Australian Adam Scott opened up a three-shot lead over David Toms and Brian Gay of the US after the third round of the US$6 million PGA St. Jude Championship on Saturday.
Scott shot a two-under 68 on Saturday and moved to nine-under 201 at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee. Toms finished with a four-under 66 to climb into a tie at 204 with Gay, who shot a 70.
Woody Austin finished with a three-under 67 and is alone in fourth 205. Britain's Brian Davis was one shot back at four-under.
"Three shots is nothing, really," Scott said. "That's a couple-hole turnaround out there. There's plenty of trouble to get in on this golf course.
"Three shots is definitely not a big enough lead, as far as I'm concerned," he said.
"But it would be nice to get off to a good start tomorrow and make it hard for them to catch me," he said.
Scott, who has either led or has been tied for the lead after all three rounds, entered Saturday with a one-shot lead after a bogey-free second round.
The Australian, who is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 4 in the world, had two bogeys on the front nine on Saturday, including one on the ninth hole to give Gay a brief lead.
But Scott responded with birdies at Nos. 13, 15 and 16 to regain the advantage.
It was the third-straight day Scott, who ranks first on tour in birdie average at 4.41 per round, posted four birdies.
The 26-year old, who won the Houston Open in April, has birdied 13 and 16 each day.
Scott said he is excited to be part of a strong contingent of Aussies on the tour.
"We're all pretty close and we've known each other for a long time," Scott said.
"Golf is very available to kids in Australia. It's cheap and probably one reason why there are so many good young players coming out of Australia and the programs to nurture young talent are very good down there," he said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier