Todd leads RSM by 2, seeks third win in row
A few years removed from battling the full yips, Brendon Todd has a chance to be mentioned alongside Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson as he goes for a third consecutive PGA Tour victory.
Todd felt like he couldn’t miss Saturday at Sea Island and he rarely did. With six birdies on the front side of the Seaside Course, he shot an 8-under-par 62 to tie the 54-hole tournament record and build a two-shot lead in the RSM Classic in St. Simons Island, Georgia.
Not since Johnson in 2017 has anyone won three consecutive starts on the PGA Tour.
Not since Woods in
2006 has anyone won three consecutive tournaments on the PGA Tour schedule.
Todd has a chance to join both Sunday even as he tries to keep it in perspective. For Todd, it’s not about going for three in a row. It’s about posting a good score in the final round.
He figures his battle with the yips should help.
“I think I’ve had to be so disciplined over the last year mentally about just focusing in on ever shot that I’m aiming to kind of use that experience to my advantage now,” he said.
Todd was at 18-under 194, who shots ahead of Webb Simpson (63) and Sebastian Munoz (66), who already has won this season at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Tyler Duncan, who started with a two-shot lead, made 18 pars for a 70 and was four shots behind.
Simpson and Todd played junior golf together in North Carolina, and he says Todd often got the best of him being a grade ahead. They have remained close, and Simpson said Todd confided in him while struggling with his game.
“I think it’s remarkable,” Simpson said about Todd’s turnaround. “He’s a good friend of mine and to show the resilience of not playing well, to come back and stay in it and get one win and then two in a row, and now he’s playing great again. I’m really happy for him.”
LPGA TOUR
Sei Young Kim had only one birdie on the back nine and held on for a 4-under 68 and a one-shot lead over Nelly Korda, who made a charge going into the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship with the richest prize ever in women’s golf on the line.
Kim led by as many as five shots with three birdies over the opening seven holes. She stopped converting birdie chances on the back nine of Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, and Korda made her move.
Korda began the back nine with three consecutive birdies, including a bunker shot she holed, and shot 31 on the back for a 66.
Kim was at 16-under
200 and will be in the final group with Korda. At stake is $1.5 million to the winner.
Caroline Masson of Germany, who will join them in the final pairing, had a 70 and was four shots behind, with Charley Hull of England another shot behind after a 66.
Defending champion Lexi Thompson of Coral Springs made an early charge, only to be slowed by a pair of bogeys on the back — all her bogeys this week have been on the back nine — that gave her a 70 and put her seven shots behind.
EUROPEAN TOUR
Jon Rahm moved into a strong position to win the Race to Dubai title after shooting 6-under 66 in the third round of the seasonending World Tour Championship to tie the lead with Mike Lorenzo-Vera in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Lorenzo-Vera bogeyed the 18th hole for the second day in a row to shoot 69 and drop into a share of the lead with Rahm, who needs to finish first or second to stand a chance of becoming European
No. 1 for the first time.
They are 15-under overall, two strokes ahead of Rory McIlroy (65) and four clear of fourth-place Tommy Fleetwood (70) — another Race to Dubai contender.
Bernd Wiesberger, who leads the Race to Dubai standings, was tied for
24th place — 13 strokes behind Rahm and LorenzoVera — after shooting 73.
Rahm can take the title if he wins and Wiesberger finishes lower than outright second, or if he finishes outright second and Wiesberger finishes worse than tied for fifth place with one other player.
“Playing pretty solid. Really confident off the tee. Really confident with every part of my game right now,” Rahm said.
Rahm won the seasonending event once and claimed a share of fourth place in his two starts at the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates.