Taylor Pendrith returns to RBC Canadian Open contention with a bag full of advantages
It'll be 11 years ago next month that Taylor Pendrith first emerged on the PGA Tour's radar, firing an opening-round 65 in his first RBC Canadian Open as a 23-year-old amateur.
What stood out at the time wasn't only the 5-under-par score that put Pendrith in a tie for third place at Royal Montreal. It was the prodigious power he displayed off the tee, leading the field with an average driving distance of 309 yards, including a 365-yard bomb that set up one of seven birdies.
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Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Fleetwood seizes control after Scheffler blowup and leads Travelers by 3
CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) — Tommy Fleetwood avoided the blunders by Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas, never missing a fairway Saturday and seizing on the good scoring conditions for a 7-under 63 for a three-shot lead going into the final round of the Travelers Championship. At stake for Fleetwood is a chance to add a PGA Tour title to a resume that includes seven European titles, three Ryder Cup appearances and a regular fixture among the top 25 for the last two years. The immediate challengers at steamy TPC River Highlands are New England's favorite son and Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley (63) and Russell Henley, who had a 61 one day after calling a penalty on himself when he wasn't entirely sure it was one. Missing are Scheffler and Thomas, both tied for the 36-hole lead with Fleetwood. Scheffler had a 29th birthday to forget. Thousands of spectators around the first tee serenaded him. He responded with a triple bogey, the first time he has done that to start a round in his PGA Tour career. The world's No. 1 player never quite recovered, posting a 72, the fifth time in 55 rounds this year he was over par. Scheffler was nine shots behind. Thomas, already a winner at Hilton Head this year, was still in range of Fleetwood when he hit his tee shot onto the railroad tracks left of the par-5 13th, the club slipping out his hand. And then it got worse. He twice watched chips up a slope to a green that ran away from him come up short and roll back down the hill. He missed a 6-foot putt and took a quadruple-bogey 9. Thomas shot 73 and was 10 behind. Without the wind — only extreme heat — the course average was right about 68. The final group of Scheffler and Thomas combined to go 5-over par. Fleetwood was in such control of his game that he didn't realize until after the round that he didn't miss a fairway, key to setting up birdie chances. He also made eagle on the 13th hole for the second day, giving him three eagles for the week. They don't hand out crystal for that at the Travelers, only red umbrellas. But it allowed Fleetwood to get some separation for Henley and Bradley going into Sunday. Fleetwood, a 34-year-old from England, was at 16-under 194. 'I'm on top of a lot of stat lines for people that haven't won on the PGA Tour, so to always be a No. 1 at something is always nice,' he said with a laugh. 'Yeah, of course I would love to win on the PGA Tour. I think it's like an element of your career that everybody wants, and I of course want it. I haven't, this year especially, I don't feel like I've given myself … I've given myself a back-end chance a couple of times this year, but I've not been in contention. So this is like my first real chance, so I'm really excited about that and looking forward to it.' Jason Day ran off three straight birdies on the back nine to salvage a 67 and was five shots back. No one else was closer than eight shots of Fleetwood. Scheffler hasn't finished out of the top 10 since March and remarkably he ended the day with a birdie for a tie eighth. The start was a shocker. He drove left into the 5-inch rough and hit wedge into a front bunker with a decent lie. But he caught all ball and sent it over the green, leaving him a tough pitch up the slope and over a mound toward the hole. The first pitch came up short and rolled back down into the rough. He hit a flop to 15 feet and two-putted for triple bogey, his first on the tour since the BMW Championship last August. Bradley, whose name has not vanished from Ryder Cup consideration as a player, won the Travelers two years ago and cleared a major hurdle trying to perform before New England fans, now chanting, 'U-S-A! U-S-A!' at him at every turn. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. He likes his position of chasing. He still knows he needs to play well. 'Oh, man, you're going to have to shoot something at least in the mid 60s, probably where I am, probably lower,' Bradley said. 'But it's doable out here. When you play a course where you've got to make birdies it brings a different challenge. You can't have a stretch of 1-over par for seven holes or you lose a million shots. 'So in some aspects it's difficult just like a hard course would be.' ___ AP golf:
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Myles Creighton has a 59 for another sub-60 around at the Wichita Open
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Myles Creighton of Canada birdied the 18th hole Saturday to become the 15th player with a 59 or lower on the Korn Ferry Tour, the second score of 59 in three days at the Wichita Open. Adrien Dumont de Chassart had a 59 in the opening round at Crestview Country Club. Creighton had 12 birdies and one bogey, on the par-3 eighth hole. Crestview is 6,910 yards and plays to a par 70, with both par 5s just over 500 yards and two of the par 4s measuring at under 350 yards. It was the second time in two years at a Korn Ferry Tour event that two players had sub-60 rounds in the same week. Cristobal Del Solar of Chile set the Korn Ferry Tour record with a 57 in the opening round of the Astara Golf Championship in Colombia. The next day, Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa shot 59. Neither went on to win the tournament. There have 18 sub-60 rounds on tours around the world since 2023, including a 59 on the PGA Tour this year by Jake Knapp at the Cognizant Classic. ___ AP golf:
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Scheffler hits a perfect shot and plenty of great ones for a 62 to share lead at Travelers
CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler had one of those rare rounds where he hit a shot so pure it makes his confidence soar. So many other shots were pretty good, too, and they added to an 8-under 62 to share the lead Thursday with Austin Eckroat in the Travelers Championship. The week after a rough-and-tumble U.S. Open was a welcome break for so many at the TPC River Highlands, even with the rough just as long (but not quite as thick) as soaked Oakmont. Rory McIlroy played bogey-free for a 66 and didn't look to break too much of a sweat. 'This is a nice tonic compared to last week in terms of it's a slightly more benign golf course and the penalty for missing isn't quite as severe,' McIlroy said. Scheffler faced the hot afternoon when a refreshing breeze turned into a strong wind, and he wasted no time getting in the mix with four birdies in six holes and a 30 on the front nine. And then came the par-5 13th, 236 yards away into the wind, over a pond to a pin on the right. It was perfect — that's coming from golf's No. 1 player — and settled 10 feet away for birdie. 'That 3-iron I hit in there was really nice,' Scheffler said. 'It was pretty much exactly what I was trying to do. It was kind of one where I had to hit it really solid in order to get it there with the water short, and I just did pretty much exactly what I wanted to and it felt nice.' McIlroy was at 64 along with Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark. Another shot back was Cameron Young. He was in the mix late on Sunday at Oakmont, and started the Travelers Championship by going from the rough to the bunker, and then a three-putt from 25 feet for a double bogey. 'I managed to get around Oakmont for four days with no doubles and I made it zero holes here,' Young said. 'Typically that's not kind of what you expect around here.' Not to worry. He followed with eight birdies in a day with a new routine. His caddie went down with a stomach virus and the best option was to turn the bag over to his father, Dave Young, recently retired as the longtime pro at Sleepy Hollow. The surprise was Eckroat, already a two-time winner on the PGA Tour but struggling so much this year that he has only two finishes in the top 20 and eight missed cuts. The last two weeks served him well, however, as Eckroat said he figured out how to eliminate the miss to the left. He played the last six holes in 5-under par, starting with a 35-foot eagle putt on No. 13. 'I wasn't fearing the left ball today, which is huge, and then whenever you're feeling comfortable with other things, other things start to fall in line,' Eckroat said. 'Felt great over the putter, and just a really solid day, and I felt confident, which it was nice to feel that this season. It's been a while.' U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun felt the fatigue, and the steamy heat didn't help the cause. Playing along Scheffler, he was hanging in there until it took him two chips and two putts to cover 40 feet for a double bogey on No. 12, and a bogey-bogey finish for a 73. Jordan Spieth didn't even make it to the finish line. This was the first time Spieth didn't need a sponsor exemption for a $20 million signature event, and he only lasted 13 holes when his shoulder blade got tight on the range, spread across the back of his neck to the other side and left him no choice but to withdraw. Scheffler saying he hit a great shot is worth paying attention to because it doesn't happen very often. He rarely hits it offline. But this was something special. 'Hit it really solid and really straight, just barely right of the pin, and kept it nice flat flight, get it to go through the wind, and it was good,' he said. In fact, he could only recall two other shots in recent years — a 6-iron on the fifth hole in the final round at the 2022 Masters, a 9-iron he hit on the par-3 third hole in the final round of the 2023 Players Championship. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. 'Those are shots that kind of get lost in terms of the tournament,' he said. 'I'm not even sure if I birdied No. 3 at The Players, and I know I didn't birdie No. 5 during the Masters. But those are the shots when you're playing and you're in the moment, those are the ones that give me a lot of confidence.' It's hard to imagine him needing much more of that. He hasn't finished out of the top 10 since The Players in March, a stretch of eight tournaments. He didn't hit the ball very well for two days at the U.S. Open and still had an outside chance on the back nine And in his 19th round at the TPC River Highlands, he posted his lowest score at 62. ___ AP golf:
