Albany (Bahamas), Dec 8, 2024
Justin Thomas, who has not won in more than two years and Scottie Scheffler, who has eight wins in 2024 and knows how to pull off wins from near-impossible situations, were separated by just one shot after three rounds at the Hero World Challenge 2024.
Bogey-free Thomas (66) moved to 17-under, while Scheffler (69), despite his 40-hole bogey-free streak ending on the Par-4 13th, was 16-under to set up an exciting battle between a man, who cannot stop winning and one who is desperate to win after a long time.
Chasing the top duo hard was young Tom Kim, who began the week with a 74, that placed Tied-18th in a field of 20. Kim, six-under for the front nine, was eight-under through 10 and then three birdies in a row put him on a 59-watch at 11-under two holes to play.
Flawless till then Kim erred and gave away a double bogey on the 17th but finished a birdie from the bunker on 18th for a 62, that was one shy of the course record. Rickie Fowler’s 61 in 2017, the year he won the HWC, is the record card.
Kim, who won twice in 2022 and once in 2023, came close with T2 at the Travelers Championships this season.
Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley (68), who was runner-up at the HWC in 2012, was sole fourth with a no-frills round.
Close behind was the Indian-origin duo Sahith Theegala (66) and Akshay Bhatia (71) at tied-fifth at 12-under and one behind Bradley, whose team they hope to make next year at the Bethpage Ryder Cup.
Theegala had a super start with five birdies in his first seven holes before cooling off with a bogey on the eighth. He came back with birdies on the 17th and the 18th for 12-under and tied fifth with Bhatia.
Bhatia was unable to get his putting going and his first birdie came on the ninth hole. He birdied twice more on the 11th and the 15th but his bogeys on the 15th and the 18th, where he found water, pulled him back to 71 and was 12-under and five behind the leader.
Thomas’ last four visits to the HWC have yielded Top-5 results, including T-3 last year. He began the third day two shots behind the halfway leader, Scheffler.
He drove well and even putted great and it included a 47-footer on the 14th, and said, “I’m driving it great. I’ve had a lot of confidence with it. I feel like I’ve been able to put myself in some pretty good spots going into the green.”
Yet Thomas, who was T-2 in Japan in his last start before HWC, added, “I’m still not taking advantage of some of them as much as I would like, but that’s golf and we’re always going to say that.”
Scheffler may have missed a few putts, but still felt he had played well. He birdied three times on the fourth, seventh and the 11th. Then came the bogey on the 13th, his first since the eighth hole on the first day. Over the last five holes he had his chances but managed only one more birdie on the 18th, when he putted out from the edge of the green.
It is just that this round seemed to pale in comparison to his masterly 7-under 29 on the front nine on the second day.
Scheffler said, “I had a stretch at 13, 14, 15 where I felt like I lost a shot or two there, but outside of that I did a lot of really good things today.”
Even as Thomas and Scheffler were battling it out, Kim was the star of the day. The increased winds made Scheffler call Kim’s 10-under round as “pretty serious golf”.
Kim birdied the first four holes and added two more on the seventh and the ninth to turn in 6-under. Birdies on the 10th and 11th put him on the ’59 watch’. Despite pars on the 13th and the 14th, he produced three birdies in a row from 14th to the 16th, the last of which he holed from the greenside bunker and was in line for a historic round of a first-ever sub-60 score at the Hero World Challenge. He was then 11-under and needed birdies on 17 and 18 for a 59.
The euphoria on the 16th was followed by a heartbreak on the 17th. From being 11-under for 16 holes, Kim dropped to 9-under for the day with a double bogey on the Par-3 17th, one of the two toughest holes on the course.
On the 17th, Kim missed the green and then ended with a double bogey as he went into the bunker off the tee and stayed in it with a poor second shot. He missed a five-foot bogey putt and finished with a double. The cheery Korean did not give up and gave his fans a lot to cheer for when he holed out from the greenside bunker for a closing birdie and a card of 10-under 62 that saw him even hold the lead briefly.(Agency)
