With birdies galore at a damp TPC Boston on Sunday, overnight leader Sergio Garcia shot a fine six-under 65 to hold a two-stroke lead after the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship.
Swede Henrik Stenson’s 66 took him within two shots of Garcia, while Canada’s Graham DeLaet produced a sparkling nine-under 62 to sit one further adrift along with the US’ Steve Stricker (63).
A course which had already offered low scores was even more benign after morning rain left the greens even softer.
Photo: Reuters
So often the talk in golf is of creating tougher and tougher challenges for players, but the fans who ventured out after the storms that delayed play enjoyed seeing the world’s best in a “birdie fest.”
On a day when only 11 players shot over par, Garcia appeared particularly, if unusually, relaxed in a tournament he had not initially planned to play in.
His much-publicized “fried chicken” jibe at Tiger Woods in May and the trouble it caused him seemed a distant memory as he strode confidently around the wet TPC Boston, drawing warm cheers from the New England crowd with seven birdies.
“We can’t control the weather,” said Garcia, whose bogey on the 14th was his sole blemish.
“You’ve just got to go out there and try to play the best you can, and I was very happy to see that my best was six-under today,” he said.
“Hopefully, I’ll be able to believe in [myself] in the way I’ve been believing this whole weekend. If I’m able to do that I should have a chance, a good chance of winning. If not, then I’ll fight as hard as I can to get it,” he added.
DeLaet’s score was the best of the week and continued his purple patch following his impressive tie for second at the Barclays last week.
American Jason Dufner, who fired six birdies in his opening 10 holes, was unable to build on his excellent start, but his 66 left him four strokes behind Garcia on 14-under alongside compatriot Roberto Castro (68).
After enjoying much of the limelight as playing partners for the first two rounds, world No. 1 Tiger Woods and The Open champion Phil Mickelson had disappointing days.
Mickelson had three bogeys on the back nine and his second straight even-par round left him 11 behind Garcia.
Woods found the fairway just seven times in his one-over 72 to be six-under, tied in 47th place.
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
Italian defender Marco Curto has been banned for 10 matches for racially abusing South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan while playing for Como 1907 against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a pre-season friendly in July. Curto, who is on loan from Como to Serie B club Cesena, would serve half of the punishment immediately with the other half suspended for two years. “The player Marco Curto was found responsible for discriminatory behavior and sanctioned with a 10-match suspension,” a FIFA spokesperson said. “The player is ordered to render community services and undergo training and education with an organization approved by FIFA.” Wolves said the club would
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
RSS