San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Rahm slips to ninth place at Spanish Open
MADRID —World No. 1 Jon Rahm will need a big comeback to have a chance at successfully defending his Spanish Open title.
Rahm started Saturday one shot off the lead, but a rough third round left him six strokes behind new leader Rafa Cabrera Bello heading into the final round.
Rahm holds a share of ninth after carding a 1-over-72 through the third round at Madrid’s Club de Campo Villa. He hit a double bogey on the sixth hole and bogeyed the fourth, 11th and 12th holes, to go with four birdies.
Rahm is back playing in Spain for the first time in two years. The U.S. Open champion is the twotime defending champion at the Spanish Open, which was called off last year due to the pandemic. A third victory would tie him with Seve Ballesteros at the event.
Cabrera Bello shot a bogey-free 7-under 64 to move to the top of the leaderboard. He finished second to Rahm here in 2019. He is seeking his first win since the 2017 Scottish Open.
Cabrera Bello is two shots ahead of fellow Spaniard Adri Arnaus and France’s Julien Guerrier. Englishman Jack Senior is another shot back. Overnight leader Wil Besseling slipped to five shots back with three others.
Mickelson holds lead in Champions event
Phil Mickelson needed only
three holes to go from lagging behind to seizing control with an eagle-birdie-birdie stretch that carried him to a 5-under 67 and a two-shot lead Saturday in the Constellation Furyk & Friends Invitational in Jacksonville, Fla.
Making only his fourth PGA Tour Champions start — and second this year — Mickelson will be going after his third title on the 50-and-older circuit.
Miguel Angel Jimenez (65), Steve Flesch (66) and Matt Gogel (69) were two shots behind at Timuquana Country Club.
Flesch had run off three straight birdies when Mickelson took over.
Mickelson, who in May became the first player at age 50 to win a major at the PGA Championship, was among several top stars who
played the tournament as a favor to Jim Furyk, the tournament host who has a pair of 69s and was five shots behind.
Three-time major champion Padraig Harrington, coming off a loss as Europe’s captain in the Ryder Cup, had a 75 and was at 5-over 149 in his PGA Tour Champions debut.
U.S. captain Steve Stricker had a 67 and was five shots behind Mickelson.
Four-time major champion Ernie Els (67) and former PGA Champion David Toms (68) were among those three shots behind.
Ko nears LPGA mark, has 4-shot advantage
One more round in the 60s at the Founders Cup is all Jin Young
Ko needs to join Annika Sorenstam in the LPGA Tour record book.
That might be all it takes to win the Founders Cup, too.
Ko picked up her fourth birdie on the par-5 16th and closed with two pars for a 2-under 69, giving her a four-shot lead Saturday at
Mountain Ridge in West Caldwell, N.J., as she tries to win for the third time this year.
Saturday was her 13th consecutive round in the 60s, one off the LPGA record Sorenstam set during a four-tournament stretch in 2005, when she had 10 wins and was halfway to the calendar Grand Slam.
Ko played bogey-free on the back nine and stretched her lead to four shots over U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso (67), Elizabeth Szokol (65), two-time major champion So Yeon Ryu (71) and Lindsey Weaver (69).
Ko was at 13-under 200 as she tries to match Nelly Korda as the only three-time winners on the LPGA Tour this season. Korda, who also won the Olympic gold medal, replaced Ko at No. 1 in the world in late June.
Ryu didn’t have her best golf Saturday. She was 3 over at the turn and falling out of contention when she rallied with three birdies and no mistakes on the back nine to at least stay within range of Ko.
Szokol made three birdies on the par 3s and got in the mix with a strong front nine, overcoming her lone bogey on the 17th with a birdie on the par-5 closing hole.