List holds on to lead
Baylor alum has one-shot advantage at Honda Classic
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Luke List can understand why he might be overlooked in the Honda Classic, even with a shot at his first PGA Tour victory.
The Baylor School graduate and former Ringgold, Ga., resident felt that Saturday while securing the tournament’s 54-hole lead.
List and Jamie Lovemark — he’s also looking for his first PGA Tour win and had shared the 36-hole lead with List — were trading birdies and keeping clean cards on the front nine at PGA National in front of an audience of no more than a few dozen people during the third round.
Everyone else was busy watching Tiger Woods try to stay close enough to contention.
“I know I’ll be an underdog going against Justin Thomas and guys like that, which is fine,” List said. “It’s kind of nice having Tiger in the field now because he takes all the attention off everybody else, so you can just kind of go out and do your own thing.”
The 33-year-old former Vanderbilt University standout’s “own thing” was strong enough Saturday. List finished with a pair of birdies around his lone bogey for a 4-under-par 66, moving him to 7-under 203 overall and giving him a one-shot lead over Thomas (65) and Webb Simpson (66).
This is the second time List has had at least a share of a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour. The other was in fall 2016 at the Sanderson Farms Championship, which was in Jackson, Miss., the same week a World Golf Championship was held in Shanghai.
Thomas was never far away from the lead Saturday, and the final hour changed everything. The tour’s reigning player of the year and 2017 PGA Championship winner made three birdies over his final five holes to match the low round of the tour’s toughest tournament yet this year.
Particularly impressive was that two of those birdies were on the par-3 15th and par-3 17th, the course’s second- and third-toughest holes Saturday. He essentially hit the same shot, a cut 6-iron into the wind to right pins, and then made 15-footers.
Simpson, the former U.S. Open champion who has not won in more than four years, played bogey-free for a 66, a card kept clean by a remarkable bunker save with an awkward stance behind the 15th green.
Woods shot a 69 as he broke 70 for the first time on the PGA Tour since August 2015 — a span of only 12 rounds because of three back surgeries — and at least raised his hopes. He was seven back.
“I’ve got a shot going into tomorrow,” said Woods, who had 10 players ahead of him.
List’s lead might not feel like much of an advantage with six players separated by only three shots. Two strokes behind and tied for fourth place were Tommy Fleetwood (67) — he made eagle on the 18th Saturday — and Lovemark (68).
Alex Noren (65) was 4 under, Kelly Kraft (66) was 3 under, Louis Oosthuizen (69) was 2 under and Daniel Berger (70) and Rory Sabbatini (71) were tied for ninth at 1 under.
Woods, who was among five golfers tied for 11th at par, has been better every day at PGA National, except for one hole — a double bogey each time — that slowed him in the first two rounds. Saturday was an exception. He made his two bogeys on the notorious par 3s on the back nine, but he putted for birdie 14 out of 18 holes, and only one of those putts was longer than 25 feet.
“Probably the highest score I could have shot today,” Woods said.
List seems to be finally realizing enormous potential. He moved to California about five years ago to work with Jamie Mulligan at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach, and he said he is understanding the tendencies in his game, though he mainly has learned not to press.
Being consumed with the leaderboard might not be a problem for him today with so many players in the mix on a golf course that can strike at any moment.
“I think until you get to 15, it really doesn’t matter to a certain degree,” List said. “I’ll try to do my own thing for most of the day, and then if there’s something I need to do in the last four or five holes, then probably take a look.”
After two monumentally challenging rounds for the field, the course was playing slightly easier Saturday and the scoring average was at 70.9. Some of that was expected after a cut, though it helped not to have as much foot traffic on greens that don’t have a lot of grass, a wind not quite as forceful and more accessible pins.
Harris English, another Baylor graduate, zoomed 38 spots up the leaderboard Saturday with a 67 blemished by two bogeys in the final five holes. He was tied for 21st at 2 over after missing the cut in his previous two tournaments.
He has made the cut in only four of 11 PGA Tour events he has played this season, but two of those — the CareerBuilder Challenge and the Farmers Insurance Open, both in January — ended with him in the top 11 and combined earnings of $328,900. In his other cut made, he was 64th at the Sony Open for $13,144.
Sisters succeeding
CHONBURI, Thailand —Jessica Korda shot a 4-under 68 in the third round of the Honda LPGA Thailand and held a four-stroke lead over Moriya Jutanugarn (65).
A day after a course-record 62 at Siam Country Club, Korda fought back from a bogey on the front nine with five birdies to move to 20-under 196 overall.
Minjee Lee (68) was another stroke back in third, and each of the top two golfers had a sister in the top six.
Korda, a 24-year-old American, was joined by 19-year-old Nelly Korda (68), who was tied for sixth at 12 under. Jutanugarn, who’s 23 and from Thailand, was joined by 22-year-old Ariya Jutanugarn (65) — she’s No. 1 in the world ranking — who was fourth at 14 under.
Tie at Qatar Masters
DOHA, Qatar — Oliver Fisher and Eddie Pepperell shared the Qatar Masters lead at 16-under 200 after 54 holes at Doha Golf Club.
Fisher closed with four birdies for a 7-under 65 in the third round, while Pepperell (66) picked up shots on the 16th and 18th to catch his fellow Englishman.
U.S. golfer Sean Crocker (67) was two strokes back in third, with five players tied for fourth.