With one round to play in the Procore Championship, Ben Griffin leads two world Nos. 1 who are within two shots:
Scottie Scheffler.
And the world’s top-ranked amateur, Jackson Koivun.
Let’s start with Griffin, who snapped his streak of eight straight rounds in the 60s on Saturday at Silverado Resort in Napa, California. Griffin’s 2-under 70, which has him 16 under and a shot clear of Koivun, was capped by a sloppy bogey at the par-5 18th hole.
After playing his first 17 holes of the third round with three birdies and no dropped shots, Griffin drove his ball into a fairway bunker at the closing hole, had to lay up and then deposited his third shot, from 144 yards out, short of the perched green, just missing his spot and watching his ball kicking back off the severe front slope. He needed three more shots from there as he chipped through the green and missed the 46-footer coming back.
“I felt like I hit a pretty good third shot, and I think the wind kind of switched,” Griffin said. “It was in barely off the left and it kind of got smoked and went down to the right and ricocheted. I don’t know if it hit the side slop or hit the side of a sprinkler head and kicked way down there, but left me in a really tough spot to get up and down. I couldn’t really bump it. I tried to bump it, but I had to bounce it over a sprinkler head, and it kind of got in my head, and I hit it long. But I couldn’t really flop it either because of the lie and landing on a downslope. It was just in a really difficult spot to make par. Might be hard to see on TV sometimes, but it wasn’t in the best of places. It happens. I knew I was going to make a bogey at some point in my life, just so happened on 18. I’ll be just fine going into tomorrow.”
Griffin, whose first two career PGA Tour titles came earlier this year, then added: “Someone asked me if I was frustrated after today. Definitely not. Having a one-shot lead on the PGA Tour going into Sunday and my game feels great, so I can’t complain at all.”
Scheffler fired an 8-under 64 to climb 11 spots into solo third at 14 under. Scheffler, who is not only making his Procore debut this week but also playing his first official fall in event in three years, rattled off 10 birdies during his third round while gaining over three shots each on approach and with the putter.
“I could hear the roars,” Griffin said, referring to Scheffler. “… Yeah, I looked at the leaderboard and saw his name. You always know he’s probably coming at some point, so I’ve got to continue to do my job and stay ahead of him.”
His only blemish was a double bogey at the par-4 14th, where he had just 90 yards in after his drive before hitting a chip into a greenside bunker and blasting his sand shot 30 feet long of the hole.
“I had a very poor lie in the rough and did my best
getting to the front of the green,” Scheffler said. “Yeah, I would say I just got a little bit greedy on the chip, [tried to land it] pretty close to the fringe. I was trying to flop it with some spin, and it kind of rode the face a little bit.”
Koivun, who had three top-11s on the PGA Tour during the regular season and recently went 3-1 at last weekend’s Walker Cup, got off to a bump start with a three-putt bogey at the par-4 third and another bogey at the par-4 fourth. But Koivun caught fire on the back nine, which was highlighted by an eagle at the par-5 12th, where he hit his second shot from 295 yards out to 40 feet and canned the putt.
“I told myself I was going to try and shoot 6 under after that second bogey, and I did that,” Koivun said.
A 5-under 32 coming in for Koivun, who also birdie from 19 feet at the par-4 14th, polished off a 4-under 68 that has him solo second at 15 under.
Koivun already has his PGA Tour card locked up via PGA Tour University’s Accelerated program, and he’s free to take up his season and a half’s worth of membership after next year’s NCAA Championship or the 2027 NCAA Championship. Of course, a win on Sunday would grant him immediate membership should he choose to turn pro immediately, like Nick Dunlap did two Januarys ago after winning the American Express as an Alabama sophomore.
“I know Nick pretty well,” Koivun said. “He’s a great guy. I haven’t really talked with him about this week, but definitely might want to go watch his re-run and see what he did.”
Koivun will be the first amateur since Dunlap at AmEx to be in the final group on Sunday. He’ll be paired with Griffin, a University of North Carolina alum who is also from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Koivun and his family moved to from San Jose, California, when Koivun was 17 years old.
Koivun’s odds of winning are currently +360 while Griffin and Scheffler are both +150.
Garrick Higgo (66) sits fourth at 13 under, followed by four players tied for fifth at 10 under, including two players, Austin Eckroat and Lanto Griffin, who entered the week ranked outside the top 100 in points.
Russell Henley, who began the day tied for second, shot 2-over 74 in the final pairing to drop to T-9 at 9 under.
Read the full article here
