The cream normally begins to separate on Moving Day Saturday, and Round 3 of the Zozo Championship at Sherwood Country Club was no different. Justin Thomas (-19) and Jon Rahm (-18) emerged as your favorites going into Round 4 as they shot a combined 14 under on Saturday.
The No. 2 and No. 3-ranked golfers in the world will play in the final group on Sunday for the finale, but before we get to that, let’s take a look back at what happened in Round 3 at Sherwood.
1. Justin Thomas (-19): J.T. closed like the closer he is with birdies on two of his last three holes after a bit of a lull in the middle of his round. His putter has saved him a bit over the last two days, and he’ll have to be better from tee to green on Sunday to hold off Rahm. One thing to remember as the tournament comes to a conclusion late on Sunday: J.T. has played the back nine in 17 under (!) this week.
T2. Jon Rahm (-18): After losing strokes with his putter on each of the first two days, Rahm putted the lights out early and played his first nine in 6 under with six 3s on the scorecard. Rahm said afterward the game is simplified when he’s thinking about being aggressive, and that was clear on Saturday as he made a run from back in the pack at the lead of this tournament.
3. Lanto Griffin (-17): An unbelievable 4 on the par-3 15th on Saturday saved what could have been a disaster after he hit it in the water. T7 last week, and he’s looking for another nice payday on Sunday. He’ll get a show by being in the final group with Thomas and Rahm, but I question whether he can keep pace.
T4. Sebastian Munoz, Ryan Palmer, Patrick Cantlay (-16): Quite a trio here between Munoz, Palmer and Cantlay. The latter has regained his tee-to-green form just in time for the Masters and is the guy who could shoot a 63 or 64 and snatch a win from the top two.
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T7. Webb Simpson, Brian Harman, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Bubba Watson, Scottie Scheffler, Dylan Frittelli (-15): Scheffler is interesting here. He probably doesn’t have the juice to catch Rahm and Thomas, but he’s lost a stroke per round to the field with his putter thus far, so that should correct itself at some point. If it’s Sunday, he could shoot something special in the low 60s.
T36. Rory McIlroy (-9): Let’s go with the bad news first. McIlroy doubled his last hole to turn what should have been a 65 into a 67. The much better news is that he gained 3.5 strokes on approach shots. This is just the seventh round since the start of 2019 in which he’s touched 3 or more in a single round. That’s important because it’s been his biggest struggle since the PGA Tour restarted in June, and the Masters is just a few weeks away.
T58. Jordan Spieth (-6): After an eyebrow-raising 66 on Friday, Spieth was terrible on Saturday even though he gained a stroke on the field with his putter. That means he lost 5.5 from tee to green, which is as painful to type as it was to watch.
T68. Tiger Woods (-3): Tiger opened with a bogey on the short par-4 10th hole — his second bogey there in three days (there have only been 21 bogeys from the field all week) — but it did get better after that. He made three birdies over the rest of the first nine (back nine on the course) before playing the second nine in 1 over for a 71. After bouncing back with his iron play on Friday, Woods again faltered in Round 3, losing strokes to the field. There’s just no real tee-to-green consistency with him this week, which is a problem going into his title defense at the Masters.
CBS Sports was with you the entire way updating this story with the latest scores, updates and highlights below. Check out the live scores at the top of this story, a more detailed leaderboard, Round 3 tee times and our complete viewer’s guide.
