CHIBA, Japan — Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama held on to a one-stroke lead on the PGA Tour’s Zozo Championship on Saturday after a 2-under 68 that included a bogey on his closing gap to make issues attention-grabbing heading into the ultimate spherical.
Matsuyama trailed by a stroke after the primary spherical, led by one after the second and had a 54-hole whole of 10-under 200 on the par-70, 7,041-yard Narashino Nation Membership course.
Cameron Tringale, who additionally shot 68, trailed by three strokes going to the ultimate gap Saturday, however his birdie and Matsuyama’s bogey lowered the result in one.
Sebastian Munoz (68), Brendan Steele (70) and Matt Wallace (70) have been tied for third, 4 strokes behind Matsuyama.
Open champion Collin Morikawa, who shot 67 with a chip-in eagle on 18 and was six strokes behind, stated he added a brand new shot to his repertoire on the par-5 sixth gap. However it’s not one which he needs to repeat.
“I did one thing in my profession that I have never carried out but, was shank a shot,” Morikawa stated. “Yeah, shanked a pitching wedge straight within the timber.
“It was form of a grind. I actually had no clue the place the ball was going to go. I used to be form of simply making an attempt to make contact, and fortunately the putter was working right this moment. Clearly very nice to complete on a pair fortunate breaks with the tee shot left ending up within the fairway, hitting a foul second shot after which chipping in clearly to finish the day.”
Morikawa stated it may very well be an attention-grabbing closing spherical.
“We by no means know. Clearly I’ll need to go make birdies tomorrow. Hideki’s clearly not going to make a bunch of bogeys, however we’ll see the place the day ends,” Morikawa stated. “We at all times really feel like we’re at all times inside hanging distance and simply bought to get off to a superb begin.”
Tokyo Olympic gold-medal winner Xander Schauffele shot 68 and was at 2 over, 12 strokes behind, as was Rickie Fowler after a 71 on Saturday.
The PGA Tour’s solely cease on the Asia swing has attracted solely three of the highest 20 on the earth rankings.
