Clean card puts Mcilroy into lead
On a day when eight players had a chance to take the lead at the HSBC Champions, Rory Mcilroy found the best way to move forward was to not go backward.
He didn’t get the most out of his round Saturday at Sheshan International in Shanghai. But he had the lead.
“I’m not going to complain,” Mcilroy said after 5-under 67 with no bogeys on his card. “I’m in the lead. Just need to rest up and try to get out there and play another good, solid round of golf.”
Mcilroy hit a towering lob wedge that spun down the ridge to 3 feet for birdie on the par-5 closing hole to reach 15-under 201 and take a oneshot lead over Louis Oosthuizen. Mcilroy is going for his first World Golf Championship since 2015, his fourth victory of the year and a chance to move a little closer to the No. 1 ranking.
Oosthuizen began the third round with five straight birdies and finished with two birdies over his last three holes for a 65.
Li Haotong of China had a robust crowd going early with five birdies through six holes to take the lead, only to shoot 42 on the back nine for a 74 that knocked him out of contention.
Defending champion Xander Schauffele felt a little better in his fight to recover from the flu, and it showed early when he opened with three straight birdies and missed an 8-foot putt that would have been four in a row. He overcame a few mistakes around the turn and finished with three straight birdies for a 68 to finish two off the lead and get into the final group.
Schauffele was tied at 13-under with Matt Fitzpatrick (70). DEFENDING CHAMP KORDA IN POSITION FOR WIN >> Defending champion Nelly Korda shot a 7-under 65 to take a three-stroke lead after the third round of the LPGA Swinging Skirts. Korda, who started the third round one stroke back of overnight leader Mi Jung Hur, carded seven birdies at the par-72 Miramar Golf Country
Club in Taipei, Taiwan, to finish at 18-under 198, three strokes ahead of Minjee Lee, who shot a 67. Mi Jung Hur, who is looking for her third victory this season, shot a 71 and was in fourth place at 13-under 203.
HIGGS, SEEKING FIRST WIN, HAS LEAD HEADING INTO FINAL ROUND >> Harry Higgs rebounded from his first bogey of the week to take a two-stroke lead in the PGA Tour’s inaugural Bermuda Championship. After dropping a stroke on the par-4 14th at hilly Port Royal in Southampton, Higgs birdied the par-3 16th and par-4 18th for his second straight 6-under 65. He had a 17-under 196 total.
Brendon Todd, tied for the secondround lead with Higgs and Scottie Scheffler, was second after a 67. Bo Hoag (64) and Brian Gay (65) were three back.
GOOSEN LEADS OVER LANGER, COUPLES >> South Africa’s Retief Goosen shot a 6-under-par 66 to take a one-stroke lead over Germany’s Bernhard Langer and Fred Couples through two rounds of the Invesco QQQ Championship. Goosen is at 10-under 134 after finishing the round with seven birdies at Sherwood Country Club inthousand Oaks.
The tournament is the second leg of the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.
Rugby
SOUTH AFRICA WINS THIRD WORLD CUP TITLE >> South Africa won the Rugby World Cup for a record-tying third time, using its power at the set piece to seize control before scoring two clinical late tries through its wingers in a 32-12 victory over England in Yokohama, Japan.
It is three for three in finals for the Springboks, after previous wins in 1995 and 2007. The Springboks became the first team to lose a game and rebound to win the World Cup, having lost to two-time defending champion New Zealand in the group stage last month.
Motorsports
HAMILTON TO START 5TH AT US GRAND PRIX AS HE CHASES F1 TITLE >> Valtteri Bottas grabbed a surprising pole position for the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, where Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton will start back in fifth as he pursues a sixth career Formula One championship.
Bottas set a track record at the Circuit of the Americas with a lap of 1 minute, 32.029 seconds to grab the front position head of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
HARVICK ON POLE AT TEXAS >> Kevin Harvick will start from the pole at Texas Motor Speedway after a qualifying lap of 189.707 mph. Harvick goes into today’s race in Fort Worth fifth in points with two races remaining to qualify for one of the three remaining championship-contending spots in the finale.
Denny Hamlin, who is second in points, qualified third. Martin Truex Jr., who won last week at Martinsville and is already locked into the final four, qualified 17th.
Baseball
NATIONALS FANS REJOICE AS HOMETOWN HEROES ARE HONORED >> The song “Baby Shark” blared over loudspeakers and a wave of red washed across this politically blue capital as Nationals fans rejoiced at a parade marking Washington’s first World Series victory since 1924.
“They say good things come to those who wait. 95 years is a pretty long wait,” Nationals owner Ted Lerner told the cheering crowd. “But I’ll tell you, this is worth the wait.”
At a rally just blocks from the Capitol, pitcher Max Scherzer said his teammates grinded their hearts out to “stay in the fight.” And then, after backup outfielder Gerardo Parra joined the team, he said, they started dancing and having fun. And they started hitting. “Never in this town have you seen a team compete with so much heart and so much fight,” he said.
Tennis
DJOKOVIC REACHES PARIS FINAL >> Novak Djokovic reached his sixth Paris Masters final beating Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (5), 6-4, then learned old rival Rafael Nadal withdrew injured from his semifinal with an abdominal strain.
The second-ranked Spaniard said he still hoped to play at the seasonending ATP Finals in London.