most on TOUR. Burns shot 72 to finish six back at the Vivint Houston Open and 69 at the Genesis Invitational to finish one shot out of the playoff between Homa and Tony Finau. Burns eagled his first hole Saturday after hitting hybrid to 3 feet and was 4 under after five holes. He made all pars until a bogey at 16, though, and another one on the final hole. “I think every opportunity is something you can learn from,” Burns said. “It’s not a matter of winning or losing. It’s a matter of going out there and seeing what the golf course is going to teach me that day.” With a difficult golf course and enthusiastic fans awaiting Sunday, there is plenty to be learned.

Click here to read the full article…

NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. – Those gigantic electronic leaderboards that dot the landscape on the Champions Course at Keene Trace Golf Club this week can’t be missed. And every time Kelly Kraft looked at one Saturday after making yet another birdie in his course-record round of 61, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Surely, he was in the lead now, Kraft figured. But no, Jim Herman, the overnight leader, was more than keeping pace, eventually tossing out a 62 that left him one stroke ahead of Kraft – and set the stage for what is sure to be a shootout on Sunday. “This thing is far from over,â€� Kraft said on a day when it seemed like everyone was going low in the third round.  “I mean, I felt like I was making birdies and eagles on the back nine, and I look up and I’m still trailing Jim Herman. “So, it seems like a lot of other people are doing it too, so we’re just going to have to keep our foot down tomorrow and get after it.â€� Herman is 24 under through 54 holes – one stroke better than Troy Merritt shot over four rounds a year ago when he won the first Barbasol Championship played at Keene Trace. Herman’s score is the lowest 54-hole tally of the season. Unlike Kraft, Bill Haas didn’t need to look at any leaderboards. The six-time PGA TOUR champ was playing in the final group with Herman, who made a pair of eagles and six birdies without dropping a single shot to par. “I saw it firsthand, 10 under right next to me, and could have been better,â€� said Haas, who didn’t exactly scruff it around, shooting a 65 of his own to tie for third at 20 under with Austin Cook, who had fired a 63 earlier in the day. “He just drove it beautifully and seemed to have a look on every hole. And when he had a nice look at eagle, he made those.â€� Even Herman, who hit all but two fairways and all but two greens in regulation, was a bit taken aback by the fireworks. His own, as well as everyone else’s. The 62 is his best round since he opened the 2017 Valspar Championship with the same score and went on to tie for third. “The scores I had been shooting lately, no, I didn’t expect it,â€� said Herman, who, counting this week, has only made the cut in four of the 20 events he’s played this season. “So, just very pleased.  Obviously, just going to get some rest and try to replicate one of these other ‑‑ one of these scores I have had so far tomorrow.  But you’re going to have to go low.  You can’t protect anything.  So maybe that’s a good thing, you don’t have to protect anything.â€� Herman, who won the 2016 Shell Houston Open, acknowledges that he might not even own the lead when he tees off with Kraft at 12:40 p.m. on Sunday. “So, you just know you’re going to have to make some birdies and stay ahead of everybody else,â€� said Herman, who ranks first in Strokes Gained: Putting and Strokes Gained: Total this week. Kraft, who said he felt like he was making putts on every hole in the frenetic third round, agrees. With wedges into a lot of greens and irons into par 5s, being aggressive again on Sunday will be key. “The fairways got a little more firm today, so we were hitting a little bit farther,â€� Kraft said. “The greens are softer in the beginning of the round.  They had a little bounce to them towards the end of the day, and they’re rolling good.  The par 5s are all reachable. “Any time you have that combo on the PGA TOUR, guys are just going to light it up. It’s just that simple.â€� Haas, who won the FedExCup in 2014, has only made one bogey through 54 holes this week, with that coming on his 12th hole in the first round. He closed out Saturday’s 65 with a clutch 23-footer for a par after putting his drive at the 18th hole into the lake. “(It was) a par that felt like a birdie the way Jim was going and the way Kelly in front of us was going,â€� Haas said. “Austin Cook I saw shot a low number. So, I just knew — any bogey was going to feel like a double.â€� A week ago, Haas started the final round of the John Deere Classic trailing by one and ended up tied for 10th. On Sunday, he gets another chance to win for the first time since the 2015 Humana Challenge presented by the Clinton Foundation. “All you can ask for,â€� Haas said. “… Again, if he shoots 10 under again, I hope he wins by eight. That’s what he deserves. “But I hope I can do the same thing tomorrow, and at least put some pressure on him. And we’ll see what happens.â€�

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…