LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Instead of running away from the field one more time, Jason Day spent most of the third round at the BMW Championship running in place. ADVERTISING LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Instead of running away from the
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Instead of running away from the field one more time, Jason Day spent most of the third round at the BMW Championship running in place.
He was hardly the only player struggling to cope with the suddenly cool, wet and windy conditions at Conway Farms left behind by a wave of overnight storms. After opening rounds of 61 and 63, the Aussie made his first bogey in 20 holes at No. 6, then piled on three more to offset a half-dozen birdies Saturday en route to a 2-under 69.
Day was at 20-under 193 and had a six-stroke lead. That’s one shot better than he had at the start of the round, and the biggest cushion any 54-hole leader has enjoyed on tour this season.
Day has won three times — including his first major, the PGA Championship — and is an aggregate 99 under in tournament play since a narrow miss at the British Open in late July.
While the pack pursuing the FedEx Cup leader got no closer, there was some reshuffling.
Scott Piercy overcame some shaky play early to shoot a 67 and moved up from a tie for fifth into second, and a spot alongside Day in the final pairing Sunday. Brendon Todd, who played in Day’s group Saturday, made a triple-bogey 7 at No. 4, bogeyed the next two and never recovered en route to a 76 that dropped him into a tie for 18th.
World No.1 Rory McIlroy climbed from a tie for ninth to claim fourth place. He will go off in the next-to-last pairing with rookie Daniel Berger, one of the few players who held their ground. Berger shot 70 and was tied with Piercy for second.
SOLHEIM CUP
ST. LEON-ROT, Germany — Lexi Thompson and Cristie Kerr beat Spain’s Carlota Ciganda and Azahara Munoz 3 and 2 to cut the United States’ deficit to 8-5 in the Solheim Cup matches against Europe with the other three fourball matches suspended because of darkness.
In the suspeneded matches, Americans Alison Lee and Brittany Lincicome led Charley Hull and Suzann Pettersen 1 up with three holes left, U.S. teammates Stacy Lewis and Gerina Piller had a 1-up advantage over Caroline Hedwall and Caroline Masson with two holes to go, and Europe’s Karine Icher and Catriona Matthew led Brittany Lang and Lizette Salas 1 up with three to play.
Lewis and Piller earned the only points for the United States in the morning foursomes, beating Hedwall and Anna Nordqvist 5 and 4. In the the other matches, Ciganda and Melissa Reid topped Lee and Michelle Wie 4 and 3, Hull and Pettersen beat Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel 1 up, and Sandra Gal and Catriona Matthew edged Brittany Lincicome and Angela Stanford 1 up.
After the completion of the suspended matches Sunday, the event will close with 12 singles matches.
Europe has won the last two events — in 2011 at Killeen Castle in Ireland and 2013 at Colorado Golf Club — to cut the Americans’ series lead to 8-5.
SMALL BUSINESS CONNECTION CHAMPIONSHIP
DAVIDSON, N.C. — Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo shot a 4-under 68 for a share of the third-round lead with Eric Axley in the Web.com Tour Finals’ Small Business Connection Championship.
Axley had a 70 to match Grillo at 14-under 202 at River Run.
The tournament is second in the four-event series features the top 75 players from the Web.com Tour money list, Nos. 126-200 in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings and non-members of the tour such as Grillo who earned enough money to have placed in the top 200 had they been eligible to receive points. The top 25 players on Web.com regular-season money list earned PGA Tour cards. They are competing against each other for tour priority, with regular-season earnings counting. The other players are fighting for another 25 cards based on series earnings.
Grillo lost in a playoff in the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open in March.
Axley, the 2006 Texas Open winner, was 189th in the FedEx Cup standings.
Brett Stegmaier, the leader after each of the first two rounds, had a 73 to drop into a tie for third with Kyle Stanley (65) at 12 under. Stegmaier was 69th on the Web.com Tour regular-season money list. Stanley, the 2012 Phoenix Open winner, was 181st in FedEx Cup standings.
ITALIAN OPEN
MONZA, Italy — German star Martin Kaymer shot a 7-under 65 for a share of the third-round lead in the European Tour’s Italian Open.
France’s Romain Wattel had a 66, and Sweden’s Jens Fahrbring shot 68 to match Kaymer at 17-under 199 at Golf Club Milano. Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger (67) was two stroke back along with Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti (68) and Denmark’s Lucas Bjerregaard (70).
