Justin Thomas turns in a bogey-free round of 66 to take a two-shot lead at Workday event.
12-time winner passes Morikawa with bogey-free 66
Dublin, Ohio Justin Thomas never looked to be in a hurry.
Not when he stepped to the first tee Friday trailing by 13 shots. Not when he was simply trying to keep up with Collin Morikawa on Saturday in the Workday Charity Open.
And after turning a three-shot deficit into a two-shot lead with another clean card, he certainly didn’t see any need to sprint to the finish at Muirfield Village as he goes after his third victory this season.
That’s been the philosophy all week, and along the way, he has managed to keep bogeys off his card. There were a few dicey moments, such as a pair of two-putt pars from more than 50 feet, and a shot that stuck in the grass high on the lip of a bunker on the par-3 12th.
Otherwise, it’s been a clinic. Thomas had three straight birdies to stay in range of Morikawa. And when Morikawa fell back with three bogeys over a four-hole stretch around the turn, Thomas made efficient birdies on the par 5s and a smart birdie on the reachable 14th for a 6-under 66 to keep two ahead of Viktor Hovland (66).
Hovland, the former U.S. Amateur champion from Norway, had eight birdies in his round of 66. Morikawa needed a birdie on his last hole for a 72.
European PGA: Nicolai von Dellingshausen and Marc
Warren shared the lead after a rain-drenched third round of the Austrian Open as Miguel Angel Jimenez’s hopes of a recordbreaking victory deteriorated. With rounds of 2-under 70, von Dellingshausen and Warren moved to 11 under par overall. The 56-year-old Jimenez led by two strokes after two rounds, putting himself in position to break his own record as the oldest winner of a European Tour event.
Celebrity: Former tennis player Mardy Fish birdied the final five holes in a record-breaking round to take a three-point lead over former Buffalo defensive tackle Kyle Williams in the American Century Championship. The celebrity tournament is being played without fans at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course. The $600,000 purse and additional money are being donated to organizations supporting COVID-19 relief efforts, the Equal Justice Initiative and Lake Tahoe regional non-profits. Fish had an event-record 37-point round under the modified Stableford scoring system. He opened with a bogey, then made 10 birdies in a course-record 9-under 63 to push his two-day points total to 55.