Koepka all alone after first LIV round

IG – LIV R1 Gamer

Writing from Bolingbrook, Illinois

Friday, September 13, 2024

Anyone who thought Bolingbrook Golf Club would be a pushover for the stars of the LIV Golf brigade were surprised as the first round played out.

The maintenance staff of the course and the LIV Golf setup crew had Bolingbrook playing as hard as it ever has, with greens approximately as hard as car hoods and fairways running like rabbits from a hunter. Add in a 12 mile-per-hour wind that jumped at times, and the greats and near-greats had their hands full with the Arthur Hills design.

Only Brooks Kopeka solved it completely, scoring 8-under-par 62, a course record, to lead Paul Casey by four and the duo of Abraham Ancer and Anirban Lahrio by five. A sevensome of notables, including Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed, are tied for fourth at 2-under 68.

Koepka won the previous LIV tournament at the Greenbrier and is chasing his third title of the season.

The end result: Only 18 of the 54 players finished under par, with another two at the par of 70, with the field averaging 71.111 strokes. The likely prospect for tomorrow: The players will have figured it out and go low, perhaps even Caleb Surratt, who finished double-bogey-triple-bogey and whose 10-over 80 was the day’s high.

“I can’t speak to the fairways because I didn’t hit many,” Koepka said. “But the greens, Ricky (Elliott, his caddie) said they firmed up a lot since Tuesday. It seemed like from the par-3 13th on, they were very firm. But I like it when a golf course is firm and fiery.”

Koepka surpassed the previous Bolingbrook course record of 63, set by Mac Meissner in the third round of a Forme Tour tournament in 2021.

“I putted really good,” said Koepka, who scattered eight birdies on his bogey-free card. “If a good player gets hot, he can shoot 62 pretty easy."

Koepka, more than good, has won five majors, including last year’s PGA Championship, so it’s hardly a surprise he’s leading the pack, but he birdied only one of his first seven holes before catching fire. Then he ran down birds in seven of his final 11 holes, including five of the last six and the last three. His 6-footer for a birdie on the par-4 second hole finished his round with a flourish. Amazingly, he said he hadn’t played the back nine, where he scored 5-under 30, until Friday.

“I tip my cap to him,” Casey said. “He did it in true Brooksy style. This is a different golf course than it’s been. The wind shifted, and the rules and grounds staff must have been under instruction to turn the water off. It turned shiny and glassy. I found it really difficult, suite honestly.

“I’m trying to stay alive. It’s like Monty Python getting hacked to pieces, leaving an arm and a leg here and there.”

The season championship race saw Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann flip their 1-2 placings by virtue of Niemann’s 2-under 68 to Rahm’s 1-under 69. Niemann is at 202.32, Rahm 198.33, but don’t memorize that, as it’ll likely go down to the final hole on Sunday, trying to solve the course and each other.

“It’s playing fast,” Niemann said of Bolingbrook.

“It was one of those days when my score was better than how I played,” Rahm said. “I know Brooks is 8-under but the other scores aren’t as low. I don’t recall ever playing fairways like that, so bouncy. It’s not the easiest to shoot low.”

No crowd size was announced, but it appeared to be no less than 8,000, with many fans lingering about the suites and hangouts like the Birdie Shack, for which there was an additional charge.

Around Bolingbrook

Lee Westwood had the shot of the day, a holeout from the fairway of the par-5 third for an eagle. He finished at 1-over 71. … The Crushers, captained by DeChambeau, lead the team standings. The overall team championship is next week. … Tyrrell Hatton let fly with the world’s most explicit Anglo-Saxon oath twice after poor shots, both of his own making. … There are a dozen major champions in the field, compared to seven in this week’s PGA Tour stop, the Procore Championship in Napa, California. … For kids on hand, a big draw will be the petting zoo near the fan entrance. … As has become a LIV tradition, a quartet of skydivers landed on the first fairway in advance of the shotgun start. … LIV has a management staff of 45, in addition to social media people and the television crew, on hand.

– Tim Cronin

The LIV world comes to Bolingbrook

Writing from Bolingbrook, Illinois

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Long ago, some people looked askance at Roger Claar when he, as the mayor of Bolingbrook, said his little village would be a destination for tourism.

This week, it is. Claar, who ruled Bolingbrook for over three decades, had the vision to build a municipal golf course in a cornfield west of the center of town, and that golf course this week is the site of LIV Golf Chicago, the season-ending individual championship for the maverick golf operation.

Bolingbrook Golf Club? Really?

That was the first reaction when the news spread earlier this year that LIV wouldn’t be returning to Rich Harvest Links, the plush private layout on the edge of Sugar Grove, also known as software tycoon Jerry Rich’s backyard course. According to a reliable source, Rich was paid $1 million for each of LIV’s visits the past two years, but the league, funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, wasn’t willing to bankroll a third such rental fee.

So, LIV looked about, found no other private club willing to take on the burden of tournament golf for a relatively minuscule fee – the WGA pays much more for a club to host the BMW Championship, for instance – and landed on Bolingbrook.

Precisely what the village of Bolingbrook, which owns the course, is receiving is clouded in mystery. A Freedom of Information Act request by Illinois Golfer for contracts between the village and LIV has not been acted upon by the village, which most recently extended its period to turn the contracts over in June and has not fulfilled the request. Mayor Mary Alexander-Basta has said, most recently on Aug. 7, that the revenue will be based on what LIV spends from Sept. 8 through 16.

“It's really based on consumption of what is used, how much is used throughout the days, so there's not a – I don't have a full amount because we don't know what we don't know,” Alexander-Basta said. “We don't know how much usage, we don't know how much food, we don't know how much beverage. We'll find out closer to the date.”

That indicates to those who know how tournament golf works that there’s no flat fee above and beyond use of the course, clubhouse and food and beverage. If there’s any benefit to Bolingbrook hosting the tournament, it’ll be in the publicity the course receives, especially on television.

An Arthur Hills design opened in 2002, Bolingbrook will play to a par of 70 over 7,131 yards. That makes it a short course by modern standards, with one par 4, the 15th (usually the sixth for public play), potentially drivable for the big hitters at 342 yards.

“They’re small greens and they’re not flat, so they play even smaller than they are,” Jon Rahm said of the putting surfaces. “It’s in fantastic condition.”

Still, scores will be low, which makes for good television – the CW is the weekend outlet, WGN-TV locally – and the possibility of multiple leaders down the stretch.

Rahm would like to be among them, and not just for the $4 million individual first prize on offer this week. He also leads the season standings, with only Joaquin Niemann able to catch him. Whoever takes the season crown will win $18 million, so if either win the tournament, they win the title and pocket $22 million before team earnings – LIV still has the team concept, which is largely ignored by all but the players, who divvy up an additional $5 million – are factored in.

The Rahm-Niemann showdown is but one attraction. The other is the tournament itself, featuring all the stars of LIV who largely built their reputation on the PGA Tour and then over the last two-plus years, shifted their allegiance to the new operation for lucrative deals of either guaranteed money or advances on future earnings. In Rahm’s case, for instance, the reported figure was $300 million guaranteed.

So Phil Mickelson, the 54-year-old whose move to LIV started all the rigmarole, will be on hand, along with U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, multiple major winner Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and all the rest.

Rahm’s move less than a year ago was the big name surprise that followed the PGA Tour and PIF agreeing to negotiate a deal that would lead to some unification of the two operations, if not the ceding of LIV control by PIF to the Tour in exchange for an ownership stake. Those negotiations go on – they have been in New York this week, a location and time that raised more than one eyebrow given the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the reported-but-denied Saudi involvement in backing ringleader Osama bin Laden – the PGA Tour’s side bolstered by the recent investment of up to $1.5 billion by a separate group of American sports team owners who see a way to make a buck themselves with a bigger PGA Tour. But no deal has been made.

Rahm is not along in his eagerness to see one.

“We have an opportunity to create a new stage for golf in the world of sports that could be better than what we had before,” Rahm said. “I think we could do some special things having both tours, with the League and the Tour. Now, you do need the ‘smarter people’ behind closed doors to decide what it looks like.”

Perhaps the TV-arranged December foursome of DeChambeau, Koepka, Rory McIlroy and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will prod the two sides to come to a deal.

“If there's ever anything like that in the future, yeah, I wouldn't mind (playing in it),” Rahm said.

Meanwhile, after Thursday’s pro-am, he and his 53 pals have three rounds of golf to play in Bolingbrook.

Really.

Around Bolingbrook

Tickets (at livgolf.com) start at $50 for a Friday grounds pass; a three-day pass is $113.31. … General parking for the tournament is about four miles away, at 200 Old Chicago Drive in Bolingbrook. That’s south of the Bolingbrook Drive exit on Interstate 55. … Most suite holders will park on a grass lot near the course.

– Tim Cronin

Carroll captures second Illinois PGA in three years

Writing from Elgin, Illinois

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Brian Carroll went into the final round of the 103rd Illinois PGA Championship knowing he couldn’t rest on the laurels of two good rounds, not even the 7-under-par 65 he authored at hilly Elgin Country Club on Tuesday. A two-stroke lead in the section championship can disappear in one hole.

“Going into the day I said it would be great to open with an eagle to set the tone for the day,” Carroll said. “It’s a reachable (480-yard) par-5. But I hit maybe one of the worst drives I’ve hit for the three days.”

A good second to just in front of the green allowed Carroll, head pro at The Hawk in St. Charles, to make it happen. His 30-yard pitch-in extended his lead to three strokes, Andy Mickelson of Mistwood having birdied as well. Carroll would lead by three at the turn, withstood the challenge of Briarwood’s Matthew Rion, who closed the gap to a stroke, and won the title with a final round of 4-under-par 68 for 15-under 201, two strokes ahead of Rion and five ahead of Mickelson and Butler National’s Andy Svoboda.

Rion had run down an 8-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th to get to 13-under, a stroke behind Carroll, who was in the trailing threesome. Carroll saw Rion’s putt fall.

“You can’t control what they’re gonna do,” Carroll said. “All you can do it hit the best shots you can. Starting with a lead, you just try to add to it so if somebody has a great round they’re unable to catch you.”

Carroll accomplished that with his short iron on the 163-yard 16th. It finished about 15 feet from the cup on the same line as Rion, and he nailed it for the deuce that eventually secured the title plus the $10,500 first prize from the purse of $77,500. It’s his second Illinois PGA crown in three years and eighth top 10 in succession, including a runner-up via a playoff loss in 2018.

“I thought 17-under was the number,” Carroll said. “Even if somebody plays a great round, they’re not going to get there.”

That would have broken Mike Small’s record of 16-under, set at Stonewall Orchard in 2014. But 15-under was good enough.

“It was certainly all could have asked for,” Carroll said. “If you’d told me going into the week I was going to shoot 15-under, I’d have sat in the clubhouse and watched.”

Carroll, Rion, Mickelson, Kevin Flack (Maun-Nee-Tee-See), Frank Hohenadel (Mistwood), Chris Green (Glen Voew), Steve Orrick (Bloomington), Matt Slowinski (Hinsdale) and host pro Jonathan Duppner (Elgin) all qualified for the PGA’s national club pro championship. Small, Svoboda, and Jeff Kellen (North Shore) were already eligible.

Flack finished fifth at 6-under 210. Small, the 14-time Illinois PGA champion, rebounded from a 4-over 76 on Tuesday with a 2-under 70 to tie Hohenadel, who aced the ninth hole on Tuesday, for sixth at 3-under 213.

Next year the section championship reverts to a 36-hole format, abandoning the three-day, 54-hole joust used, except for poor weather years, since 1973, and occasionally before that back to 1935.

