Schauffele storms into lead
Fires 66 for 2-stroke advantage despite bogeys on 17 and 18
Xander Schauffele played all the right bounces and made all the key putts until the final two holes Saturday in the Scottish Open and then felt as though he had to settle for a two-shot lead.
Right when he was starting to pull away from the field, Schauffele closed with a pair of bogeys at The Renaissance Club that made it difficult to appreciate an otherwise stellar round. He matched the low score of the windy day with a 4-under 66.
And then he headed straight to the range.
“I had pretty much everything going,” Schauffele said. “I was judging the bounces well and making the putts I needed to and getting upand-down when I was missing the green. Six birdies through 16, no complaints. And a tough finish.”
Schauffele was at 7-under 203, two ahead of Rafa Cabrera Bello of Spain, who had a 67 and boosted his hopes of getting one of three spots into the British Open next week at St. Andrews.
Jordan Spieth had two eagles on the back nine, one of them with a lob wedge from just over 100 yards on the 15th hole, and had a 66 that put him right in the mix. Spieth was three shots behind in a group that included fellow Texan Ryan Palmer.
PGA: Max McGreevy completed a 9-under 63 to share the secondround lead and had a one-stroke advantage when darkness suspended third-round play in the PGA Tour’s Barbasol Championship. Much of the field began the third round in the evening in sunny conditions after heavy showers hit Keene Trace for the second consecutive day. McGreevy and Matti Schmid, a former University of Louisville player, each shot 63 and were at 16-under 128 after the completion of the second round — a stroke ahead of first-round leader Adam Svensson.
Champions: Jerry Kelly shot a 5-under 65 for a share of the thirdround lead with Alex Cejka in the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship. The Principal Charity Classic winner last month in Iowa, the 55-year-old Kelly had six birdies and a bogey to match Cejka at 9-under 201 on Firestone Country Club’s South Course. Cejka birdied four of the last five holes for a 67. The 51-year-old Czech-born German is chasing his third senior major title after winning the Regions Tradition and Senior PGA last year.
Note: Greg Norman once talked about playing in the British Open next week. Now he doesn’t even get to attend the dinner at St. Andrews for past champions. Norman, who won the Open at Turnberry in 1986 and at Royal St. George’s in 1993, would have been eligible for the four-hole “Celebration of Champions” exhibition that takes place only at St. Andrews, along with the Champions’ Dinner. The R&A said Saturday it contacted Norman to tell him “we decided not to invite him to attend on this occasion.”