Schenk's late birdie gives him PGA lead over Spieth
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 in Palm Harbor, Fla.
Spieth, however, is who dictated the action.
He had a 69 but he wasted a 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.
“I didn't have my best stuff in the approach game, but overall I'm in a good spot for (today),” Spieth said.
Schenk was at 8-under 205 and will play in the final group with Spieth. LEISHMAN LEADS LIV GOLF IN ARIZONA >> 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.
LANGER ON TOP IN BID TO BREAK RECORD >> Bernhard Langer remained in position in the Hoag Classic to break a tie with Hale Irwin at Newport Beach for the PGA Tour Champions victory record.
Langer shot a 5-under 66 and onestroke lead over Miguel Angel Jimenez with a round left. The 65-year-old German star tied Irwin at 45 victories a month ago in Florida.
NHL
EX-SHARK KANE HAS 6TH CAREER HAT TRICK >> Former San Jose Shark Evander Kane recorded his second hat trick of the season and the Edmonton Oilers gained some cushion in the Western Conference playoff chase with a 6-4 win over the Kraken in Seattle.
Kane capped the sixth three-goal game of his career by scoring on an odd-man rush with 9:40 remaining just after a power play for Seattle ended. Kane also scored Edmonton's first goal less than two minutes into the game.
Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists, giving him 134 points for the season — the seventh-most points by any player in the past 30 years. AVALANCHE 5, RED WINGS 1 >> Nathan MacKinnon scored a tiebreaking goal with a burst of speed and a slick wrist shot midway through the second period to help Colorado win its fifth straight.
BRUINS 5, WILD 2 >> David Pastrnak scored his 47th goal of the season and Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in Boston's road win over Minnesota.
JETS 3, PREDATORS 2, OT >> Neal Pionk scored 55 seconds into overtime to lead Winnipeg.
Nikolaj Ehlers and Adam Lowry also scored and Connor Hellebuyck made 18 saves for the Jets, who snapped a two-game losing streak. HURRICANES 5, FLYERS 4, OT >> Carolina's Sebastian Aho had a hat trick, including the winner 28 seconds into OT after teammate Martin Necas tied it with 0.3 seconds left in regulation.
NFL
JETS RE-SIGN EX-49ER THOMAS >> The New York Jets re-signed veteran defensive lineman Solomon Thomas to a one-year contract.
The 27-year-old former Stanford star and No. 1 pick by the 49ers had 26 tackles, two tackles for loss, four quarterback hits and a half-sack while working as a backup in New York's Dline rotation.
Tennis MEDVEDEV INTO INDIAN WELLS FINAL
>> Daniil Medvedev defeated Frances Tiafoe 7-5, 7-6 (4), winning on his eighth match point for his 19th consecutive match victory of the year and a berth in the BNP Paribas Open final.
Medvedev will play for the title today against the winner of a late semifinal between top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz and No. 11 seed Jannik Sinner. DJOKOVIC WITHDRAWS FROM MIAMI OPEN >> Novak Djokovic withdrew from next week's Miami Open because he still can't travel to the United States as a foreign citizen who is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Skiing
VLHOVA WINS SLALOM, SHIFFRIN
TAKES THIRD >> Slovakian skier Petra Vlhova used a frenetic finish on her final run to win the last women's World Cup slalom of the season in Soldeu, Andorra, while Mikaela Shiffrin placed third.
Shiffrin won six of the previous 10 slaloms this season and the American locked up the discipline title in January. She has also secured her fifth overall and second giant slalom globe. ODERMATT SETS MEN'S RECORD >> Swiss skier Marco Odermatt broke the 23-year-old men's record for most World Cup points in a single season after dominating the giant slalom at the World Cup Finals in Soldeu, Andorra.
Odermatt, the defending Olypic champion, won the race by a massive 2.11 seconds over second-place Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway.
The victory lifted Odermatt's tally to 2,042 points and past the previous mark of 2,000 set by Austrian great Hermann Maier in the 1999-2000 season.