“Usually over three days, if I play my game of limiting mistakes, I’m going to be close, have a chance toward the end,” Carroll said.

Wednesday was the perfect template for his game.

– Tim Cronin

Bradley outlasts the field to capture 2nd BMW

Writing from Castle Rock, Colorado

Sunday, August 26, 2024

This one was for Pops.

Because of his work, golf professional Mark Bradley had never been on site when son Keegan had won a professional tournament. Not even the 2011 PGA Championship. There was always a tournament to run or a lesson to give at Jackson Hole Golf and Tennis in Wyoming.

Sunday, that changed. Mark, who had been on hand numerous times when Bradley hadn’t won, was inside the ropes at Castle Pines Golf Club as Keegan, pressed by Adam Scott and sundry others all the way, captured the BMW Championship for the second time in six years. Bradley, the last man to make the BMW field last week in Memphis, now is not only $3.6 million richer, but has a chance to win the Tour Championship and the circuit’s playoff title next week at East Lake Golf Club.

Bradley’s closing even-par 72 for 12-under 276 beat Scott, Sam Burns and Ludvig Aberg by a stroke. A quartet including Xander Schauffele tied for fifth at 8-under 280.

Bradley’s week was the stuff that dreams are made of. He made the most of being the 50th and final player in the field, leading after the first round, then hanging close enough to 36-hole leader Scott to be in the last pairing with him on Saturday, then taking a one-stroke lead into the final round, then playing gritty golf – his only birdies were on the first and 17th holes, both par 5s – to grasp the J.K. Wadley Trophy for the second time.

“Last Sunday (after finishing early), I walked the range looking at people who were going to determine my future,” Bradley said. “Then I went to my hotel, had the coverage on, had the iPad on the featured holes, and had to unplug my phone twice it had gotten so hot from me refreshing it.”

In the end, Tom Kim’s 6-6-6 finish in Memphis vaulted Bradley into 50th. Then it was off to the airport, and to Denver rather than home to Jupiter, Fla. Now it’s on to Atlanta, where winning isn’t out of the question.

“Maybe I can,” Bradley said. “I’m playing great. I feel very lucky to be in Atlanta. To make the Tour Championship two years in a row is a big deal.”

Scott hung with Bradley like a hunting dog pursuing a pheasant on the front nine, beginning with a 43-foot eagle putt at the first that brought him even with Bradley at 13-under and wowed the gallery of about 32,500. But three straight bogeys to open the back nine and too many visits to Castle Pines’ deep bunkers cost him a chance at the title. But his joint second placed him 14th in the playoff standings, so he goes to East Lake as well.

“Ten-11-12 kind of blew it for me there,” Scott admitted. “I was in position with wedges on every hole and made three bogeys. That's almost unthinkable, really. I definitely struggled on the greens on the weekend. Just didn't quite have the confidence in some of those putts.

“I thought I played well off the tee today, which was nice, but just didn't take advantage from there.”

Scott’s unraveling began with a pulled 9-footer on No. 10, continued with a failed bunker save on No. 11, and accelerated with another failed save from the rough on No. 12. He played the final six holes 1-under, but couldn’t catch Bradley.

Aberg tried to charge but three back-nine bogeys negated an equal number of birdies, while Burns, whose 7-under 65 was the round of the day, finished nearly two hours before Bradley and Scott, and watched the play with hope that fortune would fall in his favor. It did not.

“Overall it was a really, really good round,” Burns said before the wait.

Bradley, who held the lead outright on the final eight holes, had a really, really good week, and at the best possible time, to annex his seventh career victory.

“In the pro-am on the 3rd hole, I hit this 6-iron,” he recalled. “It was blowing harder than it blew all week, and I just absolutely flushed it, and it came out right in my window, and it just flew exactly the way I wanted it to. I was like, geez, that felt really good. To be honest with you, from that point on, I didn't really mis-hit a shot for four days, which doesn't happen a lot. I didn't putt that great this week, and I just struck the ball perfectly.”

Bradley putted fine, with nary a three-putt and 31 one-putts in a 113-putt week that featured 21 birdies. He hit 41 of 56 fairways and 53 greens, right near the average for recent BMW champions.

He called the shot of the tournament his 227-yard 5-iron to 16 feet on the par-5 17th, setting up a two-putt birdie and a two-stroke lead going to the last.

“That 5-iron was as pure of a golf shot as I've ever hit,” Bradley said. “I had 222 to the hole adjusted with the 10 percent, and I hit my 5-iron about 212 yards. It was a little downwind, but on the previous hole I hit 7-iron for 195 adjusted and it just went forever. I think I was a little jacked up.

“So we just decided to rip that 5-iron, and I hit it – I was aiming at the tongue of the bunker, and I hit it right there. It's one of those moments when you realize you can hit these shots in contention when it matters most, and to be able to pull that shot off – I mean, for me that was the shot of the tournament and a shot that I'll remember forever.”

It certainly beat his tee shot on the par-5 14th, which he sliced well to the right. It was a couple of steps from going out of bounds and a couple of yards from behind dead behind a tree. Instead, he got a break champions often get, a window to punch out from the trees and scramble for a par.

“Worst shot I hit all day,” Bradley said. “That was a relief to get down there and see I could get it onto the fairway. That was a big moment in the day.”

His victory was notable for several reasons. First, he joined Jack Nicklaus and David Love III as the only American Ryder Cup captains to win on the modern PGA Tour after being named to head the American squad. Second, he became the fourth multiple winner of the Western Open in the BMW Championship era, joining Tiger Woods (2007, 2009), Dustin Johnson (2010, 2016), and Patrick Cantlay (2021-22), and 20th going back to the start of the championship in 1899. Third, it might convince U.S. Presidents Cup captain Jim Furyk, who had already named Bradley an assistant captain, to put him on the 12-man team.

“We’ll see,” Bradley said with a smile.

Mark Bradley, of course, couldn’t have been prouder to see his son triumph. And Keegan was tickled that he finally won with Mark there to give him a bear hug.

“You just have to get lucky (for him) to be at one of these that you win at,” Bradley said. “You never know where you're going to win. I've been fortunate enough to have my family at almost all of my wins. The only one I can think of that I was by myself was my first win at Byron Nelson and then Japan, which no one was there. But it was great to have him here. It's a special thing to win on the PGA Tour, and it's something that you really have to cherish, and to have him here makes it that much more special.”

“This is very, very special day,” Mark Bradley said, beaming on the 18th green.

“What a day,” Keegan Bradley answered.

What a week.

Onward to East Lake

Along with Bradley (from 30th to fourth) and Scott (from 41st to 14th), Tommy Fleetwood (31st to 22nd) and Chris Kirk (32nd to 26th) jumped into the Tour Championship field.

The four knocked out: Brian Harman (29th to 31st), Jason Day (25th to 33rd), Davis Thompson (26th to 34th) and Denny McCarthy (30th to 35th).

Two close calls stood out. Alex Noren, whose closing 75 placed him in a tie for ninth and ended his chance to advance, as he needed to at least tie for fourth. And Justin Thomas just squeezed in at the No. 30 spot after being in and out of the final field all day. His closing 4-under 68 for 2-over 290 was just enough to send him to East Lake.

Tour leader Scottie Scheffler starts at 10-under in the Tour’s “Starting Strokes” gambit. Bradley starts at 6-under. He beat Scheffler by 13 this week.

It doesn’t Fitz

Matt Fitzpatrick was more than a bit annoyed when he discovered a crack in the face of his driver and was told he wasn’t allowed to replace it. He spotted the crack before he played the eighth hole, called a rules official over, and was told no replacement was allowed.

His drive on No. 8 went 288 yards instead of the 326 yards he belted it on Saturday. Another rules official was brought in he concurred with the first official, but took it to the chief referee, Stephen Cox, and he also said no.

