Adam Schenk has held the lead/co-lead after each round this week. He closed with a 4-foot, 10-inch birdie putt on Saturday for the solo lead at 8-under at the Valspar Championship.
“Battle all day. Not a ton went our way early. We really hung in there. David did a great job of telling me that everybody’s going to struggle today, it’s windy, it’s difficult. You’re going to get some bad breaks, you’re going to get some good breaks, just wait for ’em. We got ours on 16 and 18. The birdie on 18 was just an added bonus.
“We looked at the winds, we knew it was going to be a little softer today with how the Tour set the golf course up. So we substituted the 2-iron in and the 5-wood and 4-wood went out. I’ll have to see what the wind’s going to be tomorrow. I’m guessing out of the north with how cold it will be. So I’ll look at the pins and know which pins I’ll have problems with probably and know which pins I’ll be able to have green lights at and then we’ll build our game plan around that.”
The American is still aiming for a first victory on Tour in his 165th start, his best finish so far being T3 at the 2021 Shriners Children’s Open. His best finish this season also came at Shriners where he came T12.
England’s Tommy Fleetwood signed for a 69 to move up into a share of second place at 2-under. One of three players with a bogey-free round on Saturday (Patton Kizzire/67, Doc Redman/68).
“I think the first thing to look at is bogey-free,” said Feetwood. “I made no dropped shots, I never went backwards once. I think that was just, they’re always nice, no matter where you play nor when you’re playing, but on a day like today when it’s really tough, I felt like that was really important. Overall just happy with how patient I stayed. Kept standing up and hitting the golf shots and made some really good up-and-downs. So one of those days where I just felt like I good shots out of the round and I did everything in sort of a nice sort of calm manner. I plotted on, hit good shots, hit some not so good but anything under par today was really good.
Windy conditions @ValsparChamp?
Not a problem for @TommyFleetwood1. pic.twitter.com/qch4SBMxke
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 18, 2023
2015 champion Jordan Spieth had a more eventful round with five birdies, an eagle at the par-5 first hole and four bogeys but also closed with a 69 and a share of third place.
“It was a really nice start,” said the American. “I’ve kind of not really had my best stuff the last two days with my swing and today I managed it really well around here. And it was kind of lag putting and some chipping that hurt me. But really a great start to be at even par or 2-under through 4, sorry and 3-under through 5. From there the rest of the golf course was just trying to maybe try and get one more before you get in 18 fairway. I made a few too many mistakes but overall in these conditions I think I would have signed for 2-under.
“A couple nice breaks. A couple kind of tee shots that were pretty good in divots and then a couple nice breaks and those were all those bogeys, birdies in the middle there where just a day like today you just, you’ve got to be pretty calm and be able to accept whatever and to be honest I was not that at all. It may have led to – we got put on the clock on 10 and that set me off. I was a mess trying to rush and play the back nine. It’s just so hard any ways when the wind’s blowing out here. Then you can’t step off because you’re going to get a bad time. So that really stunk. But, and we didn’t get off of it the whole rest of the round. So I think I need to handle those kind of situation as bit better tomorrow. I didn’t do a very good job of that today.
“I stroked it really well, I made a lot of really nice par saves some early and then the 17th was a really nice par save. And I stroked it the way I did the first day, I was a little more aggressive on the greens. A few greens are like three feet faster than the rest and like the 10th the 12th and the 16th you got to take it pretty easy and the rest of ’em you got to putt pretty aggressively.”
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American Webb Simpson also eagled the first hole and went on to score a 68 for a share of fourth place at 6-under alongside compatriots Taylor Moore (69) and Cody Gribble (70).
