Miami (AFP) – Austrian Sepp Straka fired two eagles and four birdies in an eight-under par 64 to seize a one-stroke lead over two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas on Saturday. Straka posted the round of the day at Albany Golf Club in Nassau to build a 17-under total of 199 going into Sunday’s final round of the unofficial 20-man tournament hosted by Tiger Woods.
World number one Scheffler was alone atop the leaderboard through 15 holes but bogeyed two of the last three to sign for a 65 and a 54-hole total of 200. “I had played pretty nice,” Straka said. “Front nine I felt like I didn’t really make any putts early on but then the putter started feeling pretty nice around the turn. Iron play was really good. I just struggled with the driver a little bit,” added Straka, a two-time winner on the US PGA Tour this year and a member of Europe’s victorious Ryder Cup team in September.
Related news
Since then, Straka had withdrawn from a pair of European Tour playoff events to be at home in Georgia with his wife, Paige, when their two-month-old son left the hospital for the first time since he was born prematurely in August. Straka and Scheffler both started the day one stroke behind the group of five tied for the lead on 10-under.
Straka birdied the par-five third then chipped in for eagle at the sixth. He added birdies at the seventh, ninth, and 11th — where he drained a 19-foot putt — before rolling in a 17-foot eagle putt at the 15th. Scheffler opened with a birdie at the first and sank a 20-foot eagle putt at the third. He made a 17-foot birdie putt at the fourth and got up and down for birdie from a greenside bunker at the par-five sixth before another monster birdie putt at the seventh. “He definitely got it going quick,” playing partner Straka said of Scheffler. “It didn’t look like he was going to miss a putt there for a little bit.”
Scheffler gave a stroke back with a bogey at the par-three eighth, then birdied four of the next six holes to seize the lead before his late bogeys. “I drove the ball well, I hit some good iron shots and I holed some nice putts,” Scheffler said, calling his “dream start” key. “I think going into the day you’re trying to get off to a good start and I did a good job of that today, was able to get rewarded for some nice shots that I hit,” he said.
Former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama had six birdies in a four-under par 68 and was tied for third on 202 with Sweden’s Alex Noren, who signed for a 67. Tournament host Woods, a 15-time major champion, is not playing in the event, saying on Tuesday that the recovery from his latest back surgery is “not as fast as I’d like it to be.”
© 2024 AFP