“There's an obvious crack there that's causing a defect in the ball flight,” Fitzpatrick said in a discussion caught on PGA Tour Live. “It's outrageous. It's a disgrace. It couldn't be more obvious."

Replied the official as they moved down the eighth fairway: "That's not part of the local rule.”

The officials used USGA Model Local Rule G-9 in making the decision, ruling the damage wasn’t severe enough to allow an in-round replacement. The PGA Tour doesn’t have a local rule covering damaged equipment.

“The rule details a number of situations where the club would be allowed to be replaced, but the rule states that a crack in and of itself does not meet the threshold of being significantly damaged,” Cox explained to PGATour.com.

Cox added later, “Although there was a small crack in the face, there was no separation in the metals, and on that basis, that (damage) threshold wasn’t met, so his only choice in that case was to continue using that club.”

Scottie Scheffler, who was playing with Fitzpatrick, was flabbergasted.

“There’s a crack down the middle of the driver,” he told the official. “You can feel it but apparently it’s not ‘significant enough.’ The damage to the club is making the club non-performing."

Said Fitzpatrick when he was handed the club back, “It's the most obvious crack I've ever seen.”

He pulled the club out of play and used his 3-wood on the tee the rest of the round, scoring 2-under 70 with four birdies on the inward nine.

Fitzpatrick wasn’t the only player with driver trouble. Rory McIlroy snapped the shaft of his driver by leaning on it after hitting his tee shot near the stream on No. 9. He took his shoes and socks off and stood in the stream, left foot on a rock, to play a brilliant recovery en route to saving par, but like Fitzpatrick, was such with a 3-wood for driver the rest of the way.

Around Castle Pines

Keegan Bradley’s winning total of 12-under 276 is the second-highest score relative to par since 2011, with only the 4-under 276 of Jon Rahm at Olympia Fields in 2020, when COVID-19 prevented galleries from attending, higher in relation to par. … He jumped to ninth on the Tour money list with $ 6,879,454.71. … It’s the first time in 11 attempts that Bradley has won having had the lead after 18 holes. … Sunday’s play also locked in the automatic qualifiers for the Presidents’ Cup teams. For the U.S.: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay and Sahith Theegala. For the hosting International squad, Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Adam Scott, Tom Kim, Jason Day and Byeong Hun An. … Bradley, 38, is the oldest player in the current top 30 of the world rankings and the oldest Western Open/BMW winner in 20 years. Stephen Ames was 40 when he won at Cog Hill in 2004. … Bradley plays a mix of clubs, starting with a Ping G430 LST 10.5-degree driver. He uses TaylorMade Qi10 3- and 5-woods, Srixon ZX5 Mk II 3-, 4- and 5-irons, ZX7 Mk II 6-iron through pitching wedge, a pair of Cleveland RTX ZipCore wedges, and an Odyssey Versa Jailbird Midsize putter to maneuver a Srizon Z-Star Diamond ball about. .. Disproving his age, Bradley has won three straight years, capturing the Travelers last year and the ZOZO in 2022.

– Tim Cronin

Bradley climbs past Scott to BMW lead

Writing from Castle Rock, Colorado

Saturday, August 24, 2024

If Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship offers as much intrigue and drama as did Saturday’s third round, the echoes from the cheers will rattle around this little mountain that Castle Pines Golf Club’s members call home for weeks on end.

What mid-round had been a case study of leaders in retreat turned into a festival of birdies over the last five holes. Incoming Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley’s four birds in the last five holes – including an 8-footer for a birdie 3 at the last which prompted a long bellow from the lubricated gallery – completed a 2-under-par 70 and vaulted him back into the lead at 12-under 204, a stroke ahead of Adam Scott and two ahead of the Swedish duo of Ludvig Aberg and Alex Noren.

Bradley, who won the BMW at Aronimink near Philadelphia in 2018, is feeling the love from the gallery partly because of his play but more because of his captaincy. The “U-S-A! U-S-A!” chants have turned Castle Pines into Lake Placid at times.

