At Senior, Kelly loses lead, then gets it back
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— The play of the day came from a kid who slid into the rough to grab an errant tee shot.
The comeback of the day came fromthe man who led by three, watched it all slip away, then steeled himself in time to climb back to the top.
Just another crazy afternoon at the hard-to-read Broadmoor, where Jerry Kelly shot 1-over 71 on Saturday to finish the third round of the U.S. Senior Open in the same spot he started — atop the leaderboard with a one-shot advantage.
“Did it unnervemea little bit?” Kelly said about watching his lead disappear. “Yeah, absolutely.”
But he made a 6-foot slider to save par on No. 18, finish at 4-under 206 and preserve a one-shot lead over David Toms, who stayed far fromthe madness and shot a 66 to climb from a tie for 10th to second.
Behind Toms — nothing but chaos.
It began when Kelly took three putts to get down from inside of two feet on No. 12 — his first putt going airborne above the roughed-up poa annua turf and his second taking a 180-degree spin around the cup before bounding out.
Shortly after making double-bogey there, Kelly’s three-shot lead morphed into a one-shot deficit to his old college teammate, Tim Petrovic, who nearly holed out from the fairway on 14 for a birdie that briefly got him to 5-under.
But Petrovic’s lead didn’t last long. He bogeyedNo. 15. Then, on No. 17, he blocked his tee shot right and it bounded down the fairway into the right rough where an amped-up kid couldn’t believe his luck — sprinting into the grass and going into a full baseball slide to grab the ball.
Chastened by the marshal, the kid gave the ball back. Petrovic took a drop and had to pitch out from behind the trees en route to another bogey.
“Next time, kick it that way,” he joked with the kid, pointing toward the fairway, and trying to lighten the mood.
“I didn’t want to make him feel like itwasOKto do that, but it’s not the end of the world, either,” Petrovic said. “Only a major. No big deal. Samething I said tomy caddie after the round.”
Petrovic also bogeyedNo. 18 and finished with a 71, tied with Kirk Triplett (68) two shots out of the lead.
Another shot back are Brandt Jobe (66), Paul Goydos (70) and Miguel Angel Jimenez (73), who came into the round one shot behind Kelly but didn’t sink a putt longer than 5 feet. His only birdie came on a chipin from the side of the 15th green.
“It’s been a nightmare on the greens,” Jimenezsaid. “I think I need to have a tall glass of wine and relax.”
So Yeon Ryu takes 3-stroke lead in KPMG
Women’s PGA: So Yeon Ryu broke away on the closing holes at Kemper Lakes to take a three-stroke lead in Kildeer, Ill.
The 28-year-old South Korean star birdied the 14th and 15th holes to jump ahead of Canadian Brooke Henderson and finished with a birdie on 18. She shot a 5-under 67 on another scorching afternoon to get to 11-under 205 and move a step closer to her third major victory.
Henderson was second. She bogeyed Nos. 14 and 16 in a 70.
South Korea’ s Sung Hyun Park was 7 under after a 71, and American Angel Yin had a 68 to get to 6 under.
Ancer, Molinari share lead at National as Tiger
stalls: Abraham Ancer and Francesco Molinari each handled the scorching heat and shared the lead at the Quicken Loans National in Potomac, Md.
Ancer matched the best round of the week with an 8-under 62 on the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, giving the 27-year-oldMexican his best shot at his first PGA Tour victory. Molinari birdied his last two holes for a 65 and joined him at 13-under 197.
Tiger Woods looked as though he would be right there with them. Woods made four straight birdies, finished the front nine with seven straight one-putt greens and was in range to go even lower until he was slowed by missed putts and one bad tee shot. He ended up with a 68. That left Woods in a tie for 10th, six shots back.