Ex-Bulldog Henley leads by 3 in Vegas

NORTH LAS VEGAS, NEV. — Four shotsbehindat the start of the day, former Georgia Bulldog Russell Henley ran offff three straight birdies to start the back nine Saturday and posted a 5-under 67 to build a three-shot lead going into the fifinal round of the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek.

Henley had plenty of help from the other players in his group.

Xander Schauffffffffffffele, who had a three-shot lead going into the weekend, had a pair of late bogeys and failed to capitalize onthepar 5s inhis round of 74. Tyrrell Hatton didn’t make a birdie until the fifinal hole in a 73. Of the top25 players, theywere the only twowho shot over par.

Henley’s putting has been a great fifit for the fifirm, glasslike greens of ShadowCreek. He leads the fifield inthemost important putting category, andithas carriedhimtoonly the second 54-hole lead of his PGA Tour career.

Henley was at 15-under 201.

LantoGriffiffin, whowonhis fifirst PGA Tour event a year ago at the Houston Open, found the water offff the tee on the par-5 18th and made bogey and still managed a 66. He was at 12-under 204 alongwith TalorGooch (69), JasonKokrak(68) andSchauffele, still in the mix despite a sloppy Saturday.

Hatton was in the group fifive shots behind with Justin Thomas (68) and Jason Day, who had a 66 as the former world No. 1 tries to end more than two years without a victory.

Henley started to close the gapwhen he got up-anddown froma bunker in front of the green on the par-5 seventh, and Schauffffffffffffele missed the greenonthepar-3 eighth and took bogey.

And when they made the turn, Henley took offffffffffff.

He holed a 25-foot birdie putt on No. 10, hit driver just through the green on the reachable par-4 11th hole to set up a simple up-anddown for another birdie, and then hit his approach to just inside 5 feet on No. 12 for a third straight birdie.

Henl ey closed with six straight pars, missing chances on the two par 5s, but no one could catch him.

But he knows what can happen, having flflipped his fortunes on Saturday.

“Anybody can come at me,” Henley said. “You can go lowout here. The greens are great and it’s gettable, but you’ve got to play well to do that. You’ve got to do everything well. I’ve got to just keepmy head downand play a good round for me.”

Schauffffffffffffele was hopeful of at least fifinishing his round at par, and that didn’t go his way, either. He went long on the par-3 17th into rough so deep he could barely keep it on the green, leading to his fourth bogey. And he went just over the back of the 18th green in two, again in rough facing a downhill chip that he rolled all the way to the fringe.

Schauffele likes to talk about “strokes gained attitude,” and it was a struggle for himwith rounds that stretching close to six hours at ShadowCreek because of deeprough, limitedmarshals and plenty of searching.

Sung Kang knows the feeling. Hetookan11onthepar-4 secondhole, whichincluded two lost ballswhen he spent more than three minutes looking and cameup empty. He also hit a few backward trying to escape trouble. Nothing worked.

Schauffffffffffffelewasn’t that bad. It just felt like it.

“Iwas trying to fifigure out what was worse, the pace of play or my quality of golf,” he said.

“It was kind of a tie today. Not to be a sour person, but just one of those days. Today wasmybaddayfor theweek. Got it out of the way before Sunday. I guess I’mina familiar place being three back now.“

Schauffffffffffffele has been trailing going into the fifinal round in all four of his PGA Tour victories.

Henley’s last victory was in 2017 at theHoustonOpen, where he came from four shots behind in the final round.

Now he has a cushion at Shadow Creek, and a hot putter on putting surfaces he loves.