San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
LET ’ER RIP
GOLF
Collin Morikawa has a two-shot lead heading into today’s final round of the WGC Workday Championship in Bradenton, Fla.
PGA champion Collin Morikawa went from feeling he could do no wrong to wondering if he could do anything right, and that was just over the final hour Saturday at the Workday Championship in Bradenton, Fla.
What mattered at the end of the third round was he had a two-shot lead as he goes for his first World Golf Championship title, even knowing it could have been a lot bigger.
Morikawa walked off the 12th hole with his seventh birdie in eight holes, stretching his lead to five shots with two par 5s still to play. He made bogey on both, shot a 5-under 67 and suddenly had four-time major champion Brooks Koepka and Billy Horschel on his tail.
“I didn’t play great the last six, but a lot to learn from heading into tomorrow,” Morikawa said. “Just to kind of clear my head to get ready for the 18-hole grind tomorrow.”
Koepka, who says his neck has been stiff for the last month, got his mistakes out of the way early by opening with a pair of bogeys and rallied late for a 70. Horschel also had a late rally with an eagle on the par-5 17th hole and shot 69.
Another shot back was Webb Simpson (69).
Rory Mcilroy, who made a double bogey for the second straight day, was hopeful of getting to 10 under to at least give himself a chance. He did one better with a 66, including an eagle on the par-5 13th that gave so many players fits, and wound up just four shots behind.
“It seems like it’s one of these courses where it can give up a lot of birdies and some eagles and stuff, but it can bite you very quickly without really doing much wrong,” Mcilroy said.
“Yeah, it’s one of these places where you just have to stay patient and know that you’re going to have chances.”
Morikawa was at 15under 201.
His troubles began on the par-5 13th, and it looked harmless enough when he put his approach from the rough into the bunker and blasted out to just under 25 feet for look at yet another birdie. Except that he left his putt 6 feet short, and missed the next one to take bogey.
“I never got it going again,” Morikawa said.
He also made bogey on the par-5 17th, the easiest hole at Concession on Saturday, by finding a bunker off the tee, having to lay up short of the water, and then hitting into another bunker.
Morikawa found plenty of positives. He still had a twoshot lead.
His putting stroke feels better than ever, and a chipping tip from Concession member Paul Azinger has left him confident on the short-game shots off the Bermuda grass.
Koepka is thankful he still has a chance.
Staked to a one-shot lead at the start of the third round, he opened with two straight bogeys, answered with a two-putt birdie on the third but then followed with eight straight pars and found himself seven shots behind.
He had three birdies over the last seven holes.
Webb Simpson had a 69 and was three shots behind, followed by Mcilroy and Patrick Reed (69).
“It’s definitely a course that no lead is big enough to kind of be safe because anything can happen,” Reed said.
Elsewhere
Mike Weir shot a 5-under 67 to build a two-shot lead after the second round of Cologuard Classic in Tucson, Ariz., putting San Diego native Phil Mickelson in a deep hole in his bid to win his first three PGA Tour Champions events.
The five-time major champion was nine shots back after a 72 that included a second straight day of hitting out of the mud on No. 15.
Local favorite Rafael Campos took a share of the lead in the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open, waiting out a series of rain delays to shoot a 5-under 67 at windy Grand Reserve.
Nelly Korda surged into the lead Saturday in the Gainbridge LPGA with a 4under 68 that left her in position to make it consecutive wins for the Korda family to start the season.
Annika Sorenstam sank to the bottom with a 79.
Korda, whose older sister
Jessica won the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions last month to start the new LPGA Tour season, dropped only one shot on a breezy day at Lake Nona to lead by one over
Patty Tavatanakit.