Late birdies let Thomas keep lead at Sherwood
Golfer ahead by one over Rahm going to final round; Woods has 71, trails by 16
Justin Thomas wasn’t playing poorly. It only felt that way Saturday at the Zozo Championship at Sherwood, where being a few shots under par means losing ground. He was 3 under and already had lost the lead he had at the start.
The final hour changed everything — his score, his position, even his outlook.
Thomas got one good break, made two good birdie putts and wound up with a 5-under 67 that gave him a one-shot lead over Jon Rahm going into the final round.
“Didn’t have my best stuff by any means, but to shoot a round like that is huge on a course like this,” Thomas said. “Usually I’m grinding to shoot a 1-, 2-, 3-under. Here at Sherwood, the scores are very low and you need to be able to — crazy as it is — shoot 5 under to keep pace.”
He got there with an 8-foot par putt on the 15th, a 10-foot birdie putt on the 16th after his tee shot nearly went into a creek and he regained the lead with a 30-foot birdie putt up the slope on the par-3 17th.
“Great to give myself a little bit of momentum and cap off what I felt like was a pretty average day,” he said.
It was anything but average for Rahm. He was 5 under through five holes and saved par at the end for a 63 that left him one shot behind. Lanto Griffin, who had the lead until bogeys on two of his last four holes, was another shot behind.
“Tee to green was pretty much the same. Maybe just a little bit better, but I made the putts, which always helps, right?” Rahm said. “Making the putt on 1 and 2 … freed me up a little bit. Got a really, really good round going early on.”
Thomas was at 19-under 197.
For all the low scores, it was another grind for Tiger Woods, the Zozo Championship winner last year in Japan, who could only manage a 71.
“The golf course was gettable and I just didn’t do it,” Woods said.
Phil Mickelson opened with seven birdies in eight holes, only to play the rest of the way in 2 over for a 67. A bogey from the fairway on his final hole led to another example of how strange this year has been because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mickelson and Woods, the two biggest draws in golf, will be playing in the same group Sunday. And there won’t be any fans on the golf course to watch them.
It will be the ninth time Woods and Mickelson play together in the final round on the PGA Tour, and the first time they have no bearing on the outcome. They were 16 shots out of the lead. The first time they played together on a Sunday was at the 1997 PGA Championship when they were eight shots behind and each shot 75.
The other end of scoring is plenty compelling.
Thomas, the No. 3 player in the world, is going for his third victory this year. Rahm can return to No. 1 in the world. Griffin is equally intriguing. He won his first PGA Tour title last year in Houston and showed for so much of Saturday that he doesn’t get caught up in much. Plus, his putting stroke has been pure all week.
LPGA: Ally Mcdonald held onto the lead in the LPGA Drive On Championship-lake Reynolds Oconee, shooting a 3-under 69 to take a one-stroke advantage into the final round. Winless on the LPGA Tour, the 27year-old from Mississippi had a 13-under 203 total on the Great Waters Course. Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines was second after a 69. Four strokes ahead of Pagdanganan with two holes to play, Mcdonald bogeyed the par-3 17th, while playing partner Pagdanganan closed with two birdies. Mcdonald bogeyed the first hole and made a big midround run with five birdies in an eight-hole stretch. Pagdanganan, a member of Arizona’s 2018 NCAA championship team after starting her college career at Gonzaga, is making her sixth LPGA Tour start of the year and seventh overall. Danielle Kang was third at 11 under after a 70 in the event added to the schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down women’s golf for five months.
European PGA: Englishmen Laurie Canter and Ross Mcgowan have a three-shot lead entering the final round of the Italian Open. Canter, who is looking for a wire-to-wire victory and a first European Tour title after his opening-round 60, shot a 3-under 69 in the third round on Saturday. Mcgowan, who has had just one top-10 finish on the European Tour over the past four seasons, carded a 67. The English players had 19-under totals of 197. Dean Burmester of South Africa was three strokes behind the leaders, and Nicolas Colsaerts and Sebastian Heisele were one stroke further back at Chervo Golf Club.