Woods in top 10 at the Memorial
DUBLIN, Ohio — The cheers kept coming across Muirfield Village Golf Club on Saturday, even after Tiger Woods was done making another run up the leaderboard.
Patrick Cantlay made two eagles, including a hole-in-one.
Joaquin Niemann, the 19-year-old from Chile making his fifth start on the PGA Tour, took the lead with a 50-foot eagle putt. He fell out of the lead when his bid for another eagle attempt landed in a tiny corner of a meandering creek.
And then Bryson DeChambeau ended an action-packed day by making one of only six birdies on the par-3 16th hole, saving par with a tough flop shot from behind the 17th green and setting up a five-foot birdie putt on the 18th with a 9-iron shot.
It finished off a 6-under-par 66 that had him at 14-under 202 overall and gave him a oneshot lead after 54 holes at Muirfield Village Golf Club, where Woods could be a factor in the final round for the first time in six years.
“Look, I just want to birdie every hole,” DeChambeau said. “That’s all we’re trying to do out there.”
The course is so soft and vulnerable, it seems as though that’s what it might take, and Woods certainly appears up to the task. He hit the ball so purely Friday that he missed five putts inside seven feet and still shot a 67. He had just as much control Saturday and at one point was tied for the lead.
Then he three-putted two of the last three holes, missing a par putt just longer than three feet on the 18th, and all he had to show for it was a 68 that had him at 9 under.
“I know I shot 68 today, but again, that’s probably the highest score I could have possibly shot,” said Woods, who was five shots behind. “I played really, really well. I played beautifully, actually. Had total control of what I was doing out there and just didn’t finish it off.”
Woods is a five-time winner at the Memorial, with his most recent victory in 2012. He has gone nearly five years since his last victory of any sort. This is the third time this year Woods has gone into the final round within five shots of the lead.
Still steaming from his last putt, he was asked if his game was good enough to win.
“Well, I was at 11-under par, and I had wasted a bunch of shots the last two days, and I was 4-over par in the first round,” he said. “So you do the math.”
Assessing his own round, DeChambeau couldn’t help but look back at two short birdies that got away.
“Just keep thinking about those two three-footers I missed,” he said. “I played great, obviously. Ecstatic about where I am.”
Actually, DeChambeau wasn’t sure where he was when he finished because so many players worked their way up and down the leaderboard over the final two hours. He wound up with a one-shot lead over Kyle Stanley, who bogeyed the 18th hole from the bunker for a 70; Cantlay, who drove into the creek left of the 18th fairway for a bogey and a 66; and Niemann, who atoned for one big mistake on the 15th hole with a birdie on the 18th for a 70.
Byeong Hun An (69) played bogey-free and was two shots behind in fifth, while Justin Rose (69) dropped two shots over the last three holes and was four back in sixth. Woods had a share of seventh with three others.
Baylor School graduate Luke List (73) was tied for 37th at 5 under.
More thunderstorms are expected today, so the final round will have threesomes, and groups will tee off earlier than usual.
Change at the top
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Ariya Jutanugarn turned a three-shot deficit into a fourshot lead with a 5-under 67 at the U.S. Women’s Open.
The 22-year-old from Thailand started the third round at Shoal Creek Club behind Australia’s Sarah Jane Smith, but she quickly gained ground by making two birdies in her first three holes.
Jutanugarn took the lead after Smith stumbled with back-to-back bogeys, then surged ahead with three straight birdies on the back nine. She was at 12-under 204 for the tournament.
Smith, who opened the tourney with back-to-back 67s and had at least a share of the lead after each of the first two rounds, didn’t make a birdie on her way to a 74 that dropped her into second place.
Hyo-Joo Kim (68) was in third, six shots out of the lead.
Slattery slips ahead
BRESCIA, Italy — Lee Slattery held a one-stroke lead entering the final round of the Italian Open after shooting a 9-under 62 for the low score at this year’s tournament.
Seeking his first victory since the 2015 Russian Open, the 39-year-old Englishman produced eight birdies and an eagle while making one bogey to move to 16-under 197 overall. That put him just ahead of Italy’s Francesco Molinari (66) — who extended his run of holes without a bogey to 85 before dropping a shot on the sixth — and Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen (65).
Molinari is coming off the biggest win of his career at the BMW PGA Championship. Slattery missed the cut at that event, the crown jewel of the European Tour, and Oleson tied for 60th.
A pair of former major champions were tied for fourth at 14 under: Danny Willett (67), the 2016 Masters winner, and Martin Kaymer, the 2010 PGA Championship winner and 2014 U.S. Open winner who was once ranked No. 1 in the world.