Scheffler closes strong, takes lead at The Players
Scottie Scheffler shot 7-under-par 65 with birdies on two of the final three holes Saturday to hold a twoshot lead going into the final day of The Players Championship on the TPC Sawgrass course at Ponte Vedra Beach.
Min Woo Lee of Australia shot
66, but his bogey on the 18th hole to close out the third round dropped him out of a share of the lead before Scheffler sank another birdie putt for a late two-shot swing.
Cam Davis of Australia (67) is alone in third place at 10 under. The English duo of Tommy Fleetwood (65) and Aaron Rai (65) are in a group of four tied for fourth place at 9-under, along with Chad Ramey (68) and South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout (69).
Tom Hoge broke the course record with 10-under 62, shooting 31 on each side and going through the third round without a bogey. His 10 birdies in the round allowed him to rocket forward into a tie for eighth place at 8 under, while putting an opening-round 78 in the past.
Because Friday storms resulted in a suspension of play the second round was completed Saturday morning. The third round followed and was conducted with players in groups of three, starting on the first and 10th tees.
Adam Svensson held the lead after the second round was complete Saturday morning. He was two shots in front of Scheffler, the 2022 Masters champion, at the start of the third round. Svensson fell off the pace with a 75 in the third round to land in a 12-way tie for 14th place at 6 under.
Unable to make the two-round cut was Rory McIlroy, who shot 76 and 73 and finished his two rounds at 5 over. World No. 1 Jon Rahm withdrew before the second round because of illness, only Scheffler advancing to the third round among the top three ranked players in the world.
SHIFFRIN SETS RECORD FOR WORLD CUP VICTORIES
Mikaela Shiffrin broke Ingemar Stenmark’s Alpine skiing record for career World Cup victories Saturday, claiming her 87th win in a slalom event in Are, Sweden, Stenmark’s home country.
Shiffrin, who broke Lindsey Vonn’s women’s record in January with her 83rd career victory, entered this week’s competition with 85, one win shy of tying Stenmark, a slalom and giant slalom star in the 1970s and ’80s. Shiffrin tied the record by winning Friday’s giant slalom event, then broke it Saturday in the slalom.
Shiffrin, whose first World Cup win came in Are in December 2012, entered this season with 74 World Cup wins. She clinched last weekend her fifth World Cup overall title, which annually goes to the skier with the most points over the course of the season.
“At the start of the season, I didn’t think I was coming close to this 86 number [this year], so my goal was the overall globe,” she said then.
The 66-year-old Stenmark has described Shiffrin as being a “much better” skier than he was.
“You cannot compare,” he recently told the AP. “She has everything. She has good physical strength, she has a good technique, strong head. I think it’s the combination of everything makes her so good. And I’m also impressed that she can ski good both in slalom and in super-G and downhill also. I could never have been so good in all disciplines.”
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MLB: Less than seven months after he made his major league debut, the Arizona Diamondbacks moved to lock in promising outfielder Corbin Carroll to an eight-year, $111 million contract, according to multiple outlets . ... Two-time World Series winner Jesus Alou has died at age 80. Alou was the younger brother of Hall of Famer
Felipe Alou and two-time All-Star
Matty Alou. Jesus Alou was an outfielder who played 15 seasons with four major league teams, winning back-toback World Series championships with the Oakland Athletics in 1973 and
1974. Alou later served as a scout with the Montreal Expos before returning to his native Dominican Republic to oversee local operations for the thenFlorida Marlins and later the Red Sox. ... The Washington Nationals are in agreement with catcher Keibert Ruiz on an eight-year extension, multiple outlets reported Saturday. The reported deal, which will keep Ruiz in Washington through the 2030 season, includes two club options that could push the total value to $50 million. Ruiz, 24, batted .251 with seven homers and 36 RBIs in 112 games in his first full season with the Nationals in 2022.
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