The US’ Jeff Overton, seeking his maiden PGA Tour title, shrugged off a poor start to take a three-shot lead in the third round of the Greenbrier Classic at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia on Saturday.
Four strokes ahead of the field overnight, Overton bogeyed the second and fifth holes before recovering with five birdies on the back nine on the way to a four-under-par 66 on the Old White Course at The Greenbrier and 18-under-par total of 192.
Several blisteringly low scores were posted by some of his rivals on the rain-softened layout, with fellow American D.A. Points firing a sizzling 10-birdie 61 to vault to second, while big-hitting US Ryder Cup player J.B. Holmes produced a brilliant 60 that lifted him to a four-way tie for fourth at 12-under.
PHOTO: AFP
Double PGA Tour winner Boo Weekley was alone in third on 13-under after carding a 67.
“It was kind of a weird start, I didn’t really hit it that bad,” Overton told reporters after regaining control of the tournament with a back nine of five-under 31.
“But I played well. I missed some putts early and then a whole bunch of putts kind of fell in for me late, fortunately,” he said.
Asked what it would take for him to claim his first PGA Tour title after finishing second on three previous occasions, Overton replied: “A good round. You got to play well.”
“Somebody at 12-under right now, I’m sure one of those guys is gonna shoot 65 or better. There’s gonna be some good scores tomorrow and it’s gonna take a good score to win,” he added.
Holmes recorded 11 birdies and a lone bogey at the par-three third to end the third round level.
“I was hitting it close,” Holmes said of his lowest round on the PGA Tour. “I was definitely on with the wedges today.”
Holmes returned the fourth score of 60 or better on the US circuit in the last month, following Paul Goydos’ 59 and 60 by Steve Stricker in the John Deere Classic first round and a 60 by Carl Pettersson in the Canadian Open third round.
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