(Photo credit score: Megan Mendoza/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK through Imagn Images)
Hideki Matsuyama of Japan overtook countryman Ryo Hisatsune for the lead after three rounds of the WM Phoenix Open on Saturday at TPC Scottsdale in Arizona.
Playing within the closing group collectively, Matsuyama and Hisatsune appeared headed for a share of the lead when Matsuyama parred No. 18 and Hisatsune escaped a greenside bunker, leaving himself 5 1/2 toes to save lots of par.
But Hisatsune’s putt began left and stayed left, lacking the cup altogether for a troublesome bogey.
Hisatsune, 23, led his extra completed peer by one stroke via two rounds. Matsuyama’s 3-under-par 68 propelled him to a 13-under 200 via three rounds, and Hisatsune’s late blunder led him to a spherical of 70.
Hisatsune, who had birdied Nos. 10 and 17 to catch as much as Matsuyama, dropped right into a four-way tie at 12-under with Maverick McNealy (65), Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard (65) and South Korea’s Si Woo Kim (66).
England’s Matt Fitzpatrick held a share of the lead after consecutive birdies at Nos. 14-15, however he made a large number of the par-3 sixteenth ‘Stadium Hole’ and recorded a double bogey. A birdie-bogey end left him at 67 for his spherical and a part of a tie at 11 below with Michael Thorbjornsen (65), Jake Knapp (66) and Akshay Bhatia (67).
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler posted a 67 that featured a chip-in birdie from the sand at No. 10. He’s 5 off the tempo at 8-under getting into Sunday.
–Field Level Media