Hadley up by 4 in bid to end drought
Chesson Hadley moved a step closer to his first PGA Tour victory in seven years, opening a four-stroke lead over Harris English and six over Dustin Johnson on Saturday in the rain-delayed Palmetto Championship at Ridgeland, S.C.
Hadley, English, Johnson and Lee Tain were all on the 18th hole when the horn sounded to stop play because of lightning. Rain followed about 10 minutes later and officials waited more than two hours for things to clear before telling the players they had to return to finish Sunday morning.
Hadley, in the final group, had just driven into the fairway. English and Tain were preparing to putt. Johnson had yet to hit.
Hadley stands 19 holes away from closing out a surprising week with his second career tour victory after entering this tournament off five consecutive missed cuts.
Hadley surged late with four birdies on a five-hole stretch of the back nine to reach 14 under.
English was 10 under. Johnson, who was tied for the lead early in the round, dropped into a third-place tie with South Africa’s Garrick Higgo at eight under. Higgo finished with a 68.
Hadley was holding a halfway lead for the first time in PGA Tour career. And paired with world No. 1 Johnson, Hadley seemed poised to fall — especially after his opening drive went left of the fairway and led to bogey. One hole later, Johnson’s birdie had them tied for the top.
But it was Johnson who faltered, looking more like the error-prone ball-striker
who missed cuts at the Masters and the PGA Championships the past two months than the one who confidently took control of his home-state Congaree Golf Club in the two opening rounds.
LPGA
Min Lee made a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-five 18th for a four-under 68 and two-stroke lead in the LPGA
Mediheal Championship at Daly City, Calif.
Lee also birdied the parfive 15th and par-three 17th to pull away from former Stanford player Lauren Kim and Finland’s Matilda Castren.
The 26-year-old Lee, from Taiwan, is trying to win for the first time on the LPGA Tour. She had a nine-under 207 total at Lake Merced after failing to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open last week at nearby Olympic Club.
Castren shot a 69, and Kim had a 71.
Switzerland’s Albane Valenzuela, another former Stanford player, had a 68 to join 2000 U.S. Women’s Open champion A Lim Kim (69) at 6 under.
Champions
Miguel Angel Jimenez shot a three-under 69 to take a one-stroke lead over Fred Couples into the final round of the American Insurance Championship at Madison, Wis.
Jimenez, also the firstround leader after a 65, had a 10-under 134 at University Ridge. The 57-year-old Spaniard has 10 victories on the 50-and-over tour after winning 21 times on the European Tour.
Couples, 61, followed an opening 68 with a 67. He won the 2017 tournament for the last of his 13 senior titles.