Hero World Challenge: JJ Spaun, Cameron Young and Hideki Matsuyama share lead five more times at PGA Tour event | Golf news
US Open champion JJ Spaun converted two of his three eagle chances, Cameron Young shot 30 on the back nine and Hideki Matsuyama was bogey-free, all part of another five-way tie for the lead Friday in the Hero World Challenge.
After the second lap, he was missing Scottie Scheffler, who briefly had the lead to his side.
Scheffler holed an 18-foot eagle putt at the par-5 15th at the same time Young finally calmed down by missing an 8-foot par putt at the 18th. That put Scheffler at 11 under par for a one-shot lead that lasted an entire hole.
He hit his tee shot on the 16th for the second day in a row, this time having to take a penalty shot to get out of a bush. Then he misjudged the trajectory of a blind shot and it clipped the top of another palmetto bush, leading to a double bogey.
Akshay Bhatia birdied the 18th for a 68 to join former US Open champion Wyndham Clark (68), Spaun (68), Matsuyama (66) and Young (64), all at 10 under. Scheffler is one shot behind, while Englishman Justin Rose is eight under.
Spaun only made five eagles all season, then grabbed the scoring holes. He hit a 3-wood to three feet on the par-5 sixth and hit a tee shot on the reachable par-4 14th that settled five feet away, both eagles. He narrowly missed a 15-foot eagle putt at the par-5 15th.
That allowed him to recover from a pair of bogeys in the first four holes.
“I didn’t get a good start, but I had a pretty decent round,” Spaun said.
Bhatia, in his last tournament before getting married, saved himself at the end with a nice par save near the 16th green, then a bogey on the par-3 17th when he drove across the green and into a bunker, blew up and made a 15-foot putt to prevent the situation from getting worse.
Scheffler shot a 69 and was tied at 9-under 135 with Alex Noren (66) and Sepp Straka (69), with former Albany resident Rose another shot back after a 68.
“I think I did some good things. Just a few too many mistakes, but overall I still felt pretty good,” Scheffler said.
Billy Horschel had a 68 and was five shots behind. He missed most of this year due to hip surgery and is the only player among the 20 players who did not earn a spot in the Masters. Horschel is 45th in the world rankings – the top 50 at the end of the year advance to the Masters – and a strong finish could take care of that.
Watch ongoing coverage of the Hero World Challenge on Sky Sports Golf from 5 p.m. and Sky Sports main event from 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.
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