Excitement builds in Mexico Championship
MEXICO CITY — Justin Thomas made a hole-in-one and surged into the lead with a 5-under-par 66 on a Saturday of high entertainment in the Mexico Championship.
Thomas hit a 6-iron from 239 yards that one-hopped into the cup on the par-3 13th. He added a pair of birdies that gave him a one-shot lead over Dustin Johnson, with Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy right behind in this World Golf Championship.
That leaderboard should have been enough to delight the crowd at Chapultepec Golf Club, but there was so much more.
Johnson, in his debut at No. 1 in the world, was tied for the lead when his second shot on the 16th got stuck in a tree. He walked back to the original spot and hit the next one to 15 feet, and the ball fell out of the tree as he was walking to the green. He made the putt to salvage a bogey and shot 66.
“It happens,” Johnson said, and no one knows that better.
Mickelson didn’t hit a fairway on the back nine until the 16th hole and at one point took as many drops as he had birdies. Even so, he managed to make three straight birdies until closing with a bogey for a wild round of 68.
He was two shots behind, along with McIlroy, who didn’t make a birdie over his last seven holes and shot 70.
At nearly 7,800 feet of elevation, the final round figures to be up in the thin air. That might even include Jordan Spieth, who set the course record with an 8-under 63 and was among a dozen players within five shots of the lead.
It starts with Thomas, the 23-year-old who already has three victories in this PGA Tour wraparound season, two of them at the start of the year in Hawaii. He was hanging around the leaders when he made his hole-in-one on the 13th.
“It looked perfect. I think I said, ‘Go in.’ You might as well say it,” Thomas said while watching the shot on a TV monitor. “I haven’t hit too many shots exactly how I wanted. I liked this result.”
Lee Westwood, who has played in more World Golf Championships than anyone since they began in 1999, shot 31 on the back nine for a 66 and was three behind, along with Spanish rookie Jon Rahm, who had a 67.
Wie takes charge
SINGAPORE — Michelle Wie shot a 5-under 67 to lead the HSBC Women’s Champions tournament by two strokes after the third round.
She followed up her previous rounds of 66 and 69 to reach 14-under 202 and lead an LPGA Tour event after 54 holes for the first time since she won the 2014 U.S. Open.
Top-ranked Lydia Ko birdied the last hole for a 67 to end the day in a three-way tie for second. She was joined by Ariya Jutanugarn (69) — last year’s British Open champion — and the big-hitting Park Sung-Hyun (68).
Rio Olympics gold medalist Inbee Park shot a 71, leaving her three shots behind Wie and tied with the defending champion Ha Na Jang (68).
Plagued by injuries and a loss of form, Wie needed a sponsor’s invitation just to get a start in the $1.5 million tournament. But she’s been in vintage touch since arriving in Singapore.
Wie took just 32 shots to reach the turn on the Tanjong Course at Sentosa Golf Club. Despite making her first bogey in 35 holes on the tricky par-3 15th, she made her sixth birdie of the day on the next hole and put herself in great position to end a three-year title drought.
“There definitely is some butterflies out there,” Wie said,” but it’s exciting getting that feeling again and being in this position.”
Tie at Tshwane
PRETORIA, South Africa —Alexander Bjork and Scott Jamieson will fight it out again as they retained a share of the lead entering the final round of the Tshwane Open.
The second-round co-leaders were still top of the leaderboard after 54 holes, both moving to 13-under-par 200 at Pretoria Country Club.
Bjork, seeking his European Tour title, opened a two-shot lead at one point but slipped up with bogeys at Nos. 13 and 15. He and Jamieson carded 68s and birdied the last hole to open a one-shot edge over Jorge Campillo and Dean Burmester, who each shot 65, breaking a four-way tie for the lead.