Frustrated Woods fades after hot start
Tiger Woods ran off four straight birdies and finished the front nine with seven consecutive one-putt greens. Unlike Francesco Molinari and Abraham Ancer, he couldn’t keep it going Saturday in the Quicken Loans National.
Ancer and Molinari each handled the scorching heat on the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Potomac, Maryland, and shared the lead going into the final round.
Ancer birdied two of his last three holes for the lowest score of his career, an 8-under 62, giving the 27-year-old Mexican his best shot at a first PGA Tour victory. Ancer has never been in the top 10 going into the final round in 22 previous starts.
Molinari also is going for his first official PGA Tour victory, though that comes with an asterisk. He won a World Golf Championship in Shanghai in 2010, though the PGA Tour did not recognize the HSBC Champions as an official win until a year later.
They were at 13-under 197, two shots clear of Ryan Armour (68) and Zac Blair (66).
Woods was six shots behind, the seventh straight tournament he has been at least five shots behind going into the final round. It sure didn’t sound that way, and for most of the round, it didn’t look that way.
With his fifth birdie of the front nine, Woods was one shot out of the lead. And then he opened the back nine with a pair of birdie chances just inside 10 feet and missed the both. He never really regained his momentum, finished with another bogey and shot 68.
Considering the scoring average was 69.6 in the third round, he wound up losing two shots to the lead.
“It was frustrating because I played better than what my score indicates,” Woods said. “I thought that 10 under would have been a good score for me to end up at for the day, and I could have easily gotten that today on the back nine.”
He didn’t, and now has more ground to make up.
The nine players ahead of him have combined for just five (official) PGA Tour victories.
Molinaro has five European Tour victories, has played on two Ryder Cup teams and is No. 17 in the world.
“It’s where I want to be,” Molinari said, referring more to his position on the leaderboard than in heat approaching 100 degrees. “The main thing today was to stay close to the leader, so I’ve done a very good job of that.”
Ancer was tied for the lead after the opening
round at the Memorial, which is the only other time he has been atop the leaderboard after any round on the PGA Tour.
Conditions have been changing since the opening round with so much sun, no rain and fairways that are getting faster. That was more bothersome to Ancer than the heat.
“I grew up in Mexico,
in the north part of Mexico where it’s very hot,” he said. “Didn’t bother me. I would rather play in this than cold weather.”
The course certainly has everyone’s attention.
Woods found that out the hard way with three shots from the rough that sailed some 30 yards over the green, leading to bogeys.
“You have to hit it good. There’s no way around it,” Ancer said.
Women’s PGA Championship
RYU TAKES THREE-STROKE LEAD >> So Yeon Ryu broke away on the closing holes at Kemper Lakes to take a three-stroke lead in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Kildeer, Illinois.
The 28-year-old South Korean star birdied the 14th and 15th holes to jump ahead of 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.
Sung Hyun Park was 7 under after a 71, and Angel Yin had a 68 to get to 6 under.
Ryu won the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open and 2017 ANA Inspiration for her major victories. Adding the Women’s PGA would be quite the way to cap her birthday week after she turned 28 on Friday.
“Winning this tournament is going to be huge because I never really dreamed about becoming a Grand Slammer,” she said. “But after I won the ANA Inspiration, I started to dream about becoming a Grand Slammer. For that, I need to definitely win this tournament, and right now, I’m in pretty good position to achieve another dream so I really want to make it.”
She also won the Meijer LPGA Classic two weeks ago in Michigan for her sixth LPGA Tour victory. And she’s in a good spot at Kemper Lakes despite the brutal weather.
After heavy rain soaked the course earlier in the week, the past two days have been marked by brutal heat, with temperatures in the mid-90s on Saturday. And with storms in the forecast on Sunday, organizers decided to adjust the tee times and have groups of three start on the first and 10th holes.
Michelle Wie was 1 over after a 72.
U.S. Senior Open
WILD DAY FOR KELLY >> Jerry Kelly squandered the lead, then regained it, and will head into the final day of the U.S. Senior Open with a one-shot advantage over David Toms.
Kelly shot 1-over 71 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to finish at 4 under. He threeputted from inside of 2 feet on the 12th hole for a double bogey that briefly cost him the lead.
Toms shot a bogey-free 66.
Tim Petrovic had a 71. He briefly led after making birdie on No. 14, but bogeyed three his last four holes to finish two out of the lead, tied with Kirk Triplett (68).