Hole-in-one helps Thomas take lead
Ace part of 5-under 66; Johnson, Rory, Mickelson lurking.
Justin Thomas made a hole-in-one and surged into the lead with a 5-under 66 on a Saturday of high entertainment in the Mexico Championship.
Thomas hit a 6-iron from 239 yards that one-hopped into the cup on the par-3 13th. He added a pair of birdies that gave him a one-shot lead over Dustin Johnson, with Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy right behind.
Such a world-class leaderboard should have been enough to delight the crowd at Chapultepec Golf Club in Mexico City. There was so much more. Johnson, in his debut at No. 1 in the world, was tied for the lead when his second shot on the 16th got stuck in a tree. He walked back to the original spot and hit the next one to 15 feet, and the ball fell out of the tree as he was walking to the green. He made the putt to salvage a bogey and shot 66.
“It happens,” Johnson said.
Mickelson didn’t hit a fairway on the back nine until the 16th hole and at one point took as many drops as he had birdies. Even so, Lefty managed to make three straight birdies until closing with a bogey for a wild round of 68.
He was two shots behind, along with McIlroy, who didn’t make a birdie over his last seven holes and shot 70.
At nearly 7,800 feet of elevation, the final round figures to be up in the thin air. That might even include Jordan Spieth, who set the course record with an 8-under 63 and was among a dozen players within five shots of the lead.
It starts with Thomas, the 23-year-old who already has three victories in this PGA Tour wraparound season, two of them at the start of the year in Hawaii. He was hanging around the leaders when he made his hole-inone on the 13th.
“It looked perfec t ,” he said. “I think I said, ‘Go in.’ You might as well say it,” Thomas said while watching the shot on a TV monitor. “I haven’t hit too many shots exactly how I wanted. I liked this result.”
Lee Westwood, who has played in more World Golf Championships than anyone since they began in 1999, shot 31 on the back nine for a 66 and was three behind, along with Spanish rookie Jon Rahm, who had a 67.
Mickelson’s caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, was back to work after coping with a stomach virus Friday. He didn’t walk a straight line the way Mickelson was hitting it off the tee. During one stretch, Mickelson hit one out of eight fairways. He only hit four fairways and eight greens for the round, and he still managed to go into today just two shots off the lead.
“I’ve shot numbers like this hitting shots like that and salvaging strokes, but I’ve been playing better than that,” Mickelson said, clearly disappointed. “That looks like the way I’ve hit it the last three years — all over the place and saving shot. I haven’t been doing that this year.”
LPGA Tour: Michelle Wie shot a 5-under 67 to lead the HSBC Women’s Champions tournament by two strokes after the third round in Singapore.
The American followed up her previous rounds of 66 and 69 to reach 14-under 202 and lead an LPGA event after 54 holes for the first time since she won the 2014 U.S. Open.
Top-ranked Lydia Ko birdied the last hole for a 67 to end the day in a three-way tie for second. She was joined by last year’s British Open champion Ariya Jutanugarn (69) and the big-hitting Park Sung-Hyun (68).
Rio Olympic gold medalist Inbee Park shot a 71 to finish three shots behind Wie and tied with the defending champion, Ha Na Jang (68).
Plagued by injuries and a loss of form, Wie needed a sponsor’s invitation just to get a start in the $1.5 million tournament. But she’s been in vintage touch since arriving in Singapore and put herself in great position to end a three-year title drought.
“There definitely is some butterflies out there, but it’s exciting getting that feeling again and being in this position,” Wie said.
Euro p e a n Tour: S e c - ond-round co-leaders Alexander Bjork and Scott Jamieson will fight it out again today as they moved to 13 under e nt e r i ng t he f i nal round of the Tshwane Open at Pretoria Country Club in South Africa.