English battles back to share lead at Farmers Open

SAN DIEGO — Two poor chips wound up costing Harris English three shots. He battled just to get birdie chances on the South Course at Torrey Pines and only converted two of them. He wound up with a 1-over 73 and a share of the lead with J.B. Holmes on Saturday in the Farmers Insurance Open.

And he was pleased with his performance.

The previous three tournaments he played this year, a 73 would have sent English spiraling down the leaderboard. Not this week.

Holmes birdied all but one of the par 5s and escaped with bogey on his one big miss in the third round. He had a 68 to match the low score of the round and join English on top of a very crowded leaderboard going into the final round.

A dozen players were separated by two shots, and all but three of those players have won on the PGA Tour. Two of them, Jimmy Walker and Bill Haas, have won in the last month. Considering this is the South Course at Torrey Pines, today might be more about survival than shootout.

English and Holmes were at 9-under 207 with a host of contenders behind them.

LPGA

Piller’s 10 under leads

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Gerina Piller topped the leaderboard at 10 under Saturday when third-round play in the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic was suspended because of darkness.

Piller was 3 under for the round with nine holes left on Atlantis Resort’s Ocean Club course. She made 40-foot birdie putts on Nos. 3 and 4.

Second-ranked Inbee Park and No. 3 Stacy Lewis (Arkansas Razorbacks) were in the group at 8 under. Park had 11 holes left, and Lewis three.

“I feel good,” said Lewis, 6 under for the round. “I would have liked to have finished that round off today, but just going to bed with a good number posted so far, I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

WEB.COM

Wright runs to lead

BOGOTA, Colombia — Rain disrupted the Colombia Championship for the second consecutive day Saturday, but it didn’t keep Chase Wright from charging to the lead.

Wright had five birdies in his first eight holes and is 13 under par, two shots better than Steve Marino.

Patrick Rodgers, Roberto Diaz, Tyler McCumber and Zack Fischer are at 10 under.

Play was halted for about two hours Saturday because of dangerous conditions.

Sebastian Cappelen (Arkansas Razorbacks) was at 5-under 139 after completing two rounds. Tag Ridings (Razorbacks) was at 3-under 140 after two rounds.

Andrew Landry (Razorbacks), Glen Day (Little Rock) and Scott Gardiner (Farmington) did not make the cut.

CHAMPIONS

Bryant gets albatross

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Bart Bryant holed out with a 6-iron from 195 yards on the par-5 18th hole Saturday for the first double eagle on the Champions Tour since 2010, giving him a share of the second-round lead in the Allianz Championship at Broken Sound.

Bryant had bogeyed four of his previous seven holes to fall off the pace before his second shot at the 509-yard 18th hole landed on the front of the green and rolled into the hole for his first career albatross.

Playing in the final group, Bryant finished with a 3-under 69 to join Paul Goydos, Tom Pernice Jr. and Canada’s Rod Spittle atop the leader board at 9-under 135. Spittle had a 66, and Goydos and Pernice shot 69.

EUROPEAN PGA

Wiesberger leads

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Bernd Wiesberger is well positioned to cap a superb month of golf with victory in the Malaysian Open after shooting a 9-under 63 on Saturday, taking a two-shot lead going into the final round.

He moved to 17-under 199 overall at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club, two strokes ahead of Spain’s Alejandro Canizares.

Defending champion Lee Westwood struggled for much of the round before picking up birdies on his final two holes to sit three off the pace following a 69.