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    Saturday, April 27, 2024

    Davis, Molder share lead at the PGA Colonial

    Fred Couples watches his drive on the 1st tee Saturday during the third round of the Senior PGA Championship at Parker, Colo. Couples shot a 3-over-par 75 and is two shots behind co-leaders Jay Don Blake and Tom Lehman.

    Fort Worth, Texas - Brian Davis is seemingly done penalizing himself. And now he gets another chance to challenge for his first PGA Tour victory.

    After a second consecutive bogey-free 65 Saturday, Davis shares the lead with Bryce Molder at 16-under 194 going into the final round of the Colonial.

    When Davis got into a playoff last month at Hilton Head with Jim Furyk, Davis called a two-stroke penalty against himself on the extra hole that ensured a victory for the fifth-ranked player in the world. Davis then finished 57th the following week at New Orleans and had missed three consecutive cuts before Colonial.

    "What happened during the playoff threw me off balance a little bit. I lost my focus. ... Missing three cuts in a row, I wasn't exactly happy coming in," Davis said. "I've had to adjust my thinking a little bit. Not everybody can play well every week. You have to take the rough with the smooth some times."

    The 35-year-old Englishman and Molder, the second-round leader who finished his 67 Saturday with eight consecutive pars, are hoping for a little plaid to signify finally winning on the PGA Tour. The Colonial champion gets a plaid jacket along with a check of more than $1 million.

    Molder has four top-10s this season, but the four-time All-American from Georgia Tech has only one professional victory since leaving college in 2001 - on the Nationwide Tour in 2006.

    It was another hot but ideal scoring day at Hogan's Alley, where there again were only light breezes. The forecast Sunday calls for nearly identical conditions.

    "I don't know if Fort Worth has seen four calmer days in a row," said Molder, who expects the winning score to be at least 20 under. That would break Kenny Perry's tournament-record mark of 19 under, which he set when winning in 2003 and 2005.

    There are 17 players at 11 under or better going into the final round this year.

    "I have no illusions about (Sunday)," Davis said.

    Zach Johnson (64) was a stroke behind the leaders. Ben Crane (64) joined first-round co-leaders Jeff Overton (66) and Jason Bohn (68) in a tie for fourth at 14 under.

    "This is a golfer's dream to have the wind lay down like this," Crane said. "Certainly this one of the best courses in the world and the greens are receptive."

    Crane got to 14 under when he made an eagle from 143 yards at the par-4 17th hole. He had a hole-in-one Friday.

    Molder shot a career-best 62 Friday to take the halfway lead, then set another personal mark Saturday with nine consecutive one-putts. He made putts ranging from 4 to 34 feet from hole Nos. 2-11, a stretch that included five birdies and a double bogey.

    At about the same time Choi was struggling at No. 18, Molder was sinking a 34-foot putt at No. 8, his second consecutive birdie getting him to 15 under. That stretch also made up for a double bogey at the 481-yard No. 5, when he hit his approach to the par 4 out of bounds.

    Blake, Lehman share lead at Senior PGA

    Jay Don Blake considers himself a stealth golfer, lurking around the leaderboard while everybody else has their eyes fixed on the game's bigger names.

    He'll be hard to miss today when he tees off in the last group with co-leader Tom Lehman at the 71st Senior PGA Championship at Parker, Colo.

    Blake, of St. George, Utah, shot a 2-under-par 70 at the Colorado Golf Club to take a share of the 54-hole lead at the senior circuit's oldest and most prestigious event.

    Lehman fired a 71 through swirling winds that add to the adversity facing golfers at the 3-year-old course co-designed by Ben Crenshaw, a 7,450-foot monster that cuts through open meadows, wooded hillsides and streams and plays to a par-72.

    Fred Couples, who led going into the weekend, faltered with a score of 75 but is still just two shots off the pace, along with Mark O'Meara (67) and Mike Goodes (70).

    Seven others are within four strokes of the leaders.

    "There are six or eight or 10 guys that if they play good tomorrow can win it," O'Meara said.

    That group features Lehman, who played steady golf in the final group while playing partners Couples and Tom Kite (79) stumbled, and Blake, the 1980 NCAA champion whose only professional wins came in 1991 at the Shearson Lehman Brothers Open and the Argentine Open.

    Blake entered the weekend tied for fourth at 4 under, three shots behind Couples.

    Blake said earlier in the week that he thought he had a good shot here because his game is in top shape and so is his back, which bothered him for his last nine years on the PGA Tour after he rejected his doctor's advice and returned too soon from an appendectomy. He incorporated core strengthening exercises to save his back and his career and he gave up fishing, boating and drag racing to concentrate on the Champions Tour when he celebrated his 50th birthday 18 months ago.

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