Dustin Johnson is 21 shots worse to par than he was a week ago and still looks to be the player to beat.
Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama survived another demanding day at Olympia Fields, Ill., both scratching out a 1-under 69 that felt better than it looked to share the lead Saturday at the BMW Championship.
Everyone else was over par going into the final round.
Sunday is one last chance for some players to be among the top 30 who advance to the FedEx Cup finale, and one last round for others — like Tiger Woods — to prepare for the US Open on a course that plays every bit as tough.
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Patrick Cantlay only hit five fairways and didn’t make a birdie as he tumbled out of a tie for the lead with a round with a 75 that left him five shots behind and might cost him a spot in the Tour Championship.
Rory McIlroy had to play lefthanded to escape the base of a tree in starting the back nine with a bogey, and he finished with a shot he thought was going to be long, came up 70 feet short, and led to a three-putt bogey for a 73. He still was only three shots back.
Jon Rahm matched the low round of the day at 66 that could have easily been one shot better if not for a blunder that even he couldn’t believe. He forgot to set a marker down on the green before picking up his golf ball on No. 5, freezing in his tracks when he realized what happened.
“I was thinking of somebody else or something else ... and yeah, I just picked up the ball without marking it, simple as that,” Rahm said after a round that left him only three behind. “I can’t really give you an explanation. It’s one of those things that happen in golf. Never thought it would in my professional career, but here we are.”
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The BMW Championship remains up for grabs, and if Sunday holds to form, it will be more about holding on than pulling away. Eleven players were separated by three shots.
Johnson and Matsuyama were at 1-under 209.
A week ago at The Northern Trust on a rain-softened course with little wind, Johnson was at 22-under par through three rounds and had a five-shot lead. That felt easy. This does not.
Johnson had a three-shot swing go against him on the opening hole when he went rough to rough to bunker and made bogey, while Matsuyama holed a bunker shot for eagle. Matsuyama quickly built a three-shot lead with a birdie on No. 4. He made only one birdie the rest of the way.
Joaquin Niemann had a 68 and was part of the group at 1-over 211 that included Adam Scott (70) and Mackenzie Hughes (69). Another shot back were the likes of Rahm, Bubba Watson, Brendon Todd, and Kevin Kisner, who had 16 pars, one birdie and bogey for his round of 70.
Rounds like that go a long way at Olympia Fields, the former US Open course playing like one with its thick rough and rock-hard greens and enough wind to make the fairways look tighter than they are.
Woods, meanwhile, had a reasonable start to his round and wasn’t losing much ground until he lost a tee shot into the water right of the 17th fairway and then smothered a fairway metal to the left. He walked across a cart path smacking the club off the concrete and twice looked like he wanted to break it. He missed a short putt for triple bogey and shot 72.
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Woods has yet to break par this week. One more round like that and it will be the first time in 10 years — the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone — that he had all four rounds over par. He needed something around fourth to advance to the Tour Championship for the first time since 2018.
Matsuyama is trying to end three years without a victory. Johnson is trying to win for the second time in seven days, along with positioning himself to be the top seed at the Tour Championship, which would allow him to start the tournament with a two-shot lead under the staggered start.
LPGA — Anna Nordqvist shot a 9-under 62 to take a three-stroke lead over Sei Young Kim into the final round of the LPGA Tour’s Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.
Tied for the first-round lead after a 64, Nordqvist hit all 18 greens in regulation at Pinnacle Country Club at Rogers, Ark., for her second straight bogey-free round.
“I played really solid both today and yesterday,” Nordqvist said. “Got off to a great start. Had a lot of good opportunities. Made a few putts early and just kept going. Felt like I hit my irons really well.”
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The 33-year-old Swede birdied five of the first six holes and seven of the first 11 in the round interrupted by an afternoon thunderstorm. She added two more on the par-3 15th and par-5 18th to get to 16-under 126.
“There is something about Arkansas.” Nordqvist said. “Always liked this place. Probably one of the few places in the US I could really see myself being because I like the atmosphere here.”
Nordqvist has two major titles and six other LPGA Tour victories. She last won in 2017 at the Founders Cup in Phoenix and the major Evian Championship in France.
Kim following an opening 65 with a 64. She eagled the 18th and closed with a birdie on the par-4 ninth. Playing alongside local favorite Stacy Lewis, Kim was making the turn when the storm hit.
“Greens were softer, but the wind is stronger than front nine, so it wasn’t easy,” said Kim, making her first LPGA Tour start since January.
The South Korean player skipped the Women’s British Open last week. She’s set to play the ANA Inspiration in two weeks in the California desert.
Lewis, the former University of Arkansas player who won the 2014 event, was 8 under after a 68.
Nelly Korda (63), Jenny Shin (63), and Austin Ernst (65) were 12 under. Angela Stanford (66) was 10 under.
Esther Lee, tied for the first-round lead with Nordqvist and Jackie Stoelting, was in the group at 9 under after a 69. Stoelting, returning to the tour after a 14-month maternity break, shot 70.
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Alexa Pano, the 16-year-old Florida amateur playing on a sponsor exemption, made the cut. She followed an opening 72 with a 67 to get to 3 under.
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