▶ Spaniard Jon Rahm shoots 64 to take a one-shot lead at The Players Championship.
Spaniard shoots 64 to take one-shot lead over Mcilroy, Fleetwood
Ponte Vedra, Fla. Jon Rahm felt like every shot would be good and most of them were Saturday as he posted an 8-under 64 and built a one-shot lead over Rory Mcilroy and Tommy Fleetwood in The Players Championship.
Five shots behind going into the third round, Rahm shot
30 on the back nine at TPC Sawgrass and surged into the lead when Mcilroy and Fleetwood couldn’t keep pace. His only bogey was on the sixth hole, and even that landed next to the pin until running over the back.
“Didn’t miss many shots out there,” Rahm said. “Really, really confident with my irons. Every time I stepped up, I felt like I was going to hit a good shot.”
There were too many to single out for the 24-year-old Spaniard, who was at 15-under 201.
Mcilroy and Fleetwood struggled from the start and both eventually recovered, Mcilroy sooner than Fleetwood.
Mcilroy muffed a chip and had to scramble for bogey on the opening hole, hit a chip over the green on the par-5 second hole and turned potential birdie into bogey, and that was as bad as it got. He still was under par at the turn by running off three birdies, including a 4-iron to a foot on the hardest par 3 on the course at No. 8.
But after a two-putt birdie on the par-5 11th, Mcilroy’s chances dried up. Even on the par-5 16th, he tried a low runner out of the pine trees and it came out so hot that it ran through the green and into the water.
Even so, he was bogey-free over the last 16 holes and shot 70.
Fleetwood missed a 30-inch putt on the opening hole and took double bogey, and he fell three shots behind through seven holes. He holed a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 8 after Mcilroy tapped in for his birdie, and then picked up four birdies where they were available for his 70.
Jason Day had a 68 and was three shots behind.
Tiger Woods was five shots better on the par-3 17th — a quadruple bogey on Friday, a two-foot birdie putt on Saturday — but still started so slowly that even a late run of birdies was only good for a 72. He was 12 shots behind in his last strokeplay event before the Masters.
Five players were within five shots of Rahm, the deficit the Spaniard made up on Saturday. That group included Brandt Snedeker (65), Keegan Bradley (68) and Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world who played the par 5s at even and still shot a 69. European PGA: Adri Arnaus (65) and Guido Migliozzi (64) shot the lowest rounds of their European Tour careers to share the lead heading into the final round of the Magical Kenya Open. The duo is tied at 14 under. Overnight leader Louis de Jager was at 13 under after a70.