American Kevin Kisner birdied the last three holes to fire a six-under 64 and seize a three-stroke lead after Saturday’s third round of the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic.
Kisner, who has four runner-up finishes this year, but has still never won a PGA title, stood on 16-under 196 after 54 holes with countryman Kevin Chappell second on 199.
Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, coming off a victory last week in Mexico, shook off an epic first-hole blunder to fire a 65 and jump into contention at third on 200, with Germany’s Alex Cejka another stroke off the pace.
Kisner lost playoffs this year at the Heritage, the Players Championship and the Greenbrier Classic, and settled for second behind Scotsman Russell Knox at the World Golf Championships event in Shanghai earlier this month.
Kisner fired the low round of the day and his PGA career to grab his first solo 54-hole PGA lead, starting with a six-foot birdie putt at the fifth and a seven-footer at the eighth.
After opening the back nine with a 12-foot birdie putt, Kisner birdied 13, before taking his lone bogey at 14.
Kisner dropped his approach at the par-four 16th three feet from the cup and made the short birdie to claim the lead alone. At the par-three 17th, he left his six-iron tee shot inches from the hole for a tap-in birdie.
On 18, Kisner curled in a 28-foot birdie putt to cap his run and stellar day.
McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion, got to the first fairway, marked the ball’s position and picked it up and cleaned it, thinking in error that lift, clean and place rules were being used, as they had been for the past 11 PGA rounds and in 17 of the past 18.
The one-stroke penalty left McDowell on the green with a 10-foot par putt and his mind pondering what he will tell his drinking buddies.
McDowell made the putt and made five birdies in a bogey-free 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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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