Thomas posts 67 for 3-shot Firestone lead
AKRON, Ohio — Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy have become friends more by location than youth. They live near each other in South Florida and said they spent last weekend practicing together at The Bear’s Club.
Today at Firestone will be the eighth time this year they play together in a tournament, and the number grows next week when they play the opening two rounds with Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship.
But this is the first time a trophy is at stake.
Thomas pulled away from the pack with five birdies in the middle of his round Saturday for a 3-under 67, giving him a three-shot lead over McIlroy and Ian Poulter going into the final round of the Bridgestone Invitational.
“We’ve played together a lot in tournaments, but never in this kind of situation,” Thomas said.
McIlroy played bogeyfree on a Firestone course that finally started to get firm, atoning for a few missed birdie chances with key par putts.
He already has won at Bay Hill this year, though he felt he should have won more.
He has been runner-up three times, most recently at the British Open two weeks ago.
“I played well enough to win a few times this year and I only got over the line once,” McIlroy said. “Tomorrow is a great opportunity to try and win again. I’ll need a good round. I’m still a few behind. But yeah, I’m getting a little sick of the second places.”
McIlroy made up three shots in the final round in 2014 when he rallied to beat Sergio Garcia at Firestone. It might be a taller order to take on Thomas, who already has won twice this season and appears to have found his touch with the putter.
Starting with a pitching wedge from 129 yards into the breeze to 6 feet at No. 6, Thomas made birdie on every other hole through the 14th to pull away.
No one could keep pace with Thomas, least of all Tiger Woods.
Starting the third round Saturday five shots behind, Woods didn’t make a birdie until a 12-foot putt on the 12th hole, and he didn’t make another.
He wound up with a 73, leaving him 11 shots back and ending his streak of 10 straight rounds at par or better dating to the U.S. Open.
BLAINE, Minn. — Kenny Perry tied a tournament record with a 12-under 60 and has a fiveshot lead after two rounds of the 3M Championship.
Looking to become just the second three-time winner of the event, Perry had two eagles and eight birdies at a wet TPC Twin Cities. His two-round score of 126 is a tournament record.
Putnam up
RENO, Nev. — Andrew Putnam took the lead Saturday in the Barracuda Championship, three points ahead of playing partner Sam Saunders in the PGA Tour’s only modified Stableford scoring event. Putnam had eight birdies and a bogey at windy Montreux Golf and Country Club, scoring 15 points under the format that awards eight points for albatross, five for eagle, two for birdie and zero for par, and subtracts a point for bogey and three for double bogey or worse.
Chasing his first PGA Tour victory, the 29-year-old from Tacoma had 38 points overall. Saunders, Arnold Palmer’s grandson, eagled the par-5 13th and 18th in a 12-point round.
LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England — Pornanong Phatlum held on to her overnight one-shot lead at the Women’s British Open after a solid third round of 3-under-par 69 in pursuit of her first LPGA win.