Adam Schenk looked as though he and everyone else would get passed by Jordan Spieth on Saturday at the Valspar Championship. When a wild and windy third round finished in Palm Harbor, Fla., Schenk was still the player everyone was chasing.
Schenk hit his approach to the 18th hole to 5 feet and made the birdie putt for a 1-under-par 70, giving him a one-shot lead over Spieth and Tommy Fleetwood as he goes after his first victory on the PGA Tour.
“We didn’t have a ton go our way until the very end,” Schenk said.
Neither did Fleetwood, who opened with a birdie and followed with 12 straight pars. He wound up with a bogey-free 69 and realized not losing ground was one of the best things he had going on the Copperhead course at Innisbrook.
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Spieth, however, is who dictated the action.
He had a 69 and had to decide when it was over whether that was a good score on account of all the mistakes he made or a wasted chance to separate himself from the field. Spieth opened with a 6-iron to 7 feet for eagle. He led by as many as two shots.
But he made only three pars over his final 12 holes — on four of those occasions, he followed a bogey with a birdie. But that ended on the 18th when he hit a tree on his drive, went into a front bunker, and then blasted by the pin to the collar for a final bogey.
“I didn’t have my best stuff in the approach game, but overall I’m in a good spot for [Sunday],” Spieth said.
Schenk was at 8-under 205 and will play in the final group with Spieth, whose game appears to be rounding into form with the Masters on the horizon.
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Schenk is playing his 10th week in a row because his wife, Courtney, is expecting their first child at the end of April. He also is entered in the field next week in the Dominican Republic, though a victory could change everything.
That feels a long way off.
Eight players were within three shots of the lead. Webb Simpson had a 68 that included a bogey on the par-5 14th when he hit into the water while trying to lay up. He was two shots behind, along with Taylor Moore (69) and Cody Gribble (70), who had short birdie putts on the 16th and 17th hole and narrowly missed a 20-footer in his bid to birdie all three holes as part of the “Snake Pit” on the Copperhead course.
Patton Kizzire had a 67 and posted early, not sure where that would leave him. Spieth had a lot to do with that and he wound up keeping everyone close.
“Eventful,” is how Spieth described his round.
He missed a 5-foot par putt on No. 7. He hit 6-iron to 12 feet for birdie on No. 8. He missed a 7-foot par putt on the 10th, and then hit a bunker shot that landed in the collar and bounced out to 3 feet for birdie on the par-5 11th.
Spieth followed a three-putt bogey on the 13th with a 3-wood to 35 feet for a two-putt birdie on the 14th. It was like that throughout the back nine, and Spieth looked to have settled down with a 10-foot par putt on the 17th, only to send his tee shot into the trees on 18.
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“I made a few too many mistakes, but overall in these conditions, I think I would have signed for 2 under,” Spieth said.
The weather was as wild as his round, gusting to 20 miles per hour and shifting to an entirely different direction as the final groups were on the back nine. Players were hitting 9-iron into the par-3 17th earlier in the round, and Gribble had to hit 5-iron late in the day.
Rain that was expected never arrived, though Innisbrook was expecting showers overnight that could put a premium on scoring.
Fleetwood was the steadiest of the bunch. He made birdie on the par-5 opening hole and the par-5 14th, and was had a collection of big par putts to keep some momentum.
“I kept plugging away,” Fleetwood said. “Pars were good. Birdies were hard to come by. The middle stretch the par saves on 9 and 10 were good putts to hole. I never went backward. I was very happy with anything par or better.”
LIV — Marc Leishman opened with an eagle and held it together in the middle of his round for a 5-under 66, giving him a two-shot lead over Sergio Garcia going into the third and final round of the Tucson, Ariz., tournament.
Leishman said he had fallen into a habit of letting a rough stretch ruin his round. The Australian dropped only one shot at the Gallery Golf Club in the high desert and delivered one last birdie on the par-5 17th to reach 11-under 131.
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“I had a really hot start, the cooled on the back nine,” said Leishman, who was 4 under for his round through eight holes. “But I didn’t let it get away from me.”
Garcia, whose last victory anywhere was in Mississippi more than two years ago, had a 65 that could have been slightly better if not for missing a 2-foot par putt on the 16th hole. He at least was able to finish with a birdie on his last hole at No. 17.
Garcia’s team, the Fireballs, had a one-shot lead in the team competition.
“We’re right there. We need another good day [Sunday],” Garcia said.
Louis Oosthuizen was in a four-player group at 8-under 134, though none of the others had quite the tease at the end of the round like the South African.
Finishing on the par-4 18th, Oosthuizen’s approach landed a few feet short of the flag and struck the pin, rolling back off a false front into the fairway. His pitch for birdie was headed for the pin and spun in and out of the cup.
At that point, he turned away and covered his face. He made the par for a 68.
“It pitched exactly where I wanted it to, it hit the pin and off the green. Same look with the chip. I thought I was to chip it in,” Oosthuizen said. “I’m standing over the putt thinking, ‘You better make this or it’s going to be a bad ending.’”
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He was joined at 134 by Charles Howell III (65), Brendan Steele (65), and Cameron Tringale (66), who never won on the PGA Tour before signing up for LIV Golf last season.
Phil Mickelson had a bogey-free round, making four birdies in an eight-hole stretch that led to a 67. He was tied for 10th, six shots out of the lead.
European — Kristian Krogh Johannessen and Matthew Baldwin shared the lead at the SDC Championship in South Africa when the third round was suspended because of fading light.
The pair had moved to 11 under par through 13 holes when players were called off at the St. Francis Links course on South Africa’s south coast.
The tournament, which is making its debut on the European Tour, is playing catchup after high winds caused a postponement Friday, leaving many players to complete their second rounds and move straight to their third rounds Saturday.
Johannessen led by three shots when the second round was finally completed Saturday but third-round playing partner Baldwin whittled away at that lead with four birdies and no dropped shots through those 13 holes.
As the Englishman made his move, Johannessen dropped a shot on No.11, his second bogey of the round.
Daniel Brown and Joost Luiten earlier set the clubhouse target of 9 under when they completed their third rounds and are two behind Johannessen and Baldwin in a tie for third but have the luxury of a later start Sunday while the co-leaders play the remaining five holes of their third rounds.
Brown carded 67 with an eagle and three birdies and Luiten had five birdies and went bogey-free for his 67.
Jens Dantorp of Sweden is also 9 under alongside Brown and Luiten with four holes to play in his third round.