Three-way tussle on the final stretch
Finau joins Rahm, Stenson for a share of lead at 13-under par, Woods last in 18-man field
ALBANY,BAHAMAS: Two debutants here and a two-time runner-up shared the lead going into the final round of the Hero World Challenge on Saturday. Tony Finau and Jon Rahm have never played at the Albany Golf Course before and the last time Sweden’s Henrik Stenson won a tournament was the Wyndham Championship in August 2017. The three are on 13-under-par 203 and two strokes behind at fourth was Gary Woodland.
Given that Ricky Fowler won it here last year after starting the final day seven shots behind by carding nine-under, it would be fair to say the tournament was wide open with a round to go. Fowler himself was in fifth spot, three shots adrift. Host Tiger Woods was nowhere in the picture, 11 shots behind the leading pack at two-under 214.
The five par-five holes in this course are the goldmines where three good shots can set one up for an eagle or at least a birdie. Finau showed just that on Saturday with birdies in four of them.
“When I’m playing well, I feel like I can score on any golf course, especially a course that has five par 5s,” Finau said.
“Three-under on the day and tied for the lead, I would have taken it at the start of the week. So hopefully tomorrow I can just keep playing tee to green the same I have and make a few
more putts,” Rahm said, ruing a missed eagle at 14 from just six feet.
“Whoever plays the par 5s ... with the better score’s going to have a chance,” Rahm added, tipping the scales towards the 29-year-old Finau.
“Winning is always nice,” said the 42-year-old Stenson, runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama here in 2016.
“It never gets old no matter how big or small the tournament. You can’t say that this is a small tournament given the field. Who you’re playing against is obviously going to give you a nice boost if you managed to win it,” the Swede, who has been the most consistent over three rounds, added.
WOODS STRUGGLES
Once again Woods got off to a disastrous start with a bogey on the par-three second and a double bogey on the par-five third. He took three shots to reach the green from a swale after drifting to the left.
Twice the ball got to the edge of the green and rolled back to where he was standing.
To make matters worse, his short game did not improve much from Friday and it looked like he was in pain while crouching to gauge the putting line. He kept feeling his left ankle and a bout of cough --- he said it was much better the day before --- was evidently back.
“It’s definitely not alarming, for sure,” said last-placed Woods, playing his first 72-hole event since winning the Tour Championship. “I just haven’t played clean.”
The most talked about on Saturday was a triple bogey double and a hole-in-one.
JOHNSON T6
Dustin Johnson, T6, and Patrick Cantlay, T12, had triple bogey on the par-three second. They were playing together for the day, just after the leading pair of Rahm and Stenson.
Alex Noren, T8 at eight-under 208, hit a hole-in-one on the parthree 17th. This came after the Swede had an eagle on the parfive 15th and a triple bogey on the par-four 16th.