Blixt, Smith widen lead
Jonas Blixt of Sweden and Cameron Smith of Australia are enjoying playing as teammates too much to be unsettled by wind gusts reaching 36 mph.
The pair extended their bogey-free run to three rounds in the new team format at the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, deftly adjusting to winds that unsettled many other players for a 4-under-par 68 Saturday to widen their lead to four strokes.
“It’s like going back to playing as a kid,” Blixt, 33, said. “I don’t feel like there’s any stress at all out there.”
Alternating shots Saturday, as teams did in the first round, the BlixtCameron partnership posted four birdies to improve to 19-under, building on a lead that stood at one shot through two rounds. They are the only team without a bogey.
“Feels like back in the amateur days,” Smith said of playing in the first team event held on the PGA Tour since 1981, about 12 years before he was born. “It’s just nice to go out there and relax and have some fun.”
The Kevin Kisner-Scott Brown and Nick WatneyCharley Hoffman teams were tied for second. Also in contention are Jordan Spieth and Ryan Palmer, five shots behind.
The final round will start earlier than planned — at 6:40 a.m. CDT — because of rain in the forecast. The format will return to “best ball,” as in the second round, with each two-man team taking the best score of either player per hole.
Australia’s John Senden, who withdrew from the Zurich Classic, says his 13-year-old son, Jacob, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. LPGA Tour: It was windy in Irving, Texas, as well. Haru Nomura of Japan shot 1-over 72 at the North Texas LPGA Shootout and actually doubled her lead.
At 8-under 205, Nomura has a two-stroke lead over 17-year-old amateur Eun Jeong Seong (69), Cristie Kerr (70) and twotime Texas winner Inbee Park (71).
World No. 1 Lydia Ko withdrew because of an eye infection. European Tour: Dylan Frittelli of South Africa moved three strokes clear of the China Open field after carding an 8-under 64 to get to 19-under after the third round in Beijing.