Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida – JJ Spaun watched his 25-foot putter vortex 360 degrees around the cup and fell onto the PAR, a wild, windy, round-wearing finale at the player championship on Saturday, which brought him into the final round of Golf’s Richest Championship.
PAR gave Spaun a 70-shot score of 2, the lowest score in the last 10 sets with gusts reduced in strong, steady winds, which could scare 25 mph even if the conditions are calm.
Bud Cauley left two hours ago, still facing most of the wind. He gained three birdies in the last four holes and entered the final group.
For many others, even very mixed people – this is a lifetime spent in TPC Sawgrass. Lucas Glover had 71 shots and got a double bogey on the 15th, an eagle that had a 5-16 shot with a three-bogey with a tee that had not arrived at the island before the infamous 3 shot 17th.
“It’s thin anyway,” Glover said. “Then you add 25, 30 miles per hour and it shrinks things a little bit more. I’m doing a great job, I miss me for most of the day and there are a few holes that you can’t miss at all.”
Spaun had a stroke before Cauley at 204, with three leads in Glover and Alex Smalley.
There are a lot of heartache, not including the five rounds of the 1980s.
Will Zalatoris briefly tied for the lead when he stepped onto the 14th tee. He scored his last five holes on the 9th hole in the 9th place – a four-fold bogey in the 14th place, a double bogey on the 15th place, a double bogey in the 17th place, a bogey in the water. It is added to 78.
In about an hour, he went from leading to 10 shots behind.
Rory McIlroy birded in the last hole to save 73, perhaps his chance was left with only four shots.
“Most of the shooting percentages come from the errors around, not the green ones,” McIlroy said. “I felt like I hit the ball well and controlled my flight. No way out.”
Two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler wasn’t that lucky. He hangs out and prepares to get close until he reaches the bunker from the left pine straw on the 5th of the 16th fairway, and another bunker is beneath a large tree, tangled with bogey.
He scored three points from the Dwarves’ long distance on the 17th and threw the ball into the water. He hit what he thought was a perfect wedge and just saw it rolling down from the green back. He has 72.
A year ago, Scheffler Birds hit five shots and won with 64. This time, he boasted two in the last three games and was seven behind.
Is that too much?
“I’m not really thinking too much right now,” he said. “I’m a little frustrated with the finish line, but hopefully tomorrow will be better and turn things around.”
The forecast calls for more wind and heavy rain, so much so that the PGA Tour sent one-third of the players from both sides on Sunday morning.
Akshay Bhatia had a good fight after a painful start, from a birdie on the opening hole to a bogey tide shed-double bogey stretch that made him spin on the rankings. He still had a chance to finish and sat four shots.
Collin Morikawa slowly bleed, and the eight bogeys sent him into the 77, leaving him eight shots behind.
The group included Patrick Cantlay and Danny Walker in the 7-shots under 209, who left Friday night after three shots, which seemed to cost him his money. But he did it with this number, and before the wind arrived and posted 66, it opened.
Walker pulled the game until Jason Day Thursday morning. Now he is with many others, chasing $4.5 million in prize money from a $25 million wallet, including a five-year waiver on the PGA Tour.
