4-under 67 puts Poulter in lead at RBC Heritage
COLLEGES: Michigan junior C Moe Wagner is entering the NBA draft and will sign with an agent. Wagner helped the Wolverines reach the NCAA title game, where they lost to Villanova. The 6-foot-11, 245-pound Wagner averaged 14.6 points and 7.1 rebounds and made 39.4 percent of his 3-point shots last season.
GOLF: Scott Parel shot an 8-under 64 to pull into a three-way tie with Steve Flesch and Bernhard Langer for the lead after three rounds of the Mitsubishi Electric Classic in Duluth, Ga . ... Paul Dunne shot a 4-under 68 in the third round of the Spanish Open and holds a one-shot lead over Nacho Elvira. Jon Rahm and Henric Sturehed finished the day two strokes back.
NBA: The Knicks reportedly have reached out to the representatives for David Fizdale and Jerry Stackhouse, and will interview Fizdale for their coaching vacancy this week. Fizdale attended Warriors practice Friday and told reporters there that he would be meeting with the Knicks and Suns for their coaching openings.
NFL: Former Bills QB and Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly was released from a New York City hospital on Saturday, 17 days after undergoing a 12-hour upper jaw reconstruction to remove cancer. His wife, Jill, announced Kelly’s release via Instagram.
SOCCER: Gabriel Jesus, Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling scored as Manchester City regained its swagger and closed in on the English Premier League title with a 3-1 win over Tottenham. City could clinch Sunday if Manchester United loses to West Bromwich Albion . ... Luis Suarez and Samuel Umtiti scored as Barcelona set a Spanish league record of 39 consecutive games unbeaten with a 2-1 win over Valencia 2-1.
TENNIS: No. 2 seed Kyle Edmund will face two-time champion Pablo Andujar in the Grand Prix Hassan II final after Edmund defeated fourth-seeded Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-4 in Marrakech, Morocco . ... Second-seeded Elise Mertens defeated Vera Lapko 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in Lugano, Switzerland to advance to the Samsung Open final to face Aryna Sabalenka.
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — The resurgent Ian Poulter shot a 4-under 67 on Saturday to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the RBC Heritage, putting him in position for his second victory in three weeks.
Before April, Poulter had not won on tour in more than five years. Now, he’s one more solid round away from adding another title to his dramatic win at the Houston Open on April 1.
No joke, Poulter’s play for real.
Seven of the Englishman’s last 11 rounds have been in the 60s after having just three such showings in his first 20 rounds this season. His latest left him at 13-under 200, and a stroke ahead of Luke List (67) and Si Woo Kim (68).
World No. 1 Dustin Johnson failed to make a move and, after a 72, was tied for 41st, 10 shots behind.
Poulter and his chasers will have a quick turnaround today, with tour officials starting play at 7 a.m. and going off in threesomes on both tees because of expected bad weather in the afternoon.
C.T. Pan and Billy Horschel, both with 67s, were another stroke back at 11 under, and Kevin Kisner (66) and Chesson Hadley (69) were three shots behind at 10 under.
Poulter made his run in spurts, moving out front with birdies on the fifth and six holes before getting his last two on the 12th and 13th. He saved par out of the bunker on the par-3 17th, rolling in a rock-solid 6-foot putt and making a routine par on the signature lighthouse hole, the 18th, to stay in front.
Kim was in front at 12 under after birdies on the eighth and ninth holes. He fell back with bogey on No. 12 and could not catch Poulter down the stretch.
List took off with three straight birdies on Nos. 14-16. List, who finished second earlier this season at the Honda Classic, is seeking his first PGA Tour win.
Second-round leader Bryson DeChambeau had the confident stride of a pending winner with his first solo 36-hole lead as a pro — at least until the third round got going. After grabbing a two-shot lead with a birdie on No. 1, DeChambeau imploded with a triple-bogey eight on the normally birdie-able par-5 second.
DeChambeau struck his second shot past the green and out of bounds by some condos. He fluffed his fifth shot into a bunker, then missed a 5-foot putt for the dreaded snowman.
Three holes later, DeChambeau botched another par 5, the fifth, by rolling his blast from a bunker off the green and into a sprinker cover.
“Unbelievable what’s happened on the par fives today,” DeChambeau said as he saw his ball.
DeChambeau had been 6-under par on Harbour Town’s three par 5s the first two rounds. He played them in 3-over Saturday on the way to a 75 to fall seven shots back.
In his only two previous appearances here Johnson missed the cut badly — at 16 over in 2008 and 5 over in 2009. This time Johnson had bogeys on four of his is first 11 holes before rallying to finish with a 72 and was 10 shots in back of Poulter.
Again, Johnson pointed to putter problems this week. Johnson missed five birdie putts of 16 feet or less on the front nine. “Around here, you’ve got to hole some putts if you want to compete,” he said.
Johnson said the early call will be difficult as the winds pick up on what has been an unusually mild layout. Brooke Henderson kept giving herself chances to run away from the field Friday at the Lotte Championship in Kapolei, Hawaii.
Instead, she had to be satisfied with barely hanging onto the lead.
After two nearly flawless, bogey-free days at windy Ko Olina Golf Club, the 20-yearold Canadian looked all too human in a frustrating third round that saw the wind switch directions.
Then again, so did nearly every other player.
Henderson will take a one-stroke advantage over 2014 Women’s British Open champ Mo Martin, whose eagle on the 13th kept her at even-par for the day, into the final round.
The leader was 3 over on the final three holes, fourputting the 16th for doublebogey. Henderson, who has already won five times on the LPGA Tour, finished with a 1-over 73 left her at 9 under.
She led by five early on the back nine, but 35 putts — she needed just 50 the first two days combined — had her trying to focus on the fact she still led at all.
“I’ve been kind of struggling with my putting all year,” Henderson acknowledged. “The first few rounds I had it going and I felt confident with it; then on the back nine I just kept missing. I just felt like that every single putt and kind of got a little bit down. That’s always a terrible way to be, especially when you’re still leading the tournament.”
Japan’s Nasa Hataoka, who is a year younger than Henderson, had a 68 to climb into a tie for third with third-ranked Inbee Park, two shots back.
Hataoka won the 2016 Japan Women’s Open Championship, becoming the first amateur — and youngest — to win a Japan LPGA major. Friday, she was one of the few to go low at Ko Olina, putting for eagle three times.
“The wind was totally the opposite. It was really confusing,” said Park, who shot 71.
“Some holes I was going into the wind I couldn’t really judge the distances. I don’t think I ever played this wind before on this course in five, six years.”
Even top-ranked Shanshan Feng struggled. Her 74 was only her second overpar round of the year. She shares fifth with Lizette Salas, three back of Henderson.
Salas, who lost a playoff at Lotte in 2013, shot 70.