Michael Letzig fired a two-under-par 70 on Saturday to move back atop the leaderboard at the US$4.6 million Ginn sur Mer Classic.
Letzig seized the moment, birdying the final hole as Ryan Palmer bogeyed three of his final four to drop out of the lead.
With a three-round total of seven-under-par 209, Letzig held a one-shot lead over Britain’s Kenneth Ferrie, John Huston and Palmer.
Mark Wilson and Ken Duke were at five-under.
Letzig had six birdies and four bogeys in the third round to take the lead at the Ginn Hammock Beach Resort.
Palmer, an unheralded American in search of his second PGA Tour victory, was at nine-under late in the round but bogeyed 15, 16 and 18 — finding water off the tee at the par-five finishing hole.
“I had confidence in hitting the golf shot. It’s one of those times you don’t pull it off,” said Palmer, who came into the penultimate tournament of the season at 143rd on the money list, and trying to secure his playing privileges for next year by moving up into the top 125.
Letzig, who shared the first-round lead on Thursday, birdied his final hole to go into the final round with sole possession of first place.
He had opened the round with a birdie at the par-five first.
He weathered back-to-back bogeys at three and four, getting back on track with a birdie at the fifth and picked up another shot at the ninth to make the turn one shot off the pace.
After bogeys at the 10th and 12th, he pulled another shot back at the par-five 13th, then birdied 15 when he landed his approach shot within four feet of the pin.
“You have to go one shot at a time,” Letzig said. “Since it is so hard out there, you can’t get ahead of yourself.”
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS