Schenk’s late birdie gives him lead

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Adam Schenk looked as though he and everyone else would get passed by Jordan Spieth on Saturday at the Valspar Championship. When a wild and windy round finished, Schenk was still the player everyone was chasing.

Schenk hit his approach to the 18th hole to 5 feet and made the birdie putt for a 1-under 70, giving him a one-shot lead over Spieth and Tommy Fleetwood as he goes after his first victory on the PGA Tour.

“We didn’t have a ton go our way until the very end,” Schenk said.

Neither did Fleetwood, who opened with a birdie and followed with 12 straight pars.

He wound up with a bogey-free 69 and realized not losing ground was one of the best things he had going on the Copperhead course at Innisbrook.

Spieth, however, is who dictated the action.

He had a 69 and had to decide when it was over whether that was a good score on account of all the mistakes he made or a wasted chance to separate himself from the field. Spieth opened with a 6-iron to 7 feet for eagle. He led by as many as two shots.

But he made only three pars over his final 12 holes – on four of those occasions, he followed a bogey with a birdie. But that ended on the 18th when he hit a tree on his drive, went into a front bunker and then blasted by the pin to the collar for a final bogey.

LIV Golf

MARANA, Ariz. – Marc Leishman opened with an eagle and held it together in the middle of his round for a 5-under 66, giving him a two-shot lead over Sergio Garcia going into the third and final round of LIV Golf Tucson.

Leishman said he had fallen into a habit of letting a rough stretch ruin his round.

The Australian dropped only one shot at the Gallery Golf Club in the high desert and delivered one last birdie on the par-5 17th to reach 11-under 131.

PGA Champions

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – Bernhard Langer remained in position Saturday in the Hoag Classic to break a tie with Hale Irwin for the PGA Tour Champions victory record.

Langer played the final five holes in 5 under – going birdie-eagle-par-birdiebirdie – for a 5-under 66 and one-stroke lead with a round left. The 65-year-old German star tied Irwin at 45 victories a month ago in the Chubb Classic in Florida.