“I haven't felt that since I played in the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, what I felt out there today,” Bradley said. “That was really cool. For now, I feel like I need to carry the torch for the United States Ryder Cup team, and I hope I'm doing that.”

Bradley, who hit only half the greens in regulation, bogeyed the 11th, 12th and 13th, and but kept his wits about him.

“I told myself after those three bogeys in a row that I was either tied for the lead or maybe one back,” Bradley said. “I would have been happy with that to start the week this late in the tournament. Kept trying to tell myself that.”

Scott, who lost the lead by hitting his first shot out of bounds and dropping four strokes in the first four holes, rallied to a degree, with birdies at the 16th and 17th, the latter a 6-footer, to assume solo second at 11-under 205.

“I didn't feel like I did that much wrong,” Scott said. “A couple of drives were just not quite right, and a three-putt, and all of a sudden I'm kind of chasing. I really struggled mostly on the greens today. They were just so different from yesterday's round speed-wise and firmness and look and everything.

“Felt like I was on a different course almost, and I just battled that most of the round. The good shots I hit, I didn't really get the reward. I'm in a good spot in the end of it to be one back.”

Aberg, who opened the day with a nosebleed on the first fairway, scattered the native hummingbirds with a 34-foot eagle putt at the par-5 14th – his second there in three days – and held station there en route to a 1-under 71 for 10-under 206. Noren, after early stumbles, came home in 4-under 32, including a 36-foot birdie at the last for 2-under 70 and 206.

“It was sneaky hard,” Aberg said of the course. “The wind (south, some 10-15 mph) was tricky. The greens were firmer from not having that much rain.”

It was compelling golf in the picturesque theater that is Castle Pines Golf Club, and that wasn’t all of it. Sneaking back into the picture we find Xander Schauffele, whose 5-under 67 for 7-under 209 was built on a 4-under inward nine, a splendid turnaround from his approach on No. 3, a devilish par 4. It sailed left, hit the rock wall in front of the green and caromed into the water. The result: a double-bogey 6.

“I had to dig deep in my little patience bucket that's running thin this late in the year on a Saturday,” Schauffele said.

Then there’s Wyndham Clark, who grew up playing Castle Pines and whose third round 3-under 69 was punctuated by a 16-foot eagle putt at the par-5 17th. He’s tied with Schauffele at 209, five strokes in arrears.

All that sets up this: Bradley and Scott in the final twosome for the second day running, and Aberg and Noren the duo right ahead of them, same as today. Schauffele and Clark lurking. But this time, the $4 million first prize will be hanging in the clubhouse window as bait.

“House money,” Scott called it, knowing that he can chase the win with his spot in next week’s Tour Championship, where the winner scoops up $25 million, secure.

“I'm right in this golf tournament,” Scott continued. “I don't know how many times this year I reckon I've been in contention going into Sunday, so I'm excited for tomorrow.”

Even if you’re only watching, it’s hard not to be.

Around Castle Pines

Defending champion Viktor Hovland is in the middle of the pack this week, but he’s hardly playing quiet golf. Saturday, he came within 16 inches of an ace on the par-3 16th, deftly using the side slope on the right side of the green to steer his tee shot toward the cup. He made the birdie putt and finished with a 1-under 71, and is tied for 24th. … World rankings leader Scottie Scheffler scored 2-over 74 and is at 1-over 217, tied for 35th. … The course average of 71.709 found the par-4 third hole the most testing, playing more than a half-stroke over par (4.646), while the par-5 17th was the pushover hole, at 4.250 strokes. … Robert MacIntyre withdrew after nine holes Saturday because of back pain. He was 2-over for the front nine. With Hideki Matsuyama’s WD because of back trouble before the second round, that leaves 48 players in the field. MacIntyre and Matsuyama will be paid for 49th and 50th place, but the money will be unofficial. … Sunday TV (Central time): ESPN+ 8-11 a.m. (plus feature group coverage until conclusion), Golf Channel 11 a.m.-1 p.m., NBC 1 p.m. until the finish.

– Tim Cronin