LOS ANGELES \u2013 Viktor Hovland opened a one-shot lead at the PGA Tour Championship on Aug 29 as Rory McIlroy surged back into contention in the final event of the FedEx Cup play-offs.<\/p>\n
Playing with a black ribbon on his cap to mourn the passing of King Harald, Norway\u2019s Hovland made four birdies on the final six holes to finish 15-under par, one clear of Ryan Gerard.<\/p>\n
With a US$10 million (S$12.7 million) top prize at stake, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was among a quartet on 12-under par, while McIlroy finished a further two shots back after a superb seven-under 63 \u2013 the day\u2019s joint lowest round.<\/p>\n
Hovland had briefly pulled clear of overnight co-leader Gerard with a birdie on three, but bogeyed the next hole and spent most of Aug 29 trailing the American.<\/p>\n
Gerard made birdies on holes No. six, seven and 12 for a two-stroke advantage, before the Norwegian began his charge with a curling downhill putt on the 13th hole.<\/p>\n
Hovland, the 2023 Tour Championship winner, followed that up with more birdies on holes 15, 17 and 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019ve given myself an opportunity, I\u2019ve taken it. And here we are \u2013 after 54 holes, we\u2019re in a good spot,\u201d Hovland said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can keep hitting fairways and give myself a few more looks, I think I\u2019m pretty deadly with that putter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being tied third, Scheffler cut a frustrated figure missing several good birdie putts, but scored a bogey-free 66.<\/p>\n
His expletive-laden rant had to be muted by broadcasters after one attempt broke unexpectedly on 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was close on the putts man,\u201d Scheffler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s challenging to hole putts. I\u2019ll just keep giving myself the looks, and hopefully they\u2019ll drop tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scheffler was joined on 12-under by Adam Scott, Ludvig Aberg and Chris Gotterup.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s Scott \u2013 the oldest player in the field at 46 \u2013 is also seeking his second Tour Championship win, a full two decades since his maiden victory at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.<\/p>\n
Sweden\u2019s Aberg opened with a double bogey but finished with three straight birdies, while Gotterup briefly held the lead with a birdie on six before losing pace.<\/p>\n
\u2018A lot better\u2019<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, McIlroy stormed back into contention with a whopping nine birdies.<\/p>\n
The three-time Tour Championship winner started the day seven strokes off the lead, having suffered an embarrassing double bogey on Aug 28 when consecutive chip shots rolled back downhill to settle at his feeet.<\/p>\n
But three straight birdies from holes No. 15 through 17 \u2013 all with putts of more than 3.65km \u2013 propelled McIlroy briefly into the co-lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI putted a lot better. I think I lost maybe a combined three on the greens over the first two days and I probably gained over three on the greens today,\u201d said McIlroy.<\/p>\n
The Northern Irishman nearly undid his good work on the 18th hole, pulling a wild iron from deep rough over spectators and onto an adjoining fairway.<\/p>\n
But he saved par to assume the clubhouse lead on 10-under par.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got myself back in the tournament. We\u2019ll see what happens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He matched Robert MacIntyre \u2013 the latest golfer to thrive after playing solo due to the injury withdrawal of JJ Spaun, which left an odd number of players in the field. AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2013 Viktor Hovland opened a one-shot lead at the PGA Tour Championship on Aug 29 as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-600253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}