Will Zalatoris and Matt Fitzpatrick avoided the carnage that hurt top golfers at the U.S. Open on Saturday.
Zalatoris, who lost at the PGA Championship last month, committed only one bogey and carded a 67 (minus-3).
“It looks like I played 61”. Every time I’ve made a mistake, I’ve been able to get out of it. And achieve something miraculous, said Zalatoris.
Fitzpatrick was as effective and scored three birdies on his final five holes. And sign a card of 68 on the course of the Brookline Golf Club.
He will be part of the final group at a major tournament for the second time.
What is most striking is that they did not commit any double bogeys.
That knocked the tournament’s defending champion, Jon Rahm, out of first place on the 18th hole. The Spaniard made three shots in two sand pits to finally play 71.
Rahm wasn’t angry about the final hole. He prefers to look forward rather than take a look behind.
“There are 18 holes left, and I’m only one shot away from the leaders,” he said. That is the most important thing.
The cumulative score for Zalatoris and Fitzpatrick is minus-4. The same as after 54 holes of this tournament in Brookline in 1988.
It’s not as if Rahm holds the head in his own right. Saturday was such a crazy day that Rahm was one of eight golfers to have had or shared the lead at some point.
Three didn’t even finish the third round in the top 10, including Collin Morikawa.
Morikawa, who shared first place with Joel Dahmen after 36 holes. Committed a double bogey in the seventh and 13 pennants.
He settled for a round of 77.
Scottie Scheffler, the most recent Masters champion, did not escape. The best golfer in the world seemed to want to distance himself when he managed an eagle on the eighth hole.
Scheffler was down-6 when he got into trouble. He committed a double bogey on the 11th hole and followed with three bogeys in a row to tumble down the standings.
His round of 71 tied him for fourth place with Canada’s Adam Hadwin (70) and Keegan Bradley (69), two shots off the top.
Seven of the top 12 players committed at least one double-bogey before Saturday’s round.
Rory McIlroy is not on this list. In his case, he died slowly and managed only one birdie in his round of 73.
He was in seventh place, with a cumulative score of minus-1. The U.S. Open is far from over for him.
“It was one of the hardest days I’ve had on a golf course in a long time,” McIlroy said. I had to keep fighting.
I was tied with a par on the second nine, which kept me in the race.
There were 23 players under par after 36 holes, but now only nine left with one round to play.
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