Latest news with #PGATourChampionsmajor

Boston Globe

Scottie Scheffler lurking six strokes behind co-leaders Ben Griffin, Matt Schmid at Colonial

Coming off his third major victory at the PGA Championship a week ago, Scheffler began the day 10 strokes back before a 6-under 64 that got him to 7 under and within six strokes. He would have been closer if not for three bogeys his last seven holes. But, with another big round on Sunday, he still has a chance to become the first player since Dustin Johnson in 2017 to win in three starts in a row. Advertisement Robert MacIntyre and Lucas Glover also shot 64. MacIntyre was in a tie for fourth with Nick Hardy and Akshay Bhatia at 8 under. Advertisement Scheffler was on the wrong end of one of the biggest comebacks at Colonial, three years ago when Sam Burns overcame a seven-shot deficit in the final round and beat his good friend on playoff hole. That matched Nick Price's record seven-shot comeback in 1994, when he caught Scott Simpson and won on the first extra hole. Griffin and Schmid both had birdies on the first three holes Saturday to get to 14 under and quickly create some separation from the rest of the field. All three birdie putts by Griffin were 7 feet or less, while Schmid had a 40-footer at the 461-yard third hole. They remained tied until Griffin's approach at No. 5 adjacent to the Trinity River was out of bounds and resulted in a double-bogey 6. He then missed the green with his approach at the sixth hole before two-putting from 14 feet for bogey. Griffin got two strokes back with birdies at No. 8 and at No. 10 with a 35-footer. That got him to 13 under, and Schmid dropped back to that when he drove into the right rough and then hit into a bunker on way to a bogey at the 637-yard par-5 11th. Scheffler, who teed off more than two hours before the co-leaders, was at 8 under after his eagle at No. 11, where he got on the green in two shots and made the 15-foot putt. That followed consecutive birdies as Nos. 9 and 10, and starting the back nine with an approach to 2½ feet. But back-to-back bogeys followed after Scheffler hit tee shots into bunkers at Nos. 12 and 13. He got those strokes back with birdies at Nos. 16 and 17, only to miss the fairway at No. 18 to finish with another bogey. Advertisement The only player to win the Byron Nelson and Colonial in the same season was Ben Hogan in 1946. Scheffler earlier this month won his beloved hometown CJ Cup Byron Nelson when matching the PGA Tour's 72-hole scoring record at 31-under 253 for an eight-stroke win. Foursome leads Senior PGA Retief Goosen and Angel Cabrera were among those tied for the lead at 5-under along with Jason Caron and Phillip Archer through three rounds of the Senior PGA Championship. The star-studded leaderboard at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., also includes Vijay Singh , Stewart Cink and Padraig Harrington . Golfers within two strokes going into the final round have combined to win 13 major championships. But some of the best play at the PGA Tour Champions major this week has come from some more unheralded competitors, including Archer and Caron. 'The people up there are the people that have a lot of experience,' Cabrera said. 'Most of them have been in many majors, and you can see that.' Goosen has two US Open championships on his resume and Cabrera one of those to go along with the 2009 Masters. Harrington won the British Open in 2007 and '08 and Cink in '09, while Singh has two PGA Championship victories and another in the Masters. Bae leads in Mexico by one Jenny Bae started with three straight birdies and had a one-shot lead that could have been larger except for a soft finish Saturday in the Mexico Riviera Maya Open in Playa del Carmen. Bae didn't make another birdies after the third hole. What held her back were having to settle for pars on easy scoring holes, and then closing with a bogey when it took her two shots to get out of the crushed coral left of the green on the par-5 18th. Advertisement Bae was at 7-under 209, and the LPGA rookie faces a big test Sunday — along with just about everyone else chasing her — in a bid for her first LPGA victory. 'I didn't finish as well as I wanted to, but that's OK,' Bae said. 'Just tells me that I need to fight more the last 18 holes.' The El Camaleon course at Mayakoba was set up for scoring, with the tees moved up on the par-4 17th to make it reachable with a fairway metal, and the par-5 closing hole. Yahui Zhang of China finished birdie-birdie for a 68 and was at 6-under 210, along with Chisato Iwai of Japan, who also birdied the last two holes.