Shane Lowry and Padraig Harrington kept their title hopes intact, but Leona Maguire’s major dream faded in the US last night.
Harrington stormed home in 30 thanks to three closing birdies and fired a seven-under 65 to remain on course for a hat trick of wins in the Dick’s Open on the PGA Tour Champions in New York, where he’s tied the lead with Ken Tanigawa and Stephen Ames on 11-under.
Lowry also remained in the mix in the weather-disrupted Travelers Championship in Connecticut, where a five under 65 left him tied for seventh, four shots behind Tom Kim, who heads Scottie Scheffler and Akshay Bhatia by a shot on 14-under.
But Co Cavan star Maguire has her work cut out in the KPMG Women’s PGA in the Pacific Northwest, where she doubled bogeyed the par-three 17th for the second day in a row and carded a three-over 75 that left her seven shots behind leader Amy Yang on level par in a tie for 14th.
It was a heavy blow for the pride of Ballyconnell, who fought back from a three over front nine with birdies at the 11th and 12th before finding water again at the penultimate hole at Sahalee in Washington state.
Yang made a two at the 17th and signed for a one-under 71 to lead by two shots from Lauren Hartlage and Japan’s Miyu Yamashita on seven-under and by three from Sarah Schmelzel.
Lilia Vu, Caroline Inglis, Lexi Thompson, Jin Young Ko and Hinako Shibuno were four shots adrift on three-under.
“I grew up watching so many great players in the past, and I saw them winning all the major championships,” Yang said of what it would mean to secure a maiden major win.
“I dreamed about playing out here because of them. I work hard for this. It’ll mean a lot, but we still got 18 more holes out there, and that’s a lot of golf left for a major championship.”
Play was delayed for two hours and 42 minutes due to a mid-afternoon thunderstorm in the Travelers Championship in Hartford, where Kim shot a five-under 65 to lead by a shot on 18-under from world number one Bhatia and Scheffler, who both shot 64s.
Xander Schauffele also shot 64, and Sunjae Im a 63 to share fourth on 16-under as Lowry birdied three of his last six holes to post a 65, leaving him four adrift of Kim in a tie for seventh.
It was a day of historic low scoring as Cameron Young became the 12th player to break 60 in a PGA TOUR event and the first since Scheffler accomplished the feat in the 2020 FedEx St. Jude Championship.
While Jim Furyk (who also has a 59) shot 58 at TPC River Highlands in the final round of the 2016 Travelers Championship, Young (27) had a birdie chip from short of the 18th to match the veteran before coming up short and rolling in a ten footer for par and a 59.
“I didn’t think about it too much kind of the middle that have back nine,” Young said after recording the 13th sub-60 round on the PGA Tour that left him five off the lead in joint 10th.
“All of a sudden like everything was going in after kind of 10, 11, 12. Yeah, then it kind of, all of a sudden, I had a putt for 59 on 18, which was a blast.”
He birdied the first and second, then eagled the third by holing out from 142 yards for a two before knocking in a 20-footer at the fourth to go five-under for the day.
Further birdies from 14 inches at the eighth and 32 feet at the ninth saw him turn in seven under 28.
A two-putt birdie at the par-five 13th put him eight under before he drove the 280-yard 15th and rolled in a four-footer for another eagle two to get to 10-under.
While he missed a seven-footer for birdie at the par-three 16th, he knocked in a five-footer at the 17th to go 11-under before getting up and down at the last for par and a 59.
Yet to win a PGA Tour event, the world No. 23 added: “The last two days have been great. I played some nice golf.
“I think like in terms of lifetime achievement, there’s definitely some things that go before it for me.
“It’s one day, it’s one day that you shot a million under. It’s very cool and I’m thankful that my name is on that very short list, but there’s whole tournaments that I’ve played that … I probably would still put above it.”
At En Joie in New York, Harrington was thrilled to birdie the last three holes and grab a three-way tie for the lead with the top 13 on the leaderboard covered by just three strokes.
“This is one of those,” said Harrington, who is warming up for next week’s US Senior Open. “There’s obviously a big bunch of people up on the leaderboard, but sometimes you’re three or four shots off the lead, you have a chance going into Sunday.
“But with so many people on the leaderboard, you really want to be very tightly up there. You want to be if not in the lead, close enough.
“One of those guys is going to go low tomorrow, so hopefully, it will be me.”
Tied with Tanigawa and Ames on 11-under, one ahead of Bob Estes, Paul Stankovski and Steve Allan, he added: “Yeah, both rounds this week, I finished strong. It’s been a bit of a surprise. I was a little frustrated, probably through nine holes today.
“My playing partners were going so low, I wasn’t holing the putts. Then I don’t know if I was patient or things happened to go my way, but it was really nice to come home in five-under.”