Australia’s Min Woo Lee was left visibly pissed off, throwing his golf ball into the Pacific Ocean after a bogey-bogey end to the third spherical of the Pebble Seaside Professional-Am.
Lee will begin the ultimate spherical of the US$20 million signature occasion 5 pictures behind chief Akshay Bhatia (-19) and will have been a lot nearer if not for his late collapse.
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Lee appeared set to make a cost for the lead when he eagled the par 5 14th earlier than unravelling late within the spherical to fall again to 14-under par total and a share of seventh place on the leaderboard.
The 27-year-old Australian dropped a shot on the par 3 seventeenth after dumping his tee shot right into a greenside bunker, however it was the final the place issues actually spiralled uncontrolled.
A wayward drive on the scenic par 5 that hugs the well-known shoreline landed in a bush to the appropriate of the green.
Lee was pressured to take a drop as his ball was unplayable, and his third shot needed to be performed from off a cart path.
That shot discovered a greenside bunker and after escaping the sand, Lee was left with a close to 10 metre putt to save lots of par.
He was irritated by the heavy winds seeming to maneuver his ball on the inexperienced, and acquired sarcastic cheers from the gallery for taking his time to hit the putt.
When he blasted that previous the outlet, the West Australian appeared to swear in frustration.
Then, Lee threw his ball into the close by water after knocking within the bogey putt.
Lee will not be the one one whose actions on the greens have triggered a stir this event.
Chief Bhatiam, vying for the $5 million winner’s cheque, had the identical points with the wind on the 18th inexperienced, his group took roughly 35 minutes to play the final gap due to the delays.
However he has been enduring the wrath of followers on social media for a special purpose.
The left-hander makes use of a broomstick putter like Australia’s Adam Scott, and has been accused of the banned apply of anchoring.
After his second spherical, the American felt the necessity to defend himself on-line.
“Not anchoring. Actually 2 inches wanting my chest haha,” Bhatia commented on an Instagram put up of his placing method.
LEADERBOARD: All of the scores from Pebble Seaside
Bhatia will begin the ultimate spherical two pictures away from Collin Morikawa, Sepp Straka and Jake Knapp after his four-under par 68.
A wild climate forecast has introduced ahead tee instances for the ultimate spherical with teams to tee off in threes between 2:22am and 4:45am AEDT on Monday morning.
A predicted afternoon storm together with robust winds prompted the decision by the PGA Tour, not that situations had been that a lot simpler within the third spherical regardless of the spectacular scores.
The delicate winter situations actually aided scoring, however the array of beanies and large jumpers being worn confirmed that the wind blowing in off the Pacific Ocean was icy.
Tommy Fleetwood (-14) was shocked by the variety of low scores given the difficult climate.
“Yeah, I imply the scoring’s been superb as we speak and I don’t suppose it was that simple of a day,” the reigning FedEx Cup champion mentioned.
“I feel there was undoubtedly sufficient demanding pictures like to not warrant 62s, however golfers are actually, actually good.
“For certain like totally different wind instructions, totally different situations, totally different energy of wind, I feel particularly whenever you get these holes which might be on the shoreline, you realize, it simply turns into very robust.”
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Min Woo-Lee shines at Pebble Seaside | 14:25
Morikawa rose 25 locations on the leaderboard right into a share of second with one of the best spherical of day – a ten-under par 62.
The 2-time main champion made 11 birdies for the day in an unbelievable show of ball-striking that took him to 17-under for the event.
Morikawa is looking his first victory since 2023 and the world No.19 began the yr with a missed reduce in Hawaii.
He mentioned it has taken loads of work on his mindset to come back out of his hunch.
“I’ve had loads of conversations with (psychological coach) Rick (Sessinghaus). Extra frustration, proper, of simply I’m going out, and even on Thursday I feel I had like three or 4 birdies on a course the place I felt like I hit it actually, actually good,” Morikawa mentioned.
“It’s simply going out, and he jogged my memory yesterday once I first got here out and turned professional, like I didn’t care about truthfully making cuts or top-20s, I got here out to win.
“When he advised me that yesterday, there was that mindset swap going into as we speak. I needed to come back out and win, win the weekend, win the event. Now we’ve given ourselves an opportunity.
“It’s a small mindset adjustment and with out him telling me that, who is aware of what I might have shot as we speak. However I’m out right here to win.
“While you end thirtieth, fifteenth, third, on the finish of the day like I wish to win. I’ve received to set that mindset at the start of the day, at the start of the week and now I feel we’ve given ourselves no less than an opportunity come tomorrow.”
Australia’s Jason Day is tied thirty first at 10-under for the event after a second successive 68.