The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Spieth remains out front at Travelers
Birdies on three of final four holes helps Dallas native remain out front
The 66 Jordan Spieth shot in Saturday’s third round at TPC River Highlands doesn’t seem all that impressive.
But the manner of how it was accomplished certainly was.
The 23-year-old from Dallas birdied three of his last four holes, including a 20-footer on the 18th hole to give himself the same one-shot lead he held the previous two rounds at the Travelers Championship.
“Good short-game shots are the reason you’d stay in tournaments,” Spieth said.”The guys near the top of the leaderboard have all been in trouble this week, and they’ve gotten out of it from a solid short game and then continued on the round.”
Spieth, who stands at 12-under-par 198 through three rounds, holds the lead over Boo Weekley. The two will be paired together Sunday afternoon in the final group at 2 p.m.
“He’s a really good ball striker who a couple events that I’ve been involved in, in the heat of things, he shot very low numbers on Sundays. He’s not afraid to do so,” Spieth said about Weekley.
Daniel Berger, who led after
last year’s third round, is in third at 9-under, three shots behind Spieth.
“If I just keep doing the same things I’m doing, hopefully I’ll have a chance tomorrow,” Berger said.
Weekley, 43, fired a 65 and was tied for the lead late in the round thanks to also birdieing three of his last four holes. In five previous appearances at Travelers, Weekley’s best finish is a tie for 14th.
“You’ve just got to go out, stay focused, pick your spots and just hit your shots. I mean, that’s the whole key to the game anyway,” said Weekley, who also has three missed cuts at Travelers. “If you can execute them, then I feel like I should be right there in the top. Make a couple putts here and there and you never know.”
Paul Casey, David Lingmerth and C.T. Pan are tied for fourth place at 8-under.
“I’m not going to react to what other guys are doing maybe until the last couple of holes. It’s a golf course which has yielded some amazing numbers in the past,” said Casey, who lost in a playoff to Bubba Watson two years ago.
Defending champion Russell Knox is in a tie for 28th place at 3-under. Also out of contention is Rory McIlroy, who stands where he started, at even par, 12 shots behind Spieth.
Connecticut natives Brett Stegmaier (Madison) and J.J. Henry (Fairfield) stand at 3-under and even par, respectively.
The large crowds followed Spieth’s every shot. His two playing partners, Patrick Reed and Troy Merritt, both shot themselves out of contention for the final round.
Spieth opened with five straight pars before birdies on 6 and 7. It was after he bogeyed 9 when Charley Hoffman grabbed the outright lead at 10-under after birdieing 15. He had eagled 13 and birdied 14.
Then as quickly as Hoffman took the lead, he gave it away. He finished double bogey-bogey-bogey and is now tied for 10th, six behind Spieth.
Spieth birdied 11 and 12, then hit in the water off the tee on the par-5 13th, leading to the start of consecutive bogeys.
“I don’t know what it showed as, but it had to be one of the top couple easiest holes of the day. But it’s all really in that tee ball,” Spieth said.
Then, after driving into the greenside bunker on the short 15th hole, Spieth almost holed the second shot for eagle.
“I was on the upslope into the wind, so it was as easy as that shot could get,” Spieth said. “When it came down on the flagstick and it landed, I thought it was going to go in.”
Weekley, a three-time winner on tour and one of the heroes for the U.S. in the 2008 Ryder Cup, hasn’t had a top-10 finish since February of 2016.
“It’s just kind of surreal to be back up here in front of y’all and talking about it,” Weekley said. “As much work as I’ve put into golf and as much as I’d love to win again and be a part of it, don’t matter which tournament, I just want to win.”
Now Weekley, the 390th ranked player in the world, gets a chance to go manoe-mano with the world’s sixth-ranked player to see if either can end Sunday as the Travelers Championship winner.
“I imagine being in the last couple groups on the weekend when the weather’s good out here, it’s a highly populated area and within a couple hours you’ve got two of the biggest cities in the world,” Spieth said. “I imagine it to be pretty similar tomorrow. It will be a lot of fun.”